Kids these days...

[Amaruuk]

I kinda go two ways on this.

On one hand I hate all the drama-filled crap that's being ingrained into kids' brains (adults too, for that matter). I also disapprove of all this spoiling that's going on (but I suppose it can't be that much more common than before). Little kids that are probably too young to be responsible with expensive equipment like laptops and iPhones and whatnot getting them anyway kind of scares me. Personally I think it's this generation of parents and the media that are 'at fault' moreso than the kids themselves.

On the other hand, like The Cynic said of old people, I'm admittedly a bit intimidated by the new batch of kids. Ever since I was a teen I've noticed the steady rise of what kids are able to do (largely thanks to the internet), and I feel like I'm quickly going to become obsolete once these people become adults with all this stuff already under their belts.

 

[RTHookers]

Sooner or later all of the kids will be exposed to porn, sex, and other crap.
Myself? I never blended too much with the society today. Most people that look like bullies treat me fine in school, but it's not like that I chat with them daily. (New school)
I remember how much I was enjoying choppin' pep's heads off at the mall in Vice City to collect money to get houses. (lolgrindinglol)
And the sooner you'll be exposed to sex the better, although not too early.
All teens WILL drink alchohol and friends. (fiends IYO) Myself included, I don't drink too much, but I'll mix it with cola or fanta or something. Mixing it with energy drinks are even less healthy.
Oh, and that quote? Girly quote. Only girls can talk about crap like that. (Justin Bieber included.)

tl;dr? READ THIS YA LAZY BUTT.

And some teens have sex at those ages, 15-16 is the average, while 13-14 girls are *****s for the young. (Free sex, young girls. *M.Bison "Yes!" here*)

 

[Amaruuk]

All teens WILL drink alchohol and friends.

Grammatical issues aside, this statement is (fortunately) false. For one thing, I never touched alcohol when I was a teen nor do I now even though I can legally (and I don't intend to, either; the stuff's pointless IMO). Many of my friends are non-drinkers, too. In any case, one does not need examples to know that a catch-all statement like that is clearly a fallacy :/ You can't go assuming something is true of everyone just 'cause a lot of people do it.

 

[Aureol]

Actually, I take back what I said. Some of the posts here have caused me to worry greatly for the future (not pointing any fingers >_>). And just because we're still around doesn't mean we live in an ideal situation. When I have kids, they are going to be very different from what I predict a fair portion of the world to be.

 

[Gary the Magic Fairy]

I personally think people should shut up about what's wrong with kids and find a hobby, but that's just me.

...are exposed to too much adult related stuff & txting.

Texting hurts no one, get off your high horse.

Oh? And did I mention that the fact that 30/100 kids in the U.S. are obese?

Well, like 90/100 kids in Third World African countries are dying of AIDS and starving, so I guess we're not doing too bad :D

And kids are getting exposed to weapons and violence, sex, ect. on TV?

>Implying violence, sex and etc. haven't always been around.

And addictions to stuff?

>Implying addictions are a new thing also.

Everyone thinks something is wrong with the next generation. At least global warming will keep that from happening to us. :D

 

[Porygon-Z]

Seeing kids today makes me hope the world really does end in 2012.

The spelling these days is atrocious, nobody has any manners so it's no wonder kids don't respect their elders!

Just yesterday a kid walked right out in front of my car and didn't even look!! I had to break really hard, but he just kept on walking! Little ****!

Also kids swearing! When I was a kid I would have had hell to pay if I'd swore like the kids go around swearing today!

Jesus wept.

Texting hurts no one, get off your high horse.

No but kids these days sit and text at the dinner table. It's so rude. They do nothing but text one another all day long. Having said that I know adults who are glued to their phones and I think it's a disgrace.

Why not call someone up instead of texting? This is why conversation is a dying art amongst kids today.

 

[Fox♠]

I see 12-year-olds wearing thongs, 8-year-olds with cellphones, and 4-year-olds singing about sex, ****s, and killing people.

I would dub this generation to be the beginning of the end of society :| It's just going to keep getting worse from here on in.

How would you of seen 12 year olds wearing thongs? :S Even if they are, that's OUR and our previous generations fault, as the parents of these kids and the generation who promoted selling yourself as a good thing.

I can see both sides of the argument; I spend a lot of time in bars and pubs so most of the people i see on a day to day basis are a fair bit older than me, and they're always whinging about how when they were kids they'd go tree climbing and stuff. But really, they only done that because they didnt have Playstations and the internet and whatever back then. The real reason we're condeming these kids is because we're jealous that we didn't have that much freedom or werent that spoiled. However, I am worried about the future generation of the UK. Thanks to our Government systematically ruining our country, values, ethics and world standing point and landing us in ridiclious debt with a dwindling health service, out of control schools and an under equipped military, I really feel for the next generation. Breaking the workshy "its ok to get pregnant at 14 and never work you can live off of welfare" mindset that Labour has pushed on our youth is gonna be hard.

 

[Amaruuk]

Yeah, I almost forgot about texting and English fail, although that's definitely not limited to kids. People from my generation are rude and text all the time, including in class and while driving (hell, my dad talks/texts while driving, and he's 51!). Personally I hate texting and think it's pointless when you can just call a person. It's easier to understand a voice (and faster) than back-and-forth little truncated messages.

Literacy is going downhill, too. I've seen essays at my college written with atrocious grammar/spelling and even chatspeak! I see people from kids to young adults on the internet who can't write a coherent sentence or spell anything right to save their lives, and these aren't the 'English is my second language, sorry! ^.^;;' people (who at least are trying, and English is really tough as a second language), these are people native to English-speaking countries that for some reason think they are communicating by typing incomprehensible nonsense sprinkled with 'u' and 'ppl' and the rest of the chatspeak poison. Isn't the point of using language properly to allow people to communicate clearly? Isn't clarity and the ability to understand/be understood important?

 

[Yusshin]

How would you of seen 12 year olds wearing thongs? :S Even if they are, that's OUR and our previous generations fault, as the parents of these kids and the generation who promoted selling yourself as a good thing.

My sister and her friends. When they were twelve three years back, they would be sitting out in the yard, bent over, exposing their thongs. My dad wasn't pleased, I'll tell ya that.

Also, technology is dumbing our kids down. If you spell "great" as "gr8", some teachers will actually mark it correct because "they tried, and it's close."

Uh, wtmonkey?

 

[Spherical Ice]

I'm, like, the only person in my form, and most probably my form, that can write a grammatically correct and roughly accurately-spelled sentence online. And I actually cringe when people in my year, IN REAL LIFE, say things like "lol", "omg", and, especially, "cba" (and any variations thereof). I mean, why say "lol" - it's like saying "I am crying".

Anyway, despite that, I do think that some of these generalisations (that spellling is probably really ironic and contradicts my first sentence, but oh well. XD;;) in this thread. Also, is it me, or do people's stereotypes of young people seem to move up with me? Last year people would say "typical eleven-year olds", and now it's "typical twelve-year olds". o.O

So yeah, I'm most probably really biased here, but oh well. My two pennies.

 

[Fox♠]

My sister and her friends. When they were twelve three years back, they would be sitting out in the yard, bent over, exposing their thongs. My dad wasn't pleased, I'll tell ya that.

Also, technology is dumbing our kids down. If you spell "great" as "gr8", some teachers will actually mark it correct because "they tried, and it's close."

Uh, wtmonkey?

Oh I see. How do kids even get ahold of thongs? I mean, what sick company even makes them and markets them towards children?

To the guy a few up who destroyed his own statement about conversation dying because kids are always texting. That is conversation. I text people all the time, it's a nice little way of keeping in touch when you're not near that person and when a phone call isnt really suited to both at the time.

 

[Yusshin]

Oh I see. How do kids even get ahold of thongs? I mean, what sick company even makes them and markets them towards children?

I'm not sure. I know my sister got the idea from her friends, and based on her friends' mums... Well, they don't dress very appropriately, I'll say that. That combined with the fact they don't control their kids (they're out at 03:00 with 18-year-olds - wtf?) just shows parenting is at fault there. Of course, magazines showing that thongs are awesome (you can find these at the check-out of every grocery store) doesn't help.

 

[Percy Thrillington]

Goddamn have you guy guys ever heard of childhood?

This thread is making me facepalm so much it's unreal.

 

[Yusshin]

Goddamn have you guy guys ever heard of childhood?

This thread is making me facepalm so much it's unreal.

This is different. Children wearing thongs isn't appropriate. Children being given an A+ for text-talk in a formal writing isn't appropriate either, but it's permitted, since children don't practice their spelling enough (Spell Check does everything) and texting is popular.

Children playing on the Internet and texting? All right, but there's a limit. You shouldn't be able to text at the table instead of talking with your parents. If you're texting more than you're eating, there's an issue lol

Meanwhile, I read up some disturbing things. There are some kids who start masturbating at the age of eight. You don't learn about sex-ed until you're ten, and most parents don't even discuss it until at least ten. I just feel that there's something wrong with a kid, girl and boy, masturbating at eight years of age. I don't think that happened a few decades ago.

That just shows how awkward and weird the world has changed. Really. Eight? Jeez! Some kids even start dry humping each other at four, saying "It feels good." Seriously, wtf?

 

[Sylphiel]

Literacy is going downhill, too. I've seen essays at my college written with atrocious grammar/spelling and even chatspeak! I see people from kids to young adults on the internet who can't write a coherent sentence or spell anything right to save their lives, and these aren't the 'English is my second language, sorry! ^.^;;' people (who at least are trying, and English is really tough as a second language), these are people native to English-speaking countries that for some reason think they are communicating by typing incomprehensible nonsense sprinkled with 'u' and 'ppl' and the rest of the chatspeak poison. Isn't the point of using language properly to allow people to communicate clearly? Isn't clarity and the ability to understand/be understood important?

Thankfully I never saw the chatspeak sentences in essays when I was in school. Though I did see people in a senior AP English class who apparently had forgotten so much about things that the teacher decided to go back and go over basic grammar.

Now, that alone could provoke a rant from me; but in regards to kids and literacy (or anything related to them being "stupid"), I have to wonder how much of it is the kids just being "lazy", and how much it is of the schools either being afraid to tell kids they're wrong (ban on using red pens to grade paper because it might "hurt kids' feelings", anyone?) and just letting them pass anyway and/or the schools deciding to stop teaching certain things in favor of other things.

For example - spelling? Yeah, maybe it was just the area I was in, but the moment kids reached high school - pfft, you don't need any more stinking spelling lessons, no more classes about that!...despite the fact that a bunch of people there still had problems with even simple words at times.

(Though, as a general statement, I personally see nothing wrong with using such things at chatspeak in informal settings such as texting - provided that the other person can actually understand it.)

The real reason we're condeming these kids is because we're jealous that we didn't have that much freedom or werent that spoiled.

Quoting just this part because I'm in so much agreement with it, haha. How I've gawked so many times at seeing younger siblings get things at certain ages that I was never allowed to have; of course the first thought in my mind would be "that's so unfair, they're obviously spoiled!"

Though of course there's going too far with giving them liberties (thongs, what the heck), but just because kids are getting the nice shinies at an earlier age now doesn't necessarily mean they're bad and spoiled and whatnot.

Now if someone's giving these kids all they want whenever they demand it, then that's a problem.

 

[Rich Boy Rob]

Seriously, just because a small percentage of people are knife wielding hoodies doesn't mean we all are. And what the hells wrong with owning technology? So I have a phone, so what if I have a TV, what difference does it make to you? Technology is designed to make people's lives easier and it succeeds in doing so.

Eww, you're all turning into grumpy old people. Ewwwwwww...

 

[shookie]

No but kids these days sit and text at the dinner table. It's so rude. They do nothing but text one another all day long. Having said that I know adults who are glued to their phones and I think it's a disgrace.

Why not call someone up instead of texting? This is why conversation is a dying art amongst kids today.

That totally has nothing to do with causing the world to end or being a huge downfall to society. At least, it isn't the kid's faults. It's the parent's. If they aren't teaching their child that "doing X is wrong" then the kids will continue to do X.
Even then, the whole point to being a kid is to not listen to your parents. They don't want you to wear something because of how it looks, so you bring it with you to school and change.

Just because kids dress/act/spell differently now does not mean they will keep those habits as they grow up. I used chat speak all the time when I was a pre-teen, sticky caps and all, and obviously I stopped that years ago. I also won the spelling bee every year in elementary school, and by the end of high school, I was a member of the National Society of High School Scholars. I still text pretty frequently and I don't always listen to my parents. A friend of mine in law school uses chat speak more than anybody else I know, it doesn't relate to his intelligence. It relates to his laziness.

 

[Captain Riolu]

Children playing on the Internet and texting? All right, but there's a limit. You shouldn't be able to text at the table instead of talking with your parents. If you're texting more than you're eating, there's an issue lol

I take offense to that. XD
I text all of the time but still carry on conversation. It's multitasking.



And people need to stop saying stuff like "The future is doomed". Kids may do dumb things now, but they grow up. They mature. I guarantee you that most of the stuff you see kids doing today they will discontinue to do when they grow up.

 

[Yusshin]

I take offense to that. XD
I text all of the time but still carry on conversation. It's multitasking.

It's true, though lol There's gotta be a limit somewhere. I live in a family where we don't have dinner together every night. We barely even see each other, actually, let alone talk. My sister does around 2,500 texts a month while she's eating and using the computer. It's a sad sight, really. She spends 10h on the computer, texting at the same time, and eating microwave stuff / sandwiches.

That's my dad's fault, though. It all just comes back to parenting in the end. Parenting and bad influences from other people / media / magazines that affect parenting.

 

[Cherrim]

Meanwhile, I read up some disturbing things. There are some kids who start masturbating at the age of eight. You don't learn about sex-ed until you're ten, and most parents don't even discuss it until at least ten. I just feel that there's something wrong with a kid, girl and boy, masturbating at eight years of age. I don't think that happened a few decades ago.

...just wanna drop in here and say that kids of any age will discover this because it feels good and do it. It doesn't necessarily mean they're doing it because they heard it's cool and started it that way. :( Many kids will accidentally start at a very early age without knowing it's anything bad/awkward/inappropriate.

:/ It's not like the thong thing, where an outside force HAS to influence them to buy or want it... so I'm not sure it's a valid point. (I agree with mostly everything else you said though.)

Honestly, I don't like most things kids do/are expected to do in today's society but I don't want to complain much. I bet when I was 12, people at age 21 disapproved of things I probably did that was different. :/