Melting Pot or Identity Crisis : Exploring the Realities of Identity Formation Among Pakistani Youth

Abstract

One world, one people, one culture, is the Pakistani Youth accepting the diverse cultures and considering it a bliss that leads them towards growth by welcoming new patterns of lifestyle and ultimately landing in a cultural melting pot. Or is it just another path that may add more fuel to fire and further increase the assumed ever growing rate of identity crises. The focus of my research mainly is on how the above-mentioned factors are either just the individuals with diverse lifestyle whose identities undergo the process of identity formation and reformation as the years pass due to exposure to the ever evolving globalized, modern world or is this entire situation just stirring up the much-feared identity crises that may lead to various other consequences. Is the majority of our youth from varying strata of society all in the same category whether it's accepting or respecting diversity in today's globalized world. These are just a few of the areas of this research that has been carried out through one-on-one interviews and participant observation. Interviewees were carefully picked out from different classes of the Pakistani society residing in Islamabad. Some from the privileged class, a few from less privileged or middle class and a handful from the under privileged or struggling population. Eleven in depth interviews were conducted. Participants were carefully chosen after close observation keeping in mind the sensitivity of the topic. The findings aim at exactly what effects does the trend of diverse identities have on the targeted age group of youth in this research. In the case of Identity Crises what are the effects and consequences of such a way of life on the ethnic, cultural identity of a young Pakistani keeping in mind his social and economic status. Findings of the research include how the underprivileged become easy prey to identity crisis. The absence of a goal or an ambition in life and the multiple In case of respecting or accepting diversity, are these young minds prone towards a lifestyle that is a product of a multifaceted universal culture.