Hookers: Train To Your Self - Society

This phenomenon has many names: freighthop, train surfing, train hop or a simple Russian analogue with a touch of Anglicism - hooking. Its meaning is simple: people cling to trains and travel outside the trains (on rooftops, brake pads, between cars). Most often these people are between 15 and 23 years old. What hooks "hookers" in this lesson? Why do they need this risk? And what are the psychological prerequisites for the development of this phenomenon in society?

At the beginning of the 20th century, train surfing was a forced way to travel for those who could not pay for a ticket (the most popular in the United States and in the East). But now it is rather a challenge of adolescents to society and themselves. At the same time, the phenomenon of train surfing is revealed in media reports in a rather one-sided and menacing manner: it is dangerous, illegal and dangerous again. What kind of parent, with this approach, does not immediately label the hookup and put the child under house arrest?

Meanwhile, psychologists note that this phenomenon is far from being so flat and primitive. And it would make sense to analyze it not only from the standpoint of danger / safety and acceptability in society, but also from the standpoint of the psychological manifestations of the hookers themselves and the relationship between adolescents and their parents.

An invitation to dialogue

“I am absolutely convinced that this phenomenon is not unambiguous,” says Sofia Tsege. - And it can be viewed both inside the psychology of a teenager and “outside”, because in many ways it is a reaction of the emerging individual consciousness to what is happening in society here and now. The references to corporeality, physical dexterity and power are the desire to show their combat readiness, mobility in a situation of danger, which adolescents seem to feel in the outside world."

Thus, the very fact that children are carried away by hooking is practically an invitation to parents to dialogue. About what worries a teenager. About what new he discovers in himself. But the increased anxiety of the older generation does not allow them to accept this invitation. Which, in turn, reveals another problem. “This is a cultural problem,” continues Sofia Tsege. "Today's teenager has to maneuver himself in the flow of information and emotional waves."

Conversation in the language of a teenager

Psychologist Natalya Fedunina approached the phenomenon of catching from a scientific point of view. After analyzing 40 reports and articles in the media and 50 self-descriptions of hookers (15-23 years old), she noted that among the hookers “the phenomena of the level of the bodily personality and character predominate: descriptions of physical activity, regulators of actions, influence, social feelings, social hierarchy and assessment, memory-fabulation, confrontation between the group and the individual, etc."

The researcher, Ph. D. in Psychology, notes that catching for adolescents is an exciting activity that is associated with overcoming fear, feeling the fullness of one's physicality, and therefore is accompanied by an experience of uplift, joy, pleasure, freedom. Moreover, it forms the child's social personality (individuality, masculinity / femininity, competence, etc.) and is associated with the process of changing social status in the eyes of the reference group (it is no coincidence that the guys think that train surfing is worth doing if you want to please a girl, for example). However, the price of risk, opportunity for self-affirmation and pleasure is often the life of a teenager.

In other words, we see that this is a psychologically significant, but completely unexplored phenomenon. And if you are faced with the child's hobby for hooking, it is worthwhile to study this topic deeper and speak with the teenager in his language

More about this:

Fedunina N. Yu. Representation of the meaning of hooking through the prism of Pierre Janet's concept of personality // Psychological research. 2015.8 (44).