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Ejder Okumuş
Morality or ethics, which is one of the most important aspects of social life, is a very
important point in terms of youth which constitutes the backbone of society and is the
future of social life.
Modernity, Changing Dimensions in Ethics, and Situation of Youth
One of the most serious points of social change expressed by modernity is ethics (Durk-
heim, 1986a; Durkheim, 1986b; Durkheim, 2006; Durkheim, 2010; Aron. 1989; Hendry.
2001; Okumus 2015). Modernity has emerged with significant ethical changes in the face
of individual and society. In these changes, young people are in the center. The ethics of
young people in the context of customs, respect, love, visiting, speaking, interviewing,
eating, drinking, dressing, learning, teaching, family, work, economy etc. has changed. It
can be stated that in the modern society, people have acted with the ethics of right rather
than the ethics of good conduct.
Modern Society, Spectacle, İmage, Change of Privace and Youth
The modern society is a show, spectacle, and image society. In the modern society,
young people find themselves in the midst of show, spectacle and image life.
With modernity, in privacy, serious transformations have occurred (Giddens, 1994b). A
sort of publicization, the exhibition of privacy, the promotion and publicization of sexu-
ality due to leading of gender difference to different courses in spite of the emphasis
on gender equality perhaps cause that young people are exposed to ethical losses on
gender and sexuality.
Individualism, Freedom and Youth
Individualism, one of the most important points brought by modernity on the moral and
ethical plane, is the greatest tests of youth. Individualism and freedom are, in fact, as Tay-
lor (1995) proposed obtained because individuals and societies are separated from their
previous ethical mentality, vision and horizons.
Individualism has created a very serious ethical indifference (Touraine, 1994, s. 286; Caho-
one, 2001, s. 9). In fact, it is possible to read what Durkheim states about the individual and
society in the context of collective consciousness in this framework (Touraine, 1994, s. 148).
Youth and the Ethics of Family
Modern understanding of the family carries different dimensions from the traditional one.
Especially the core family, easy divorce, having less children, the working spouses, le-
aving babies and children to caretakers, nurseries, kindergartens, diminishing of eating
and sitting together at home, childlessness, approach of children to parents with the
ethics of right instead of the ethics of goodness (ihsan in the Qur’an), etc. are remarkable
differences.
