Kids Today Are the Worst Ever

The young people of today are considered, by some, to be the worst generation ever. People are clickety-clacking on their keyboards to let social media know how bad these young people are. My God, they have the audacity to march for stuff they believe in! We never did that, right?! They’ve lost their minds and actually want to throw away the values that made preceding generations so much better, stronger, hard-working and wise. Whatever it is, these current youngsters are wimps, morons and assholes. Their clothes are too revealing or they have ridiculous hairstyles that never, ever happened in our day!!

In reality, your generation was ‘the worst ever’ in the eyes of whichever older generation.

Truth is, people have always complained about the younger generation. Have a look at some of these quotes that span more than 2000 years. They look almost identical to ‘Twitter storms’ and FB panics. I also think 'fribbles’ should make a comeback!

In my day, we respected our elders.

I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise [disrespectful] and impatient of restraint Hesiod in 800BC

They’re only driven by feelings! We were rational decision-makers when we were young.

They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning -- all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They overdo everything -- they love too much, hate too much, and the Aristotle in 400BC

Sounds like a modern description of Millennials…

Whither are the manly vigor and athletic appearance of our forefathers flown? Can these be their legitimate heirs? Surely, no; a race of effeminate, self-admiring, emaciated fribbles can never have descended in a direct line from the heroes of Potiers and Agincourt...
From a letter taken from a magazine in 1771

The Internet will be the ruin of the younger generation.

The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge. From a book published in 1790

Don’t talk to me about GTA. Chess is the real killer round here.

A pernicious excitement to learn and play chess has spread all over the country, and numerous clubs for practicing this game have been formed in cities and villages...chess is a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements, while it affords no benefit whatever to the body. From Scientific American 1859

Children never swore until the 21st Century.

I find by sad Experience how the Towns and Streets are filled with lewd wicked Children, and many Children as they have played about the Streets have been heard to curse and swear and call one another Nick-names, and it would grieve ones Heart to hear what bawdy and filthy Communications proceeds from the Mouths of such. From a book published in 1695

Teenagers were assholes on horseback before they were assholes in cars.

a fearful multitude of untutored savages... [boys] with dogs at their heels and other evidence of dissolute habits...[girls who] drive coal-carts, ride astride upon horses, drink, swear, fight, smoke, whistle, and care for nobody...the morals of children are tenfold worse than formerly. From a speech in 1843

If the teenage you wasn't annoying your parents, you probably weren't doing it right. Banging on about how wrong teenagers are is part of a long tradition. It's a 100% guarantee that most of them will be clickety-clacking on whatever passes for a keyboard when they get older too.

Links and sources:

15 Historical Complaints About Young People Ruining Everything
People Have Always Whinged About Young Adults.

Theres a reason why the military indoctrinates young people into the armed services, why college athletics, marching bands and cheerleading is so energetic.

Young, inexperienced, Immortal, indestructible.

Go Team!

I do think people are tending to not teach their kids about perseverence and following up on their commitments.

To illustrate, my oldest nephew took debate and never once got to compete at a tournament because the other kids who were supposed to show up early on Saturday morning to go? None of them actually came. He was the only one, so he all he ever got to do was go and watch. We're talking grade, and they decided they'd rather not go on a Saturday morning.

Kids sign up for an activity or sport, get two or three session in and decide they don't like it, so they stop coming, nevermind if it leaves the rest of the kids in a lurch with too few kids to compete.

It just seems to be more common to me than it was when I was a kid. Now, I'm not talking about forcing a kid to keep doing something over and over, but if you agree to do something, you should at least finish out what you start before walking away.

I love this thread.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Every generation says that about the one that comes after theirs.. it’s as old as humanity.

I really do think we had better music though.

The kids are alright I think some are a bit jelly of their youth deep down.
Jealous in kid speak.

a reply to: intrptr

Not really what I was getting at, my friend.

People across the world, and throughout time, have expected the teenaged generation to screw up the world. We're still here and still complaining about them.

It's always been about their bad attitudes, stupid styles and music that's 'just noise.'

I'd bet money that even stone age teenagers got grief about disrespecting their elders.

a reply to: Kandinsky

everyone talks about the bangers and # in the big cities.
all these young thugs.
look at the pic though

you know how it was at the turn of the century?
little kids. 10-14 were getting # done
meyer lansky
bugsy siegel
lucky luciano

just a few

think of the kids in the mid 1850's in the five points?
# man.... they would relieve you of everything you have.

the major difference is now we can pull a device out of our pocket to watch all this activity and then send it to our friends so they can watch it too.

a reply to: TinySickTears

I don't think I would mess with those two alone.
Unless I had someone for bait.

a reply to: testingtesting

Nah mate, every generation produces great music. The *problem* I keep fearing is everything is recycled. I'm scared we're running out of originality!

a reply to: ketsuko

I can't disagree with you there. It's only the context of history that tells us it'll all be fine and there's no need to think this generation is any worse than our own.

a reply to: TinySickTears

Yeah exactly. There's nothing new. I see members complaining about kids marching and having political views. So what? They always have done and we did too.

As for the gangs? There's always been gangs, right? All over the world and forever. The end of the world is never 'nigh.'

....or it's always 'nigh.'

a reply to: Kandinsky

Did I say worse?

I just said it's a trait I see increasingly that worries me -- kids who say they are going to do something and then don't follow through. That trait is a key job skill. How many people have trouble with jobs because even when they land one, they can't manage to hold it down? They say they'll do it and then they just ... don't ... show ... up once it gets to be too onerous.

Also remember that one day these young whipper snappers will be wiping our buns and feeding us when we are all really old so I cut them a bit if slack.
If we really pee them off we will be soylent greened.

originally posted by: testingtesting
Also remember that one day these young whipper snappers will be wiping our buns and feeding us when we are all really old so I cut them a bit if slack.
If we really pee them off we will be soylent greened.

Why do think as a parent I'm invested in doing my best to make sure mine is raised right with plenty of love and a certain amount of discipline?

If he's not doing it himself, I want to make sure he was the sense of honor, love, and desire to make sure he sees to it that whoever is doing it is doing it right.

2058

Kids today are such wussies. Back in my day we had mass shootings every month and we had to go to school. These days, you get one little reptilian zombie outbreak and suddenly little JoseQuinishaChan is too scared to teleport to school and have calculus downloaded into zer brain. That's why I support mandatory steroid injections, we're just not getting enough from our GMO corn.

a reply to: ketsuko

Did I say worse?

You know it's possible to have a chat without bringing the guns out? I meant in general. The OP is about the seemingly endless cycle of generation gap discord. (that's a friendly, smiley face).

Although it can appear that the younger gen are losing their way, the quotes show it's not really that bad. I feel the same way sometimes.

a reply to: testingtesting

If I get so bad that someone has to wipe my butt. I'm going to go out in the woods, pour a bunch of honey on my arse, sit by a tree and wait for a bear.

a reply to: Kandinsky

I wasn't bringing the guns, or at least I thought I wasn't.

I just think this shift away from one value is going to hurt us long run. It doesn't mean our kids don't have other things about than that are decent, but shifting our focus away from being able to follow through on our word is going to be problematic.

Maybe it's part of our romance with instant everything culture and the loss of patience, but there are quite a few things in life that take time and perseverance to develop.

Yup.

Just goes to show nature's expiration dates work like they're supposed to, darnit...

dunno about you, but I look around at the old geezers us Xers are becoming and see the "greatest" generation idiots I was eager to see go so that the world could finally change into something better... heh.

The young are most likely the unluckiest generation this time, tho, considering the world, or lack thereof, we are leaving...

a reply to: ketsuko

Don't get me wrong, I'm frequently appalled by our current culture and genuinely worry that we're going in the wrong direction. On that we're probably on common ground.

At the same time, it's great to see that every single preceding generation was in panic mode about the next generation. We're really a sum greater than our parts. For all the craziness on campuses, most of the younger generation have their # together and will take us into the future.

By then they'll be pulling what's left of their hair out as the 'youngsters' repeat the same mistakes we've all made in our lives.