On Young People, Missing Pieces and Weaklings: Reflections on Popular Discourses on Young People in Simon Sinek's Videos

Abstract

Literature exploring the enigmatic lives of youth go as far back as the early 1990s and it is a continuously evolving field, not just in research but also in everyday dinner conversations, especially amidst the rapid social changes occurring at a global level (Kriegel, 2016). What is it that makes adolescence such a mysterious life stage for adults? How much do “generalized cultural beliefs about adolescents” (Hines & Paulson, 2006, p. 602) influence how we understand and relate to them?
How we perceive young people influences how we approach them, not just as their teachers but also as their parents and mentors (Camfield et al., 2023; Hines & Paulson, 2006; Kriegel, 2006; Jacobs et al., 2005; Dekovic et al., 1997). It behooves us to ask what shapes our perceptions of young adulthood. Among the many factors of influence, the role of popular media in shaping our perceptions of young adulthood cannot be overlooked (Atay & Ashlock, 2023).
In this paper, I critically analyze two YouTube videos by the British-American author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek, who is often called the Millennial Whisperer (Burnett, 2017). These videos are targeted toward millennials and Gen Z respectively. Through these videos, I explore the positioning of young people in popular discourse with the aim of encouraging educators to make an effort to look beyond these stereotypes, foster spaces for collaboration and explore possibilities for mutual becoming with young learners.