Changes In Young People's Life In The 1960s

There are many factors that have contributed to the changes that occurred in young peoples’ lives during the 1950s and the 1960. During these period factors such as family time and roles all made bigger changes then imaginable. During this time, the meaning of a teenager was became widely known as young people aged fifteen up into their early twenties.
Firstly, in 1950s family life was a huge factor that changed. In the early 1970s, most teenagers would’ve been identical younger versions of their parents. They would of worn the same clothes that their parents had and went to the same schools that they had gone too also. Even gone to the extent of following the same routines they had and grown up to. But due to the growing affluence in Britain
Teenagers were beginning to protest. They would listen to music that their parents didn’t like and stay out longer then they were meant to. An example of this was 1964 when two rival music youth groups (the mods and the rockers) in a number of seaside towns began to argue over who’s music group was better. It resulted in the Clacton riots on Margate beach. Teenagers also began to change their attitudes towards sex which greatly worried their parents. Teenagers were becoming much healthier than ever and it meant that they were becoming sexually active at young ages. This was then when the contraceptive pill became more widely used and cures for STIs and STDs. Times like this is also when teenagers were starting to experiment with drugs and other substances. The main types being taken where LSD and Cannabis and songs such as yellow submarines were also coming out publicising the use of drugs. In August 1967, approximately 50,000 young ‘hippies’ gathered for a three day love in where they started a national petition to legalise the use of cannabis. Bands such as the Beatles and the rolling stones also signed the petition. This changed teenagers as they and changed from becoming mini me of their parents to people going against the