It’s a term that originates from UK, basically referring to youths who are “Not in Employment, Education or Training”.
So I finally have an intro question not related to Hong Kong, huh?
Not really, since the NEET issue is a worldwide problem, we have it in Hong Kong as well. And we call them “Hidden Youths” (隱蔽青年).
It’s a social issue which can be found mainly in developed economies, usually resulting from extreme economic growth and excessive human resources. Youngsters who have low self-esteem and poor outlook on the future are especially prone to become hidden youths. While this can lead to loss of productivity and social unrest, our government doesn’t seem to care about this (actually it doesn’t cares about anything except political gains; heck, it’s not even “our” government), and never have any research on this phenomenon. Still, you can have some guess by looking at the youth unemployment rate, which fluctuates between 6% and 10% these years.
So what do the hidden youths do? Well…they stay home. That’s why they are called “hidden” (from the society). Some may indulge in video games, some may dwell on the internet, and some may even sleep all day. But they all have one common goal: to escape from reality.
People think hidden youths are just a bunch of lazy, spoiled kids who can’t bear the hardship of growing up and living in the society. Some people even label them as 廢青 (trash-like / useless youth). But I think that kind of hostile attitude is what drive them away from the society, give them unnecessary stress and make them lose hope in the first place.
It’s always easy for us to blame others, but how many of us can see through all the biases and flaws, and get to the root of their problems?
And more importantly, how many of us are willing to give them a hand, instead of just bashing them to make ourselves look superior?
Help and encouragement is what they need the most, not criticism.
#NEET #Hongkong #Hongkongers #HiddenYouths #Youths #Teens #廢青 #隱蔽青年
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