Teenagers as social agents

Teenagers have finally been recognized as social agents. They are now considered objects of investigation. Still, the gaze of social investigators remains tainted by the stigma of earlier perspectives. The difficulty of defining the actions of teenagers, hazily defined nomads, has lead to their misrepresentation. They are seen as social threat, deviancy, and violence. Society's growing interest in the world of teenagers carries within its gaze a two-fold myopia: firstly, that which comes from the customary perspectives on teenagers, diverse but convergent ideological stances that attempt to approximate what teens actually are and represent; and secondly, that which stems from an absence of the cultural dimension in social research. The former has much to do with the convergence between the age-old sentiment that regards youth as a stage, a phase without substance or identity, and the Marxist view, which tries to eradicate the middle class, since it only acknowledges the social existence of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Within Marxist thought, teenagers are accordingly devoid of social identity, and are thus reduced to the transitory period between the two recognized ages, childhood and adulthood.