Importance of Communication for Youth

Communication is substantially important in the lives of youth. The participation of youth in the communication process may be considered even more important than that of adults for at least three reasons. Firstly, they probably are exposed to communication more than adults; they almost certainly read more. Secondly, they are probably more impressionable than adultsl; that is, they are psychically more flexible and malleable. Tlhey change faster and oftener. And thirdly, the communication behavior of children and youth is especially important because the child is father to the youth and the youth is father to the man. The more one studies adults in the variety of areas, the more one finds that for adequate explanations of adult behavior, one is forced back into the earlier years of their lives.

Through communication, man avoids the frustrating loneliness of isolation and finds a way of satisfying his needs and wants. It is a social process. Communications "pattern" the environment for the individual. It "relates" the individual to other individuals.

For a student, the ability to communicate what he has learned is of primary importance. Similarly, for the young man and woman seeking a job, the ability to describe their skills and to communicate their objectives convincingly is essential. In social life, in heterosexual contacts, success often depends on accurately transmitting one's meaning and motives. Sometimes, ludicrous, often tragic, misunderstandings grow out of a lack of skill in communication.

Youth and the Communication of Ideas through Reading

Reading and books have been judged by certain aesthetic standards of quality or in terms of formal educational standards. More attention should be given to the evaluation of reading in terms of such categories as emotional adjustment or value formation as against such categories as "good writing" and vocabulary building.

Thus, the problems of communication and youth are fundamental not only from the standpooint of the youth themselves, but also from the standpoint of preparation for adulthood. In some degree, the extension and improvement of basic cultural values --- aesthetic, moral, political, social, psychological --- for today and tomorrow are dependent up0n sound communication practices among children and young people. It is true, then, that the people responsible for the establishment and maintenance of such practices --- teachers, librarians, parents, students of communication and youth --- have a critical job.

Readers motivated by a need for greater social security may seek to improve their status within their family or social class. The adolescents seek reading on family conflicts. They aggressively avoid or aggressively select novels dealing with a more placid home life. If the adolescent is attempting to break away from the family, his insecurity may be expressed by selection of books on philosophy and religion or of " philosophical" novels. Such readers tend to emphasize passages which involve their own particular problems --- lack of parental affection, overprotection and the like.