Writers 
Growing up, I watched my parents work hard.
My dad would leave for work in the morning. My mum would do the same.
And as a child, I looked at them and thought:
“When I grow up, I want to be like them.”
I wanted to have my own job.
I wanted to be responsible.
I wanted to have discipline.
I wanted to become someone my parents would be proud of.
Then I grew older.
And somewhere around 12 or 13, I started noticing something.
The world outside my home wasn’t always the world I was being raised to become part of.
Some parents are working incredibly hard to raise disciplined, educated and responsible children.
They teach them to respect people.
They teach them to work hard.
They teach them that success takes time.
But society sometimes seems to reward the exact opposite.
A child who wins an academic competition may barely get noticed.
A young person who spends years learning a skill, writing, inventing, building or creating something useful can post it online and get almost no attention.
But give people something sensational, controversial or provocative…
Suddenly, thousands of people are watching.
And that’s where I become concerned.
Because people don’t just consume what society produces.
They create more of what society rewards.
If intelligence gets ignored but entertainment gets millions of views, what do you think the next child will choose?
If creativity gets 50 likes but controversy gets 500,000, what do you think people will chase?
If a child spends years studying and nobody notices, while someone else becomes famous overnight for something completely different, what message are we sending?
I’m not saying entertainment is bad.
I’m not saying everyone has to be an academic.
I’m saying attention is powerful.
Money is powerful.
Recognition is powerful.
And whatever we consistently reward, we should not be surprised when people produce more of it.
If we reward drama, people will create drama.
If we reward outrage, people will create outrage.
If we reward dishonesty with attention, some people will eventually stop seeing honesty as valuable.
But if we celebrate discipline, creativity, education, kindness and hard work, perhaps young people will see those things as valuable too.
Sometimes I wonder whether the problem isn’t only the children.
Maybe we are also part of the problem.
The parents.
The schools.
The media.
The society.
And yes…
Us.
Because behind every viral post are thousands of people who decided to watch.
Behind every trend are people who decided to participate.
Behind every creator are people who decided to give them attention.
We cannot constantly complain about what is becoming popular while continuing to feed it with our attention.
Children are watching.
Young people are watching.
They may not always listen to our advice, but they are watching our choices.
They notice who we celebrate.
They notice what we share.
They notice what gets praised.
They notice what gets attention.
And sometimes, our actions teach louder than our words.
My parents taught me to work hard for a future I couldn’t yet see.
And I still believe that lesson matters.
I still believe there is value in discipline.
There is value in patience.
There is value in education.
There is value in learning a skill.
There is value in becoming a person of character, even when nobody is watching.
So when we complain about the kind of generation we’re raising, perhaps we should also examine the kind of behaviour we’re rewarding.
Before we ask,
“What is wrong with this generation?”
Maybe we should ask:
“What have we been rewarding?”
Because whatever we consistently celebrate today…
may be exactly what the next generation learns to pursue tomorrow.
And maybe…
that’s something worth thinking about.