Warning. You have just wandered into the unpopular playground arena, a unique space specifically
designed for young adults and those soon becoming where curiosity meets unconventional learning
and dialogue with brutal honesty. If you're a bold and daring rebel who wants more options
on your life journey than you have now, keep listening. Welcome Jen Lin.
Welcome back to the unpopular playground. This is Jen Lin and in this episode we're going to talk about
how much you matter and we're going to prioritize your support and making connections that matter.
There's three points that I want to talk about and that is the fact that a lot of young people,
teenagers and adults are unwelcome. All of the empty spaces and our space are going to talk about
what it's like that there's a place for you with us. So first of all, unwelcome, a lot of you are
unwelcome by society. Teenagers and young adults are not made to feel welcome. Many are marginalized,
excluded, made to feel unsafe and unwelcome. A lot of judgments, bullying and a lot of it is based on
appearances, personal interests, lack of experience and simply the background which leads to isolation.
They're in a world of their own because they're not welcome. They're too old. They're a young
person listening to this. You know the feeling. You're a teenager and young adult. You're often too
old to be a child and participate in those activities and you're not old enough to participate in
adulting. Even if you're 18, even if you're 21, you're still not old enough. Most people can't
even rent a car until they're 25 and you're not taken seriously until you're maybe in your 30s.
There just doesn't seem to be a place for you and a lot of you are discriminated against. You
have your typical discriminations that are illegal, skin color, hair color. Well that can always be
changed. Maybe no hair. Maybe that can't be changed at all. So many things but what's not
discussed a lot is the elephant in the room and that is socioeconomics and that's the driving force
that motivates a lot of people to change it because let's be honest, we can't get anywhere
without money. Money drives the world and if you don't have it, you don't get to be in the club,
you don't get to participate. You will be excluded. Some of those effects are academic,
limited resources, no technology, low technology, school quality, underfunded, increased class sizes.
I don't know how that goes and how does that make us feel? We're stressed out, high anxiety,
which all of this and along with poor nutrition, that's going to create medical issues, mental
health issues that often go untreated in the classroom. It's spilled out into behavioral
challenges with stress and anxiety and poor nutrition. That's an elevation of cortisol and
insulin which leads to the rise in obesity of a lot of our children turning into teenagers and
young adults and society and it just the cycle just repeats and that leads to social isolation
because there's a stigma on your status, your socioeconomic status. If you don't have what
the cool kids have, then you're often isolated. Even in your lunches, they discriminate against
everything. Kids want to be long and have their thing and if they can exclude somebody, they will
because it's a competition. There's a pecking order. If you don't have something, your social,
your lack of money status is often what will put you out of the club because you're not going to be
able to have the things that they do to identify you as belonging. That's why a lot of people join
gangs because there's a certain sense of belonging there. I'm not talking about the gangsters on
the street, though that does happen. People end up forming their own little gangs and they're called
cliques. A lot of these things reduce future opportunities, reduce access, employment challenges
for stable and well-paying employment. That's what this whole thing about school preparation and
all of the status, what it's all about, right? So that you can be able to have what you want
and live a good life and be successful. Very often, the cycle of poverty often just keeps
churning because of all of these things. A great many of these things. It's not exclusive,
but it's also not limited to these things. Just because you might have money, just because you're
rich doesn't mean that you're immune from being isolated as well. If you're out of your zone and
you stand out, people will they'll isolate you because you have money. If you're the only one,
if you're very few because you're not like them. So it can go both ways. And then you have work
places. Well, at least for the young adult crew. The availability of work spaces for young teens
is somewhat dwindled. Many people do not hire anybody under 18 because they just don't want to
deal with the child labor laws. So good luck, kids, with that. But you can definitely get creative and
we can definitely explore those opportunities that you can create for yourself in another episode.
If you're having problems finding employment under 18, if you're in high school, put it in the chat.
Let's talk about it. But generally, workplaces, if you are lucky enough to find one, even young
adults, heck, all adults, they're having a hard time finding a job one or another. Even as you get
older in the workforce, then you get pushed out because you're too old. Ageism. So it's really
everywhere. The discrimination. And you have workplaces, like I said, lack of mentorship,
lack of respect, young people are exploited. And your contributions are not valued or taken
or taken seriously. Then you have cultural gaps. They don't respect your values, your perspective.
There's strict expectations for you to conform. Traditional roles, sacrifice, you're, in order
to conform to those, you're forced to sacrifice your identity with who you are, your personality,
and your self-expression. And don't forget the clubs and the sports teams. A lot of times,
you're not welcomed there either because they have the good old boy club. And they're often overly
competitive in those places because they need their spots and they don't want to give them up.
And if you, you might not be aware of all of your talents and everything that you have,
your natural abilities, but if you appear to have more talent than them, they're not even going to
let you in. And you're not going to have any idea why. But it's because they're threatened by you
and your excitement. And they're real comfortable with where they're at in both workplaces and
the clubs, the teams, and your little social groups, your little cliques are that way too.
So that's that. Now you have your empty spaces. And I call them empty spaces because
it's, there's nowhere else for you to go. If you can't, if you're not welcome and decide by society
in general is what it seems like. That's what I've noticed. Where are you going to hang out?
So many of the main hangout places have been taken away. When I was younger, we hung out in
arcades, record stores, the roller rink, drive-ins, movie theaters, parks, malls, theme parks, and
bookstores in the library. But a lot of those have been taken away. A lot of them are really
obsolete. There's no more stand-up arcades, no more record stores because everybody streams
very few drive-ins. A lot of eating places, a lot of diners, they don't, they don't permit
people to hang out for too long. They weren't. I think there's a few roller rinks. There's just
there's not a thing like it was. Skate parks, I'm not so sure. But basically a lot of them
are anti-lordy. If they're still around today, they're anti-lordy. They want you to buy your stuff
and go. Hashtag unwelcome. So my thought is how can you even begin to assimilate into a world
that is seemingly keeping you back and pushing you back from even being in it?
And then you have your empty spaces that I've been thinking about. It reminds me of empty
calories. And that's where I get that. And what it is is the spaces that give short-term energy
and they don't fill you up. And that will be, so if you're not a lot of hanging out in these places,
you're going to hang out in abandoned buildings, maybe adult venues, clubs, bars. If you're a
teenager trying to sneak into the clubs and the bars, online spaces, you're trying to get into
those groups with the fake toxic comparing and the luxury brand obsessing with trying to give
an image of a life that you don't have so that you can feel like you belong somewhere. And then
constantly changing yourself, somebody that you're not to conform to somebody else's idea,
even book choices, whatever you're doing, anything to belong. It's not lasting.
Everyone needs belonging though. Belonging and understanding. And it's so sad that many are
so desperate to find it as to sacrifice who you are as a person or that you get so fed up that
you self-isolate because it's much easier to protect what's left. Either choice leaves generations
upon generations unfulfilled before they even start. And that leads me to the final point,
our space. Here at the end, popular playground. We want to have a space for you where you matter.
There's so many matter movements. This matters, that matters, hashtag this matters. Well, you know
what? Here you matter. Hashtag you matter. And all of what I wanted to share based on the other
first two points, creating the space for us, for our space, our league, and in our own league,
where you can be the real you as you are. So if any of this is resonating with you,
you definitely belong in our space. Here on the unpopular playground, follow and subscribe
on whatever platform you may be listening on. But if you've not done so, you definitely want to
migrate over to YouTube, especially that's going to be our main channel where we can
grow and hang out here, have our community discussions here, and as well as the private
spaces that we create for things that probably, and discussions that probably would not be allowed
on YouTube, because it seems that everything is offensive and I don't want to have my YouTube
channel demonetized and shut down. Meanwhile, I did find some places where people, young people
specifically, and young adults can hang out where they are hanging out. And I'm seeing it for myself.
I see a lot of people in fitness clubs, the sports clubs, and there, believe it or not,
there are some malls still out there. And coffee shops, and I'm not talking about Starbucks here,
there's a lot of really cool, quaint, very homey coffee shops where I see a lot of young people
hanging out and they're welcoming them. They're welcoming you. Libraries, it's not like how it
was when I was in the library where you can't talk. Libraries had to be hush-hush, but now even
libraries seem to be a little bit of a community center. Gaming lounges and music concerts. So
those might be some helpful places to start if you don't have a place to hang out with your friends.
If you can't hang out at home, these might be some places for you. Some kind of iffy would be the
park recreations, community centers, and I would say air quote youth clubs. You might, I mean,
even though it says they welcome teenagers and young people, I was never attracted to them
because to me they were over-regulated. They just, there always had to be an activity going on.
I mean, it's nice to have that to bond or whatever, but I think that, well, I take that back. I know
that everyone, but especially teenagers and young adults, need a place to hang out where you can just
unwind and not do anything and just enjoy each other's company and talk about whatever you talk
about. So look there. I've run out of time. I am all done and I hope that you join me in the next
episode. Take care and stay curious. This is Jen Lynn and Jen Lynn has now left the arena.
You've been listening to the unpopular playground. Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's
episode, please make sure to subscribe for more thought-provoking conversations. We'd love your
feedback, so drop a comment and let us know your thoughts. Don't forget to share this podcast with
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to return next Wednesday for our next episode, if you dare. And as always, stay curious. There's
so much more to explore.