I think many of this generation's kids' "problems" don't really exist

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People these days tend to say stuff like how this generation is so much worse than the generations before. While this is true in ways, I think a huge load of it is just people applying unrealistically sentimental and high standards of what a generation should be. Granted, this generation has serious problems unique to this generation, like overdependence on technology, loss of attention spans, etc. However, I think a whole lot of people who are complaining about how this generation is so immoral are just basing their standards on some caricature of some puritan-and-permissive hybrid's wet dream seen through rose-tinted glasses which never really happened (I mean in the "good ol' days 5-6 year olds were working in dangerous factory conditions and people got married during their teens, now people are whining about homework and hiding sex from 16 year olds). From the way I see it, a lot of the "problems" that people complain about about kids today are either just the same old problems wrapped up with different paper or reality failing to meet the Barbie-doll expectations of youth.

Is it normal to think this way?

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Based on 20 votes (19 yes)
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Comments ( 5 )
  • thegypsysailor
    8 years ago

    Immoral is hardly how I would describe those of 'this' generation who have posted about sex on IIN. Prudish and sexually inhibited seems closer to the mark.
    I believe that they are acquiring an inability to interact with others IRL and that many would prefer nothing more than to spend every waking minute behind their computer screens. From earning a living to having their meals (pizza and burgers?) delivered, never leaving the house could really be their entire lives.
    And in some ways it's not like you can blame them. They've never had to work hard at anything; 'no child left behind' took the challenge out of school, for most. After school jobs are apparently frowned on and increasingly difficult to get, as the masses of unqualified graduates took all the menial labor jobs students used to do.
    Those who do graduate from college, do so with massive debts and an education that doesn't qualify most for the positions they went to school to fill.
    I wouldn't change places with the best and brightest this generation, as the desperation, lack of true opportunity and choice today, are frightening to me.

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  • howaminotmyself
    8 years ago

    Yep, totally normal. However, that doesn't make it accurate. Not to sound condescending, but you'll understand when you are older.

    I don't mind younger generations. It is their mind and way of thinking that challenge the status quo and allow progress to happen.

    But don't for one second to think you are the first young person to feel this way.

    Although studies show that baby boomers are the last generation to expect to be better off then their parents. It isn't a hard and fast rule, just an overall trend.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      8 years ago

      What you said is true. By the way, I was referring to a lot of the problems and not necessarily all of them. There are genuine issues with this generation all right.

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  • KeddersPrincess
    8 years ago

    Kind of like those 90's elitist kids who swear we had better toys and games in the 90's. I'm telling you now, if knew about half the stuff of today when I was a child, I would've built a time machine to the future.

    Anyway, it's all relative. I have a very interesting teen magazine that printed in the 50's. In it, it's talking to teenagers who complain about how their parents don't like the "hep" rock n' roll music they listened to like Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. That their parents are constantly whining about how the music of their time was much better. The columnist explains how when they get older, they're not going to like the music that they're kids listen to (which, for them, was disco I guess) and so on and so forth. I thought it was funny, because how many of our grandparents go on complaining about how the rock n' roll music of their time is was so much better than the music of today. They do the same thing to us that their parents and grandparents did to them and, likewise, we will probably do the same to our kids. What was even funnier was whenever he mentioned the 90's because what he meant by that was the 1890's. Haha!

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  • NeuroNeptunian
    8 years ago

    I think one of the fundamental errors here is comparing the best of the previous generations to the worst of our generations. I'm a hard-working individual. I see opportunity ahead of me. I know a lot of people my age (23) who are like me and better than me.

    I also know many peers who dropped out, got pregnant, can barely find a job at McDonald's, can't be bothered to do anything other than smoke weed and complain about the economy or get off the computer and leave the house... in other words, examples of the members of our generation that you guys describe. Honestly, I was one of them once. Lived off my computer, went to High School, barely gave a shit and once I turned 18... went straight to work, school, automatically got ahead of my entire age group within 6 months time.

    Despite this, I don't actually see anything wrong with being criticized by the older generation. We need to listen to them, continue their victories and learn from their mistakes. Disliking an opinion or criticism doesn't make it any less valuable.

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