In your opinion, do college students nowadays face greater social pressures compared to the past? Why?

A reminiscent sense is a shared trait of humans. The rational mind cannot refrain us from floating upstream toward the beautiful memories and then subconsciously devote considerable time to worship the moments that forever stay in the distant past. This naturally conventional practice, however, has been confronted with criticism whose points are that such action is a merely unwise way to waste time and that the memory addicts are useless fossils stubbornly staying still regardless of the constant flow of life. Nonetheless, a large proportion of tertiary students desperately aspire for the golden old days in which stress is as unfamiliar as the phrase “global warming”. Pressure, nowadays, has integrated into their lives and hovered above them as a stalking phantom. University undergraduates of 2021 are sweating under the weight of social norms in which particularly high demand in terms of financial capacity and substantial change in family structure produce immense stress. First and foremost, the prospect of successfully establishing a lucrative career or starting a profitable business appears to be the tacit obligation of college students. Living in a world suppressed under a regime named materialistic, the youths are constantly reminded that they have to exert more strenuous efforts while words of encouragement become the rarest gems. In addition, the unprecedented convenience of connection facilitated by the Internet is the double-edged knife that leaves sharp gashes on the undergraduates’s mental health. As information meets the ideal conditions and consequently spreads like wildfire, images and profiles of successful individuals receive substantial attention. The desirable achievements do not only belong to strangers but also to a distant acquaintance or an old classmate. Hence, the ubiquity of these admirable people creates the false impression that in modern society, obtaining a healthy financial status and reputation was not a considerable problem. As a result, upon acknowledging that “mediocre” and “insignificant” remain the two accurate adjectives to describe their lives, students experience great disappointment. Such constant exposure and comparisons inevitably lead to sadness, which accumulates during an extended period and subsequently turns into intolerable stress or even depression. In harsh reality, peer pressure, whose negative influences are exacerbated through means of social platforms, is partly responsible for the urge to pursue an uncharacteristic aim in response to others’ wants, thus mental suffering. This scenario can be observed during the process of opting for courses: there are cases in which under the discriminating views reserved for art, college students unwillingly switch to more mainstream majors such as accounting. Moreover, the acknowledgement about the dynamic nature of the employment market initiates concern of whether one is able to cope with the unstoppable changes. As technology is enhanced in terms of sophistication, companies continuously subject their working systems to modification. As advanced devices and novel theories drive the knowledge constructed during years at the academic institutions to obsolescence, the requirement of constant accumulation of new mechanisms of development is explicit. The level of mastering, nevertheless, is more impressive among the emerging generations. Meanwhile, the merits of private education is observed within a small proportion of students, hence potential gaps in accomplishment. Therefore, without the ability to catch up on the race, the youngsters will certainly be gasping for breath in a desperate effort to maintain a stable income, let alone leading a comfortable lifestyle. This reality markedly contrasts with the space of life enjoyed by the youngsters living in the early 1990s. The days seamlessly moved on with each minute being appreciated. Despite the monotony of daily activities due to the lack of requirements and conditions for changes, lower level of pressure was associated with studying and the embarking on an occupation. This tranquil picture was portrayed by the fact that during the heyday of technological devices, the launching of novel models was a rare event, which spared tertiary students from constant adaptations. Furthermore, demonstrations of increased social pressure revolve around the key word “family”: the fundamental transformation in the structure of a family and the notion of settling down on a lifelong relationship. The picture of an extended family in which three generations live under one roof has yellowed. Instead, nuclear families, a remarkable percentage of which only have one child, have been the norm in numerous nations. The outcome of this phenomenon is incredible pressure on the young as they are undoubtedly the ones that bear the great expectation of their parents. In particular, the notion that the undergraduates as intellectuals are definitely prospective high-profile figures with a desirable pay rate has to be conceded. In Vietnam, for instance, the conversations between parents with children going to universities invariably include the sentence: “Just some years from now and the kid will provide financial support for the family. ” If the word “kid” was in plural form, the saying would not add as incredible weight as it currently does. The dark shadow of the word “family” is not merely about the present. The absence of guarantee on a healthy financial condition clouds the development of a romantic relationship. If a low-income person eventually manages to settle on a marriage, they should expect that co-living will be fraught with resentment and confrontations. According to Elizabeth H. Gorman, an associate professor of sociology, married couples develop a tendency of being less content with their current financial circumstances. Hence, given the instability or inadequacy of financial flow, which is the criteria for ultimate marital corruption, whether to join in matrimony is questionable. Notably, a number of articles have supported that financial disagreements are the most compelling evidence of divorces with 41 percent of Gen Xers and 29 percent of Boomers reporting having extricated from a marriage due to the mentioned reason. The statistics have undergone remarkable increase in comparison to the situation observed a couple of generations ago. Whereas materialistic sufficiency was true for merely a small percentage of the population, college students viewed the issues of establishing a special bond as the beginning of a promising future, which is in stark opposition to the bleak outlook adopted by their descendants. A deep dive into the perception of college undergraduates has verified the surge of pressure related to the consistently faster materialistic race, the dynamics of the technologically advanced world and the shifts in family structure. It is crystal clear that gradual mental exhaustion resulting from over-exploitation of time and efforts to ensure financial well-being and the invisible obligation of supporting family members are the roots of stress, which are growing in strength and length.