Thursday, March 8, 2012

Millennials Aspirations: The Unrealistic Dream Of Becoming A Professional Athlete




Thesis:
In the Millennial Generation young male athletes are willing to do anything for the greed of fame, they believe they can achieve this dream because of their eminent confidence, and they are not immersed on the effects this aspiration may carry.

Body Paragraph:
One of the main reasons why young males are so prone with the idea of becoming a professional athlete is because of the thirst they have for money and fame. This means that the actual sport is what matters the least and that public apperance is more important to these athletes. As claimed by psychology professors Atiles, Deborah, and Gibbons, "Although adolences admire athlete abilities, they may more greatly admire the rewords those abilities provide  the athletes: money, enhancement of status, adoration, and the admiration of women" (Atiles, Deborah, and Gibbons, 1080). It's not so much the love these athletes have for the sport but more about the life they want to live because of the sport. Sharon Jayson, a english writer, claims, " MTV and reality TV are in large part fueling these youth full desires" (Jayson, 1) With the glamorous lives of celebrity's that are shown by the media it is not surprising that young athletes want to live that life as well. These aspiring athletes look up to those making the most money in the industry and obssesively strive to be just like these professional athletes. The belief of this unrealistic dream had lead these young athletes to believe that they easily can get rich and famous; but yet they fail to realize how competative the sport industry is.The idea of popularity plays a big part in this industry and that's exactly what these athletes resemble. Being a professional athlete has become such a strong ambition that these young boys are willing to do anything to get to the top. For instance, the illegal use of steroids amongst athletes is a way of cheating their way up. Joshua Feinberg, a psychology professor at St. Peter's College, argues that, "Athletic cheating has been one of the major sports headlines over the past several years" (Feinberg, 461). Feinberg studies have also shown that the use of steroids can eaither increase or decrease the way athletes perform (Feinberg, 465). Aspiring athletes are willing to break the rules on the use of steroids to reach their goal all for the love of money. Previous generations never had this problem. In fact, according to psychology professors, Atiles, Deborah, and Gibbons, Generation X actually enjoys playing sports and care less about money ( Atiles, Deborah, and Gibbons, 1082). The desire of adolences seems to have a deeper meaning; the aspiration of becoming a professional athlete is more described as greed rather than something these young athletes are passionate about.

4 comments:

  1. I agree with you because you see a lot of kids who wan't all the fame and fortune and push the game aside. As a result you get athletes who have no respect for the sports they play and they will do anything to be on top. They would even put their reputation and the reputation of the game on the line just to get an edge by taking sports enhancing drugs.

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  2. I agree that nowadays most people look for careers that earn the most money rather what actually interests them. The money and the fame in the basketball industry is what attracts younger people into wanting to be professional basketball players. Even though they dont have the ablities to become a professional player they insist in becoming one.

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  3. You make an interesting point! Some of my friends chose their careers because of money. They claimed that if they worked in something that would pay a lot they would be happy. They never thought that generations before chose their careers based on what they loved to do and still remained happy for their rest of their lives.

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  4. Very interesting topic, I agree with what you said about millennials being greedy and that they only want money, fame and women. I also agree with the way young athletes cheat to become the best of their profession. People don't even respect the game anymore. I was surprised when you said that Generation X didn't care about the money and only cared about doing what they loved.

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