What's the difference between young people of today and young people of the past?

[CottonBolus]

I used to take Tae Kwon Do, and one of my instructors was talking about how youth today don't have as much fun as youth in the past. We are less physically active. (In the past two years or so, I've pretty much led a very sedantary lifestyle without much physical activity.) And that there was more things to do in the past, and nowadays more young people complain about being bored and having nothing to do.

What are your opinions?

Young people of the past:

So energetic and physically active

Young people of today:

I don't want to get up

[star-warrior]

Young people of the past are now old(er) people of today

[Swellegant]

The difference is that the young of those days had to go outside and do things in order to socialize, and now they don't. Just like farmers of old had to push an actual plow, pulled by a yoke of oxen, while now they just ride a tractor. It's called the Technological Revolution (the natural offspring of the Industrial Revolution).

The past wasn't better than now. Remember that if you remember nothing else.

[bw92116]

Young people of today have been lost to video games.

[JayHawk]

Young people of the past weren't being lazy in my bed.......

[G-Lexington]

Young people seem quicker, smarter, and much better at problem-solving than the young folk in my generation. That sad, they also seem more unhappy.

Lex

[voyager1994]

It really depends on family upbringing, values, and discipline. I think young people today are more likely to suffer mental damage if removed from high tech gadgets

[gsdx]

When I was a kid, we had do to everything. Today, kids don't have to do anything. Everything does it for them.

[G-Lexington]

When I was a kid, we had do to everything. Today, kids don't have to do anything. Everything does it for them.

That must have changed decades ago, because I didn't have to do jack shit as a kid, either.

Lex

[PreTTy PeTe]

I had me a skateboard and the whole city to ride in.

thanks to the guys at hogtown and rudys or they should thank me for all the money I spent there.

[racer2438]

Young people of the past were as spoiled, and brats like today. They were more respectfull and not as mouthy like the young'ns of today

[G-Lexington]

Young people of the past were as spoiled, and brats like today. They were more respectfull and not as mouthy like the young'ns of today

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

- Plato, quoting Socrates

Lex

[JP.]

I used to take Tae Kwon Do, and one of my instructors was talking about how youth today don't have as much fun as youth in the past. We are less physically active. (In the past two years or so, I've pretty much led a very sedantary lifestyle without much physical activity.) And that there was more things to do in the past, and nowadays more young people complain about being bored and having nothing to do.

What are your opinions?

Young people of the past:

So energetic and physically active

Young people of today:

I don't want to get up

Ya..cuz our role model: Lana..seems like a stone talker and lazy as hell..she seems just want freebies lol ^^
~~~~~~

but I think all the ease in technology is to blame..

[CupidBoy]

Manners .

[csb999]

speaking as a somewhat older person I think now the young and society as a whole does not have the fundamental mistrust of authority commoner before . 80s joke , " don't trust anyone under 30 " . The police are not your friends . The authorities may be more respectful and polite but they historically would still like to see you and everyone like you in concentration camps or at least prison .

[BreakTheIce]

Young people of the past had their pants up higher.

[Hard-up1]

Which past?

Which today?

Both goal posts keep moving.


The only substantial change that is broadly characteristic here in the U.S. is the diminished knowledge of the basics of language. Because they cannot think in clarity, as words free our thoughts to be released, they cannot connect as authentically with as many people remotely, despite the proliferation of social media.

In essence, we (and progressively, they) have more ways to communicate less thought, and instantaneously.

Quite the contrary to Lex's experiences, I find many fewer quick, smart problem solvers per capita, but the ones who are, can be found more quickly. Human resources departments are desperately looking for the talented and finding fewer and fewer qualified applicants every day.

[tombastep]

The only difference is that young people grow up through different societal changes and some of that is for the better or worse. While every generation there are older people that always complain about the youth no matter how "good" or "bad" it actually is.

[gsdx]

The only difference is that young people grow up through different societal changes and some of that is for the better or worse.

One of the 'worse' things about kids today is their sense of entitlement, and it is all based around technology. Young children feel mistreated or abused if they don't have their own cell phone or iPad or any other bit of technology which is all the rage. And the biggest problem with that is that their parents grew up in a generation which had to work for what they got, and now they want their children to have everything. The children feel 'entitled' and the parents are willing to give it to them.

[GamerBear]

Young people of today have been lost to video games.

Kids were lost to video games decades ago its no different today they just play shittier games like Halo and Call of Duty.

[rareboy]

Kids weren't as fearful of everything.

They didn't always start to cry before they got hurt.

They didn't try to negotiate everything.

They were more active.

They had more direct responsibilities and worked earlier.

They engaged in the real world instead of sitting with their eyes glazed over texting someone a minute by minute description of how boring their life is.

They appreciated what they were given more.



And I'm not talking about only when I was young. I'd go back to my father's generation.

[Coward92]

We have shittier parents.

- - - Updated - - -

Manners .

Yes. Absolutely, completely agreed.

[G-Lexington]

Kids were lost to video games decades ago its no different today they just play shittier games like Halo and Call of Duty.

Hell, I "wasted" many a Saturday afternoon in my youth playing video games....in the late 70s and early 80s.

Kids weren't as fearful of everything.

They didn't always start to cry before they got hurt.

They didn't try to negotiate everything.

They were more active.

They had more direct responsibilities and worked earlier.

They engaged in the real world instead of sitting with their eyes glazed over texting someone a minute by minute description of how boring their life is.

They appreciated what they were given more.

And I'm not talking about only when I was young. I'd go back to my father's generation.

I'd begrudgingly give you maybe half of this. But most of it just sounds like generic old-person-rant-against-young. I got the "when I was your age, I had to work hard" bit starting at age six or so. Isn't half the point of "progress" to relieve ourselves from drudgery and back-breaking work? And hasn't every generation of young 'uns never "appreciated" what they were given until they got older? I sure as hell didn't.

Lex

[tombastep]

One of the 'worse' things about kids today is their sense of entitlement, and it is all based around technology. Young children feel mistreated or abused if they don't have their own cell phone or iPad or any other bit of technology which is all the rage. And the biggest problem with that is that their parents grew up in a generation which had to work for what they got, and now they want their children to have everything. The children feel 'entitled' and the parents are willing to give it to them.

Sense of entitlement doesn't exclude older people.

I can't imagine that this younger generation is the only one to get upset over something they want but aren't getting. It doesn't matter if it is a cell phone, ipad, a toy, a stuffed animal. Kids will get upset over not getting what they want period, it's not something that is exclusive to this generation of young people.

[rareboy]

Hell, I "wasted" many a Saturday afternoon in my youth playing video games....in the late 70s and early 80s.



I'd begrudgingly give you maybe half of this. But most of it just sounds like generic old-person-rant-against-young. I got the "when I was your age, I had to work hard" bit starting at age six or so. Isn't half the point of "progress" to relieve ourselves from drudgery and back-breaking work? And hasn't every generation of young 'uns never "appreciated" what they were given until they got older? I sure as hell didn't.

Lex

I'm not even using my own childhood as a metric. As I said, I'm definitely going back at least one more generation and evaluating how my father's generation were as children and young adults based not only on their apocryphal tales, but on other evidence.

And I would disagree that the aim of progress is to free anyone from all physical work, even the 'back-breaking' work that children have complained about doing forever. There is an attitude and aptitude for physical work that is increasingly lost as each generation finds new ways for their precious babies to not have to lift a finger to do anything.

But the one that worries me the most is the profound attention deficit disorder and detachment from real play and real experience by 90% of the children that we know now...replaced by them plugged in, hunched over a screen, living vicariously.

[Audio Tech]

I (DON'T) see young people in my area any more. They are still there, but tend to stay indoors on the computer, X-box, or texting.
It seems that social interaction has shifted from being outside playing sports, etc. socializing face to face has turned into an on-line scene. I mean, even I am here chatting on a forum, though I don't spend much time at it. Now there are so many sedentary activities one can do and still be in touch with friends. Years ago before cell phones and internet, you HAD to get your ass outside to see someone.

It's sad to see, and it's getting worse.

I also think young people are getting dumber. You'd think that all our new technology would make us smarter, but it is exactly the over reliance on that technology to do your thinking for you that makes you dumber. Just pry a smart phone away from a teen these days and see what happens. You no longer need to remember anything.... there's an app for that.

I don't know.... just what I see in my neighborhood I grew up in. The only noise now comes from the Gardeners.

I'm glad I grew up in a time when we all played outside and raided the neighbors pool to go swimming, etc. The only reason
to be indoors was saturday morning cartoons.

I'd agree with manners as well, but it's an adult problem too.

[gsdx]

It's sad to see, and it's getting worse.

There was a commercial on television a few years ago with a family sitting around the holiday table texting each other instead of asking, "May I have the gravy, please?"

It's not so far from the truth now.

It's sad to see mothers with their attention on their Smartphones instead of on their babies or young children. Family is no longer a priority. Technology has taken it's place.

[Coward92]

Well...
I think we don't become dumber, we just don't find our place in this world.
I sure don't.

[Harke the Boeotarch]

I also think young people are getting dumber. You'd think that all our new technology would make us smarter, but it is exactly the over reliance on that technology to do your thinking for you that makes you dumber. Just pry a smart phone away from a teen these days and see what happens. You no longer need to remember anything.... there's an app for that.

I don't think they're getting dumber, I think you're getting smarter ("wiser" is the outmoded word for it, I believe).

[RaKroma]

If you take young people of today who live in 1st world countries and you compare them to their peers who live in developing countries, you will see a difference in discipline and work ethic. You will also see that these young people in developing world are "tougher" emotionally and psychologically just like the young people from the "past."

[tombastep]

I (DON'T) see young people in my area any more. They are still there, but tend to stay indoors on the computer, X-box, or texting.
It seems that social interaction has shifted from being outside playing sports, etc. socializing face to face has turned into an on-line scene. I mean, even I am here chatting on a forum, though I don't spend much time at it. Now there are so many sedentary activities one can do and still be in touch with friends. Years ago before cell phones and internet, you HAD to get your ass outside to see someone.

It's sad to see, and it's getting worse.

I also think young people are getting dumber. You'd think that all our new technology would make us smarter, but it is exactly the over reliance on that technology to do your thinking for you that makes you dumber. Just pry a smart phone away from a teen these days and see what happens. You no longer need to remember anything.... there's an app for that.

I don't know.... just what I see in my neighborhood I grew up in. The only noise now comes from the Gardeners.

I'm glad I grew up in a time when we all played outside and raided the neighbors pool to go swimming, etc. The only reason
to be indoors was saturday morning cartoons.

I'd agree with manners as well, but it's an adult problem too.

People speak as if the streets are empty and kids are not out playing anymore, which is simply not the case at all. Of course Technology has been taking more prevalent in society, but it really isn't emptying the streets and making people dumber.

I like how the older people on here pretend that their generations were better when you go back and look how awful and more discriminatory society actually was. And that wasn't the result of the younger generation. Also considering that the younger generation are the ones who are more accepting of homosexuality and in favor of civil rights more-so than generations before us.

The anti-gay, racist shit you hear from people mostly comes from adults and if it's from children or teenagers it is most likely the result of their parents ways. And I can't tell you how many times I've heard absolutely dumb and ignorant things come from adults still about race and homosexuality. Things that if you took a second to actually read a book, you'd know better.

There was a commercial on television a few years ago with a family sitting around the holiday table texting each other instead of asking, "May I have the gravy, please?"

It's not so far from the truth now.

It's sad to see mothers with their attention on their Smartphones instead of on their babies or young children. Family is no longer a priority. Technology has taken it's place.

The amount of time you spend criticizing technology becomes ironic considering how much you're using that technology to spend a lot of your time on here.

[Scealle]

As mentioned above that kids in the past are more active than the kids today who rely a lot on technology. I remembered that back in school my parents always complained that I sit in front of the PC/ PS and TV too much and almost never go out (unless tuition, school activities etc.) They also try really hard to drag me out of the house. My parents told me that back in their generation they would jump in rivers and go running around in the woods.

[Anders123]

I'm glad I grew up in a time when we all played outside and raided the neighbors pool to go swimming, etc.

Me too. Way back when I was in high school, my friends and I would often head down to the local skate park after class and stay there until it was too dark to see our feet. On the weekends, we'd take the train to nearby schools searching for new places to skate.

We all played for the same football club too, and we were part of a big league that had teams full of kids from all around Melbourne. Oftentimes, we'd all stick around after home games to watch the other divisions play, and we'd organise friendly matches together afterwards. Our little brothers would play in those too, and everybody would go easy on them, occasionally letting them score just to see them smile. It was great to see everybody out there having fun together.

We weren't interested in sitting at home playing video games all day, we wanted to get out there, to be active, and to socialise; not via text or instant messaging, but face-to-face.

... Oops, did I forget to mention that I'm only twenty-two years old? Seriously, y'all need to stop acting like kids these days never get to experience the outside world.

Regarding technology, the internet has provided many with a platform to express their ignorance and stupidity, but it has also given us access to a wealth of information. When ever a particular subject or practice piques my interest, a quick Google search will give me everything I need to satisfy my curiosity. Websites like Reddit are packed with image macros and time-wasting trivialities, but they also expose us to discussions of politics, religion, science, world news, etc.

Honestly, I would argue that I grew up infinitely more informed because of technology than I would have otherwise. Having apps on my smart phone didn't make me less intelligent.

[Harke the Boeotarch]

If you take young people of today who live in 1st world countries and you compare them to their peers who live in developing countries, you will see a difference in discipline and work ethic. You will also see that these young people in developing world are "tougher" emotionally and psychologically just like the young people from the "past."

Do you have any idea how incredibly lazy some people in Latin America countries or in most of Africa are?

[tombastep]

Honestly, I would argue that I grew up infinitely more informed because of technology than I would have otherwise. Having apps on my smart phone didn't make me less intelligent.

Seriously.

I definitely know I am way more informed because of the information I have access to because of the internet and technology that gives me this access. There are a lot of benefits and good things that come with technology. People just like to focus on the negative of it so they have something to complain about or something to blame as to why society is going "downhill".

[rareboy]

I don't think anyone is knocking technology. Or saying that 'society' is going downhill.

And you raise an important point.

The really smart kids who can think laterally are the ones that know how to do real research and learning using the technology available.

The Google generation is growing up in an era that is just as pivotal in the course of human intellectual development as at the time of the invention of the printing press.

Just having tons more information isn't any use if it has no context or objectives though.

One great difference is that more kids are now thinking more globally today; more of them understand the world is a small planet and that humans can't just keep taking.

And when it comes to racial and societal acceptance, I hope that the young are more tolerant and accepting.

[Keeland]

The biggest difference: Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

[refujiunderground]

i think that the current younger generation tries to act older than what they really are where they simply aren't embracing their youth. you only get to be young once. why would a guy who's 18 try to act like he's seen it and done it all at his age, talking about how things used to be back in 2002 when he was only 8 is beyond me. act your age. hell, even some of you early 20 somethings are just as bad. i think it's annoying as fuck for someone who's 20 trying to talk down on how people in his age group are spoiled as fuck or how they grew up like the 90s kids, 80s kids, 70s kids did and etc did. you're 20 years old. you don't know how annoying it is when you have a 20 year old trying to talk about how things were back in 1995. you were only 3. your memory process isn't even that good at that age so you're trying too hard.

[G-Lexington]

I don't think anyone is knocking technology.

I think everybody is knocking technology. We're talking about kids spending all their time staring at "text machines" or playing video games. I remember getting grief from my parents for not getting out more, for spending so much time in my room alone...and even when I was out, I tended to be withdrawn or in my own world. And I didn't have a computer or cell phone or a video game system beyond the Intellivision II to blame this on. My parents complained I often "had my nose stuck in a book" or "was always scribbling things on paper". I still do both, actually. I'm sure if I were growing up now, I'd be even more of an online fiend, and be gaming with the Hot Pocket crew.

Lex

[holeconfusion]

Young people today don't have to work for porn like earlier generations.

Gone is the smuggling a magazine under your coat or jacking off to an underwear catalogue.

The internets has made it too easy.

[AWP82]

The ones today never got to experience the joy of blowing in Nintendo cartridges.

[Audio Tech]

Young people today don't have to work for porn like earlier generations.

Gone is the smuggling a magazine under your coat or jacking off to an underwear catalogue.

The internets has made it too easy.

Haha!! SOOOO TRUE!!



As to my earlier comment on tech making people dumber... Let me put it this way:

Everyone basically has GPS now. If not in your car, then on the phone. Look up an address and off you go. But do you REMEMBER everything? Before all this information became so incredibly available, you actually had to read and retain info in your head.
Look at cab drivers... they have an amazing map in their brain.

Now we just "look it up". Yeah, it's fantastic, but soon you don't have to actually "learn" anything. I think maybe getting dumber is the wrong term, as I don't think we are getting PHYSICALLY dumber, but we are not learning as much any more. We don't NEED to.
And I don't think that's a good thing. We become less and less self reliant.

[tombastep]

My boyfriend has a GPS and the times he uses it are when he doesn't know how to go to a place he's been before. And a Taxi drivers job is to know the city and him constantly driving around the city makes it even easier.

You're assuming that people don't actually learn anything from that, which is hardly true.

[loosingyourmind]

OP I guess it's just you. I'm 18 and I'm very active.

[Nishin]

Re: What's the difference between young people of today and young people of the past?

Mtv.......

[JohannBessler]

Cotton, sociologists have pondered the role of the computer in shaping the minds of today's young people. One article I read suggests that the advent of the personal computer has brought about the biggest generation gap since the invention of the printing press in the 1700s.

According to the theory, young people, who do much of their communicating through the Internet or texting, see people as inanimate--as pixels on a screen. Continuing further with the analogy, people who see people as merely pixels find it hard to see them as living, breathing people, and have a pronounced lack of empathy. Empathy scores taken by young people since circa 2000 have proven this notion.

By the same token, young people, precisely because they tend to see others as mere pixels, show a whole lot more tolerance than their antecedents. After all, how can someone feel real prejudice against a black, Latino, or gay pixel on a screen? This greater sense of tolerance towards others leads to a tendency to act and think more politically progressive.

This tendency has already begun to show in voting trends. Millenials voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, in numbers that suggest that, pretty soon, the Republican Party may face extinction. (Thank God, if you ask me.)

If you want to think of our hobbies, what we do for fun, etc., I can tell you that my generation, in general, spent a whole lot more time outdoors than today's generation. This was simply because we didn't have as much to do. With just two channels to watch, and no Internet, we had to find other ways to amuse ourselves. I myself read reams and reams of books.

We amused ourselves as best as we could.

[blackbeltninja]

I don't think anyone is knocking technology. Or saying that 'society' is going downhill.

And you raise an important point. The really smart kids who can think laterally are the ones that know how to do real research and learning using the technology available.

The Google generation is growing up in an era that is just as pivotal in the course of human intellectual development as at the time of the invention of the printing press.

I think I'd agree with this. However, I do think the youth today are lost without google. Do they know how libraries work? Do they understand that knowledge which wasn't published in the last 3 months is not necessarily outdated just because it's old, because some stuff doesn't change? If the internet went off for a month for whatever reason, would they be able to cope and get by? I mean, it's great that you know how to get a bus timetable and route map on your phone in 2 seconds flat. But it's as useful having that pinned to inside of the bus shelter, provided you know it's there.

I think the smart kids of today are smarter and more savvy than the smart kids were 10, 20 or 50 years ago. I'm not so sure that the more "average" (as in not super-smart) kids of today have a higher baseline than the average kids did previously. So, smart is smarter; but modern not-smart is no better than old-skool not-smart. I also think that modern not-smart is lazier and more likely to give up trying earlier than old-skool not-smart.

-d-

[blackbeltninja]

Someone mentioned entitlement above - I think the modern youth have higher sense of expectation than previously. They expect to be heard and negotiated with, and refuse to accept that sometimes something is simply because someone else says so. I also think they have grown up thinking that everyone else is at fault for what goes wrong, and their problems are all the result of someone else's inadequacy.

Case in point - I share an identical name and surname with a Physics department lecturer at the university I work at. One of the students in the Physics class sent a long, rambling Facebook message (in textspeak no less) to me, telling me how bad my Physics lectures are and how clueless I am and out of touch with their needs as students, and how I should really rethink my whole teaching strategy or otherwise I should think about finding a new career.

1. nobody in my day would have done that. You might have gone to discuss your problems with the lecturer - and this is encouraged at the university - but certainly not facebook or email msg.
2. and CERTAINLY not in textspeak. You're at University now, my dear, not 6th grade. How do you expect to be taken seriously?

I wrote a firm message back to the young lady in question, telling her to pull her socks up and try harder in class. I also suggested she treat her lecturer like an adult, not like a fellow kid in her 6th grade class. Lastly, I told her she herself was at fault, for not paying more attention in class, and she should not blame the lecturer for her own laziness.

Now I can see some of you thinking I have a lot of nerve for making these assumptions. But I'm sure I'm right about her being lazy. My reasoning? Quite simple. My FB page has a picture of me on it, a clear portrait-style picture which shows you exactly who I am - a 30-something year old scruffy white guy, with patchy facial stubble. Her lecturer - all inadequate, and clueless, and out of touch with everything - is a black woman.

The prosecution rests, m'lud.

-d-

[Kien]

After reading this, I feel like the older generation hates us(the younger generation).

Well not hate, but dislike.

[JohannBessler]

Case in point - I share an identical name and surname with a Physics department lecturer at the university I work at. One of the students in the Physics class sent a long, rambling Facebook message (in textspeak no less) to me, telling me how bad my Physics lectures are and how clueless I am and out of touch with their needs as students, and how I should really rethink my whole teaching strategy or otherwise I should think about finding a new career.



-d-

This shocks me beyond words. Why, if I'd done something like that, my parents would have whooped my ass.

That brings about another thing--I, a flaming liberal, think corporal punishment has a place in discipling children. My sister, who's even more a flaming liberal than I, and was a policewoman for many years, agrees. We knew the difference between a spanking and a beating then, and I know the difference now.

Do you remember that incident in which the preteen kids bullied that old lady on the school bus? I can truthfully say that would have never, ever happened. If we'd pulled a stunt like that, we'd have gotten it twice--by the teacher at school, and again by our parents when we'd gotten home. (I wouldn't have even wanted to face my father. lol) They taught us to respect our elders in all situations.

I think sensible corporal punishment still has a role, and feel it has been unjustly demonized. The last time we discussed this on JUB, not many other JUBbers agreed with me.