How do value systems evolve while we grow up?
Agnieszka Grochowska - 13.11.2018 @ 15:08
How does the value system develop with age?
by David Hammer and Lena Hammer, VKS Växjö/Schweden
Do our own values really change during our lifetime or do they remain the same? Think about how your values have changed over time or whether they have stayed the same until your present age. This question can only be answered by yourself. But what leads to all people having different values and views? In the end it is only you who can influence and change your own thoughts.
In the beginning of life you can only reflect yourself and only then you come to the insight that you didn't have the knowledge to know your own values, you just want to play around and do stupid things. After you are a toddler, new stages in life open up, for example school. This stage of life is a tool in our society to give all people the opportunity to acquire knowledge and form their own values and views.
For this reason, all children have to go to school so that they have the opportunity to develop into their own personalities and to think and act out their own thoughts. According to our assessment, one develops only through knowledge and personal experiences, that is an important background so that one can create new values.
Many people nowadays find it hard to accept that they are getting older, but we think that they should not see it as a limitation but as a way to underpin their values with their personal experiences. What kind of contacts you have plays an extraordinary role in this context. Peer pressure plays an even greater role. This can influence and change the formation of your own values, which unfortunately also leads to some voices becoming silent.
Because our society is influenced by different events, our personal development and our thoughts change as well. Different challenges can contribute to your values being strengthened or changed. The positive effect we see is an interaction of the influences as described above and that personal values change with society. We have only lived 16 years on this earth and based on these years we can only draw one conclusion from it and this is all that changes or evolves in life. Society is formed by people and people are to a certain extent formed by society and external influences and it will always remain that way. A negative effect can be that in some countries society contributes to how you think of yourself and in this case it is extra important to have your own thoughts and values and to hold on to them despite everyone else thinking differently.
What we want to show with this article is that it is important to have personal values and thoughts, despite the fact that this can be difficult. The freedom to think independently and freely should be high up in all countries, because history has shown that different values influence society positively and negatively and that these effects will always accompany us. You as a person should always have the power over your values and you should never let yourself be suppressed. We as individuals shape our society and especially we young people will develop our society and world further and administer and continue the development work of our forefathers. Never forget that knowledge and education is the foundation stone for the creation of values.
Remember to think for yourself, it is your own future that you create and develop...
translated by Emma Alpenberg and Lilly Ferch
Emma Alpenberg - 15.11.2018 @ 14:18
Hello!
I find your article very interesting. I really agree with you on the matter of how important it is to have your own personal values and thoughts. I think that if we all processed world in the same way, societies would be blunt and boring.
I also believe that our value system evolves constantly. Every interaction affects it. It’s impossible to stay exactly the same throughout the life.
At the beginning we’re a “tabula rasa” – a blank page. We don’t have any values or opinions. It’s as we grow up, they start to form. Our parents, schools, friends, they all help to shape them.
We all can see this happening in books like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson or even a title like Outlander. All of them cover a really long period of time. Thanks to that we see a change of characters and their value system throughout the years.
Izabela Kręc - 26.12.2018 @ 19:22
Hello!
I totally agree with your argument that school is a new stage in everyone’s life and it influences our values. My point is that, generally, the environment, not only school and home, is the main reason which causes our character changes.
So, the statement is fully correct. Everyone has a different value system influenced by growing up in a mixture of different environments.
In my opinion, our value system develops with age, not only because we become older and more experienced, but also due to life situations we can’t stop or change.
Maggie- the main character of the book titled ‘‘The One Thing” was in that situation. She was a teenager when she became blind. All her world changed and her value system was also changing. She had to adjust to a new style of life, other things became important to her, and the whole situation made her grow up faster.
Another good example is young Oscar- the title character of the book ‘‘Oscar and the Lady in Pink”. While reading the book, we can see how the boy’s values are changing because he becomes ‘‘adult” really fast. He is trying to experience as much life as he can.
Summarizing, our value system develops with age due to the influence of our environment, acquired experience and unpredictable life situations.
Pola Palonek - 31.12.2018 @ 14:08
Hello!
I have a similar point of view. Emma, your article is really good and it is true that we change our value system while we grow up. As a human being we constantly evolve and our morality is developing with us. Look at children, as you said they just want to have fun and stay alive but older people are more aware of the world around them, so other things become important to them. We know that our morality is shaped by our environment as Izabela mentioned. A great example is Regina Brett who has written four books about what is important and how to be a good person. She grew up in a pathological family. When we compare her way of thinking at the beginning of her first book and now the difference is huge. In con
Sara Kotlarz - 02.01.2019 @ 20:17
Hello David and Hannah,
I really enjoyed reading your article and totally agree with your opinion.
I also think that our values change because of experiences or new people we get to know. Sometimes a person ispires you and you start thinking about things you didn't care about before. Our values change because we get disappointed. At my point of view the most important thing is to have your own values.
Annalena Sieberer - 03.02.2019 @ 11:52
Hello!
The article you wrote was very touching and I absolutely enjoyed reading it. Especially now, that everyone can see the differences of other people in movies and books, many people start to rethink their values and try to figure out if that is really what they believe. The more we see other people define their personality the more we want to know who we really are. When I listen to a podcast I often question my view on some topics and I can see my values changing slowly. Every time I read a text about what I think from a few years ago I’m impressed with how my values have changed. Every article we read, every movie we watch, every song we listen to, influences our mind and the way we think.
But it has also become much more difficult to have own values as you showed in your article. We are afraid to be alone with our opinion on certain things and so we adjust ourselves to others. I think if everyone would try to listen to our inner voice and figure out what their real values are, we would find so many new answers to questions.
Laura Eichmüller - 07.02.2019 @ 15:18
Hey David and Lena!
Thank you very much for your article! I think you've done very well in refering to every important aspect of this very complex topic.
We, especially as young people, are not only influenced by our families, acquaintances and culture but also by our society. And to a certain extend we influence the society. So as a conclusion one could say that it's a repeating cycle, couldn't one? But everything is changing over time. I feel like society is changing faster and faster as technology is developing faster and faster. And it is only natural for us humans to adapt ourselves to all of those (upcoming) changes.
E.g.: The internet. I think that 50 years before the internet was available to everyone, nobody would have thought that it is going to be as game-changing as it actually is now. Not only because it has become one of the most important means of communication but also because it gives us access to an infinite amount of information. Therefore the internet plays a big part in our society and our growth of values.
Still, I personally think that education truely is the quintessence of human development as we learn to get to know ourselves better with every new experience. But I think it's very important that we also appreciate the luxury we have; that we can learn how to read and write, which only then makes it possible for us to discover every little nuance of life in its full colours and shades.
Nazli Yüksek - 25.02.2019 @ 22:19