Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? In the past, young people depended too much on their parents to make decisions for them; today young people are better able to make decisions about their own lives.

Sample 1:

In the past, young people only had limited rights to handle their own lives since their parents made all the decisions for them. Yet with the appearance of the Internet and the awareness of most parents, young people today have more rights and a better ability to make their own decision. In the first place, rapid development of the Internet makes it easier for young people to gather information for decision-making. The Internet can provide almost all the information people need, and with the valuable information got from the Internet, adolescents have the ability to make more considerate decisions than they used to. In contrast, parents acted as the only source of information for young people, for no other information was available, which made young people depend too much on their parents. Take my experience for instance. I used to make a perfect family party plan by searching and collecting useful information on the Internet. I learned from other successful plans online and took key factors into full consideration, such as the weather, financial budget, transportation, the health condition of my grandmother, etc. This party plan makes my parents believe I have the ability to decide on my own and since then I was given more chances to make decisions independently. Furthermore, parents now attach more importance to cultivating children's ability to think independently. Thanks to the new education concept, a growing number of parents believe that the core of education is the promotion of comprehensive quality and more of them realize that it is important to build children's confidence and independence. This realization makes parents respect young people and turn the decision over to children. Besides, the school today offers various courses, and the children now are educated in a more well-rounded way than before. Parents do feel powerless to make all decisions for their kids. For example, my cousin, Jack, has been encouraged to make most decisions on his own. His parents, who have read lots of books on child growth, believe that only by training Jack to be independent at a young age can he achieve success in the competitive society. Moreover, sometimes they also find it difficult to give any valuable suggestions for Jack's study, since they are not the experts of all the fields. How can parents decide which English dictionary should be bought when they know nothing about English? In conclusion, the situation is much better than it used to be, in which parents build trust in their kids and kids are able to decide by themselves. While at the same time, rational suggestions from parents can never be ignored.

Sample 2:

The ability to make decisions can be considered as one of the vital signs of maturity. Because it proves that the individual's personality is developed enough to choose the right path in life, even though some people believe that today, young people are better decision-makers, due to lifestyle changes, I am afraid I have to disagree with this belief for two critical reasons.

Firstly, in the past, people used to get married at very young ages. The youth was both mentally and physically prepared for early marriage. By marriage, there is no chance of staying dependent on family. For example, my grandmother was born in one of the countries of Tabriz. She has told many stories about young girls' lives getting married at age 16. She explained that the girls were used to becoming housekeepers at very young ages and then gave birth before they were 18 years old. This rapid development of life for those young girls made the girls autonomous. My grandmother got married when she was 16, and she was pregnant by 19. She says that she had no choice but to only become dependent. This also happened to boys. The young boys quickly learned the way of being a husband and father for their family.

Secondly, the families were extended. In every family, there were at least four children. So, parents could barely pay attention to all the children. In other words, they were less concerned with their children's raising. They believed that older children could exemplify for their younger siblings. As an example, I am an only child. My parents entirely focused on me to teach me everything they could. They always were so worried about the environment where I studied, worked, or even had fun. Although These concerns were beneficial for me and were considered a kind of protection, they reduced my ability to choose and decide in different situations of my own life.

In sum, today young people rely on their parents more than in the past. Because usually the children are raised in nuclear families and also the marriage age is increased to 30s. This means that young people remain under their parent's supervision for an extended period.