IELTS essay - Many people believe that today there is a general increase in anti-social behaviour and lack of respect for others. What might have caused this situation? How to improve it?

It is unfortunate that in the midst of vast progress in every field of life there is also a growth in the anti-social behaviour and people have become less respectful of each other. In the following paragraphs, I shall analyze some causes of this phenomenon and suggest some ways forward. 

Today we live in an era of technology in which the whole Earth has shrunk and become a global village. Everybody is connected to everybody through telephone lines and the internet but the warmth of relationships has taken a back seat. Most people have more than enough wealth, comfort and freedom but their hearts desire even more. To satisfy their hearts greed people have become workaholics and as a result have no time for family and friends. People have become selfish, isolated and indifferent. Each person is busy in his own quest for more. To add to it, the youngsters who are at ease with the new technology think that the elderly are good for nothing and that is why they don’t respect them.

The changing family structure is another big cause of this phenomenon. Earlier, people lived in joint families and the grandparents were there to supervise the children. Now there are nuclear families in which both parents go out to work and children are left unattended in the hands of pervasive media like the TV and the internet. No one monitors what they watch and they see the programs full of violence and crime which makes them anti social. The pressure of consumerist society and peers also breeds anti social behaviour. To add to it, the values of traditional culture are being lost and people are following the global culture which is also considered anti social by the orthodox elderly.

There are many solutions to this problem. To begin with, people have to learn to strike a balance between work and family life. Government should also fix the maximum hours a worker can work per week so that exploitation is not there in the job market. People should revert back to the old joint family system. This would be in the benefit of all. The children would learn moral values and the elderly would be well looked after. Negative effects of excessive consumerism should be taught to the people. Media can play a big role in highlighting the good points of the traditional and the western culture so that the people can adopt good social values. Neighbourhood associations should be set up to connect people to each other.

To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that, anti social behaviour and mutual lack of respect in today’s times can be dealt with by taking simple measures and individuals and governments should collectively take these steps.