I've been reading a lot of blog-posts, tweets and other such Internet content from a lot of Arab teenagers lately, especially Arab-Americans and other Arab youth living abroad, a lot of which tend to be sarcastic critiques of their Western wannabe Arab peers, which I can relate to in a sense. This got me thinking: Here I am, in this strategic position; an Egyptian teenager watching the whole youth scene going on around her, so why not plough on in a similar way to that of my fellow cyber cynics and expose my opinion about all this once and for all?
I should probably warn you that I've never exactly been what you'd call a "people person". I went through the usual phase of pre-teen social awkwardness, but even after I got over my fear of talking to new people, I never really became a social butterfly, so to speak. I'm not really sure what that's about, but I have a strong feeling it can be attributed to my strange mood swings, OCD, and distaste in the human race in general (myself included). And in the usual fashion of us "non-people people", I shall now proceed to detail all the things I hate about my peers in order to distract everyone from my inadequacies.
1. Westernization at its very best.
It's not just about choice of food or clothes; it's become a whole lifestyle. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm the ideal model of an Egyptian Muslim girl, but at least I haven't been completely brainwashed into dying my hair and buying all sorts of clothes that make me feel like I belong on a Paris runway. Not only that, but it's become quite commonplace among Egyptian teenagers now to have a boyfriend/girlfriend, which is a well-known taboo in Egyptian culture. It's everybody's business what they choose to do in their personal lives, but one cannot watch this wannabe movement continue and not speak openly about it. It's like some sort of inferiority complex, and would actually be quite sad if it weren't so funny. Because when you watch the people around you start dating all sorts of random partners, one after the other (and occasionally at the same time), just because they have nothing better to do; you just can't help but laugh.
2. Trending talents.
Amongst Egyptian teenagers, DJ's, photographers and rappers are cropping up everywhere. Now, I don't see anything wrong with wanting to explore something you could be talented at, or even wanting to do it professionally; after all, that's your business, right? And with a lot of people, that is the case, but you've also got those who do it because it makes them seem cool. Some people even go to the extent where they feel as though they called dibs on that particular activity and no-one else is allowed to take an interest in it without their explicit permission (acquaintances who were the inspiration behind this shall remain unnamed). And then, at the other end of the spectrum, you've got those who feel better once they've made fun of every single person doing anything that's become fashionable, without bothering to see if maybe the reason why they do it is that they actually enjoy it, as opposed to the herd of cattle theory.
3. Drama queens.
This is probably something that is also the result of the extreme boredom this age group faces. It's not a typical characteristic of everyone I know, but it is very common nonetheless--and extremely annoying. You know the drill; some people just happen to be gifted with the ability to turn anything into a big deal. It could be friends not calling them frequently (which inevitably makes them jerks), a break-up which must be followed by the usual mournful/vengeful Facebook statuses and BBM personal messages, or a simple occurrence which they decided to blow up for no apparent reason. Needless to say, these people can reduce anyone's faith in mankind, let alone someone who has already lost it completely.
4. Parental complexities.
Again we find ourselves faced by the two opposing ends of the spectrum. At one side, we've got the rebels; those who've got issues with their parents and sometimes end up making up all sorts of stories about them (and almost always, the lies get found out). However, we've also got the other team, who are a hundred and ten percent convinced that anything that comes out of their parents' traps is true. Usually that over-confidence is exerted in subjects they deem as "serious" or "complicated", like politics or religion. Because apparently, in two topics that are governed by relativity, there is a correct and wise opinion which you can attain by age and DNA linkage.
That's basically it for my not-so-objective piece of not-so-constructive criticism of those who are not-exactly-surrounding-me. Perhaps one day I will truly mingle and find out the truth behind all this crap firsthand, as opposed to from, you know, Facebook and stuff.
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