Do teenagers become greater idiots with each generation?

[Hebrewhomeboy]

Seeing some kids today in the mall had me thinking about this.

Sure every generation has their morons, their attention whores, their druggies. It seems like back in my parents generation though, while there were plenty of bozos, people were, in general, more responsible. My brother and I, well we went to school with plenty of idiots, but a good portion of them "grew up" and are contributing members of society today. Now the kids currently in high school seem worse than ever. Seems like no one knows how to balance a check book or change their own oil these days.


You guys that were born in the 50s-60s or so, how do you feel about the youth of today?

[pwd72s]

Born in the 40's...I avoid the youth of today as much as possible.

[Racerbvd]

As one who was born in the mid 60s, the biggest thing I see missing is respect, when I was a teen, there was no way in hell that I would mouth off the way a lot of these kids today do.. That respect goes 2 ways, not only for others, but yourself, many kids to day have no respect for themselves & how they dress & look..

[slodave]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

As one who was born in the mid 60s, the biggest thing I see missing is respect, when I was a teen, there was no way in hell that I would mouth off the way a lot of these kids today do.. That respect goes 2 ways, not only for others, but yourself, many kids to day have no respect for themselves & how they dress & look..

So it was wrong of me to mouth off to that older lady that honked at me for no apparent reason and I think flipped me off today?

On the other hand, a lady the other day gave me major props for being so polite. It's a two way street.

I'm about 10 years. younger than you Byron.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by slodave

So it was wrong of me to mouth off to that older lady that honked at me for no apparent reason and I think flipped me off today?

On the other hand, a lady the other day gave me major props for being so polite. It's a two way street.

I'm about 10 years. younger than you Byron.

I'm talking about the ones walking around smarting off, not the senile drivers who think you stole their parking space because they were on the mall property
These days walking through a mall, kids will bump into you (expecting you to get out of their 5 wide way) and turn around & cuss you out, or push their way into the front of the line at a movie and not expect anyone to say anything..

[slodave]

I don't like the way they wear their pants. I don't want to see their underwear .

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by slodave

I don't like the way they wear their pants. I don't want to see their underwear .

The old people or young ones???

[slodave]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

The old people or young ones???

Mostly the young ones, some old people too.

[BRPORSCHE]

I don't like seeing yo old guy's diapers!

[red-beard]

When I had my dad at the ER, there was a guy with black leather shoes, with white socks. My dad was wearing black socks with his sneakers. I had half a mind to ask them to switch.

Every generation thinks the next one is a bunch of idiots.

[nynor]

i think back to some of the crap i pulled and it scares me to think that i now have a two month old son.

[MT930]

Your getting old! it sure seems that way.

Some kids don't seem to to much of anything

Teenage wasteland

[Porsche-O-Phile]

One thing I've noticed in particular is that today's kids are extremely good/skilled/talented with electronic gizmos like computers, ipods, iphones, texting, etc. However they are (for the most part) completely unable to think for themselves. I see this all the time with respect to people (usually kids) working checkout lines or cash registers or whatever. They are utterly lost without their computer or calculator or whatever to tell them what to do. It's horrifying. They literally can NOT think for themselves, and this is going to be a huge problem in the coming years.

Yes, I (generally) find them to be extremely rude and inconsiderate also.

[legion]

When my grandfather was a kid, he went down to the woods and shot squirrels with his .22. At the time this was viewed as harmless fun.

Last summer, my sister-in-law's stepson went down to the woods and shot squirrels with his .22. He was arrested, the rifle was confiscated. It was a legal nightmare that ended up costing thousands of dollars in legal fees and fines.

Perhaps teenagers aren't any different, but we as a society, have placed increasing constraints on their behavior and expected them to understand.

[rammstein]

Originally Posted by legion

When my grandfather was a kid, he went down to the woods and shot squirrels with his .22. At the time this was viewed as harmless fun.

Last summer, my sister-in-law's stepson went down to the woods and shot squirrels with his .22. He was arrested, the rifle was confiscated. It was a legal nightmare that ended up costing thousands of dollars in legal fees and fines.

Perhaps teenagers aren't any different, but we as a society, have placed increasing constraints on their behavior and expected them to understand.

I actually kind of feel you on that one.

[onlycafe]

i was born in 1950.
don't even get me started.

[nynor]

Originally Posted by legion

When my grandfather was a kid, he went down to the woods and shot squirrels with his .22. At the time this was viewed as harmless fun.

Last summer, my sister-in-law's stepson went down to the woods and shot squirrels with his .22. He was arrested, the rifle was confiscated. It was a legal nightmare that ended up costing thousands of dollars in legal fees and fines.

Perhaps teenagers aren't any different, but we as a society, have placed increasing constraints on their behavior and expected them to understand.

this is very true. whatever happened to clean fistfight? now it boils until someone takes a gun to school.

[nostatic]

Born in '61. Yesterday I was up at my son's middle school for him playing keyboard behind poetry and a play performance. His keyboard was sitting up on the "stage area" on a stool. It was turned off. A couple of kids walked up and turned it on and started messing with it. I went up towards them and they turned it off and went away. Then this other girl, probably 12, walks up, turns it on and starts playing it. I walk up and say, "please don't do that." She looks me straight in the eye and says defiantly, "why?"

I got a little steely eyed and said, "because it is battery powered and we don't want the batteries to run down, and it isn't yours." She kinda shrugged and walked off. Given my druthers I would have smacked her to help her on her way...

My son doesn't pull that crap, at least not around me or any of his friend's parents (they all say he's polite). He gives his teachers a hard time but some of them deserve it...

[Evans, Marv]

I attribute many of the problems (especially not being able to think for themselves and take responsibility in general) youth have now days to the influence of liberal education philosophy. A few decades ago when I was teaching math, they told us to have the kids use calculators for everything. I refused and had my students do their math by hand & head. After they could do that, I let them use calculators. Same sort of thing happened when I was teaching writing. I made them follow writing rules instead of just putting whatever came into their minds down in whatever way they felt like. Part of the problem is too many untested ideas being implemented (in education & society) without first finding out if they work or not.

[porsche4life]

As a teen of today I take offense in this thread.



However I will admit that most of my "peers" are blithering idiots.