Background: I was born in 1971. In the 1970s, teenagers used to scare me. In the 1980s, there were a number of scuzzy kids my age in junior high and high school, but no more than in previous generations, I believe.
Two opinions:
I live in Indy and see kids–younger kids and teens–all the time of various ages and ethnicities. For the most part I see kids that are well-behaved and engaging in classic kid behavior. There are a number of bad-seeming ones, but no more than in previous generations, I believe.
I’m not offended or surprised by their dress or their music. I don’t experience any of that “What’s wrong with kids today?” feeling.
Regarding my own generation, “X,” I’ve never really seen where the “slacker” image came from. Perhaps back in 1990 or so the older generation noticed a number of us slacking off–what’s new?
In general, however, I see the Xers and Ys as being responsible adults doing their jobs and raising families in a fairly reasonable and traditional manner. If any thing, we seem more responsible and community-oriented than the boomers, although I’ve never had too big a problem with the boomers, either.
In short, I don’t feel much of a generation gap either way, and I’m not despondent at all about the future of our youth. I welcome your comments on the matter.
Oh man, it makes me crazy. Teen sex rates are going down. As is teen drug use.
What, I ask you, is wrong with our teens? Teens without sex? Without drugs? It’s just not right. Have you listened to the music they listen to? It’s not about anything fun. It’s about…well, I don’t know what it’s about. But it has an edge as sharp as a marshmallow. The names say it all. Coldplay. Cold. Play. Not, say, “Icy Kickass” or “Frozen Super Action”. Just some nice, cold play.
I work with high schoolers. It’s bizarre. They all dress very nicely. Most of their parts are covered. Nobody looks too wierd or at all threatening. And these are kids from the inner city, not hoity toity kids from the burbs. Everyone is polite. The “cool trend” in high school is apparently to wear children’s cartoon character backpacks. I swear to god we would have beaten all these kids up in my day.
I’ve got to think somehting is wrong. Or that Bush is behind it somehow. The pervading sense of wholesomeness makes me think that evil forces are at work…
Kids today like me a hell of a lot more than kids of my own age did. Instead of being a social leper, I am the coolest instructor. They all want to hang out with me outside of class.
Regarding my own generation, X. I’m not sure where the slacker thing got started, but I can dig it a little. I think we mostly got started later on life. . .that is, the 20’s were more of a goof-off, fuck around period, instead of a settle-down, get a job period. But, I think that now that we’ve hit our 30’s a lot of people are buckling down just as much as previous generations.
Regarding gen-Y: my problem with them is that the shit they do that bothers me is nerdier and lamer than the shit that younger generation’s usually do to bother previous generations.
That is, the music isn’t edgier, heavier and louder. It’s poppier, softer, and quieter. Their “quirks”, or what have you, seem to be texting each other a lot, and playing a lot of video games, not having more sex and doing more drugs.
If they were actually not so wimpy, I’d have more respect for them.
The only big difference is they get air conditioned rooms, and we had to die in a hundred degree room the last month of school. I decided twenty years ago that the most important luxury in life is to have air conditioning.
My aunt used to attend to the same university as me, and recently brought my cousin up so I could show him around (he’s applying this year). She couldn’t beleive that people were queing to get into the gym at lunch time. She explained that nobody my age really cared about their fitness 30 years ago. It’s true - my generation seems very neurotic about health and fitness.
A university sample is going to be skewed a bit, but I know very few people who don’t do some form of working out (not sports, just exercising) and even less who smoke (since we all know that the second smoke hits your lungs, they turn into shrivelled black sacks that remain until your premature death). It drives me crazy if I hear other students worrying about stuff like toxins… for crying out loud, you’re not even 20 yet! If you’re not going to be carefree now, when the hell are you going to do it?
I’m not going to speculate exactly why this has happened, but I’ll wager that the media is the main culprit.
On the other hand, drinking seems to have got out of control. I’ve wondered if the removal of smoking from social situations means that drinking is now the only option when you want something to do with your hands.
Some other thoughts:
The internet offers kids relatively risk-free forms of rebelling/being a nuisance: filesharing, hacking, trolling etc
A theory I’ve had for lower drug use is the quality of the alternatives. We have MTV, Playstations and iPods. You had pogo sticks, space hoppers and rubix cubes (yes, I have no idea what I’m talking about - but I hope you get the point).
Additionally, I reckon less people try pot because they don’t want to smoke it. I’ve noticed that people are far more open to hash brownies.
