How Did You Spend Your Days As A Youth? Have Things Changed?

Well I was discussing issues brought up about youth on another thread when I had a thought.

Are the youth of today doing the things generations before us did? Or are we different?

I'm 16 years old, and live in Whangarei, New Zealand.

I've noticed that the youth of today, including myself get involved in a lot of binge drinking, partying, illegal substances ( Marijuana, Pills), Girls, Concerts, and generally doing stupid things for fun that endanger our lives, and sometimes other peoples lives, just to get an adrenaline rush, or to show off. I myself find myself involved in these activities, apart from the pills part, I don't trust things that are illegal for a reason, with the exception of Marijuana, it's not dangerous at all. We seem to be a very cheeky and immature generation, well in New Zealand anyway.

The youth of today also seem to appear in the news for a lot of bad things. Some kids as young as 15 are getting held up for murder, or manslaughter which I myself find disgusting.

But what I want to know, or to find out. Is how the older members of ATS spent their youth?

Were you involved in the same things?

Is our generation (teens of today) really as bad as I think we are? Or are we just doing what the generations before us spent their youth doing?

Are you disappointed in the direction the teens of today are heading?

I tried asking my parents what they did when they were my age, but they won't give me any straight answers.
Time to ask ATS.

This should be interesting.

Cheers
Brady

reply to post by GetRadNZ


Hi,

As a young 60-year old with son and daughter I'd make the follwoing observations;

1) Youth appers to be getting 'younger' - that is they are trying things much earlier. (Peer group pressure and advertising?)
2) Very little change in what youth to-day is doing - in 1966 we probably focused more on music, surfing and re-building cars though I remember making the odd trip or two to pubs. My son started smoking (all sorts) and drinking around 16 but rather than be a hyprocriteI could only warn him of overdoing things....
3) That said I see a move to far more underlying violence - as you mentioned - murders (there is one in the UK currently where two 15-year old boys allegedly murdered a 15-year old girl), plus stabbings, glassings and shootings.
4) Many girls seem to go straight from school to parenthood as this seems to be an 'easy' option
5) Paradoxically (with all the new technology) there appears to be more
boredom - possibly because of an information overload. And the prospects for many work-wise aren't good.

Just a few thoughts for what they are worth.

Peace!

reply to post by The Wave


I agree with the youth getting younger. I see more and more kids still in primary, trying to act like they're teens, and I've even seen some kids as young as 9 puffing on cigarettes.
I like the fact that you weren't going to be hypocritical with your son, but you warned him of doing it too much.
I wish my parents were the same.

Cheers
Brady

Well, as you're living in New Zealand and I live in Denmark we couldn't possibly be farther away from each other on this earth there might be some cultural differences and I'm also nearly twice as old as you (30).

I spend a lot of my youth dringking and partying out of sheer boredom - I couldn't find out what my true calling in life was as I thought (and still think) that it is a very heavy burden to ask any teenager what they want to do for the rest of their life after they finish school.

I've never used drugs, never been in fights and those things - I WILL say that technology has evolved rapidly from when I was your age.

The internet was brand new at that time so nobody really used it yet, but if it was such an integrated part of everyone's lifes when I was 16 as it is now, I'd probably hang out in front of my monitor trying to find an ATS-like website.

I think today's youth are a bit more spoiled as far as material things are concerned but also as far as the amount of help and guidance they can get from all kinds of places.
This in turn might lead some to think that they can do whatever they please, because there'll always be someone there to hold their hand and cleaning up their mess.

And sometimes I think that today's youth is a bit too lazy and want everything served to them on a silver platter.

Some random thoughts, I hope they are usefull

reply to post by The Wave
Have to agree with you on the boredom and imformation overload subject. I am 39 and 29 months old!! and i have daughters 19 and 11. I am perplexed when they claim to be bored, when they have laptops, mobile phones, wii's ipods etc, then i determine to bore them even more as a punishment for their lack of gratitiude but regailing them with stories starting with the line 'when i was your age..... bla bla, i had a black and white portable telly in my room.. bla bla, a record player in a suitcase.. bla bla, and a cassette player that i used to use to tape songs from the radio, because no one could afford to buy 45s as kids. One thing definitly never changes, music theft, the medium just changes.

reply to post by Truthhunter80


I couldn't agree with you more.
I've noticed that we are very lazy, compared to what our parents had to do, i will admit.
I don't do much around the house, I'm usually never home, and my parents do complain that I don't do enough around the house. To which I usually deny.
I've also noticed that kids are getting bigger, they are getting a lot more involved in games then sports.
I've been riding BMX for a while now, and when I see people wasting their lives away in front of a screen, getting bigger by the day, it makes me very annoyed, because their not really living life when they could be outside enjoying life.

Cheers
Brady

reply to post by GetRadNZ


Hi,

Re the young starting earlier - I remember my son coming home from primary telling me about a few 10-year olds 'borrowing' drinks from their parents - and not beer but spirits such as Scotch, gin etc... Luckily we managed to steer him away.

Regarding advising my son - well, having being a hippy (don't laugh!) and totally at odds with the regimentation of my father - thought I'd take a different approach. Just on this I feel there is one hell of difference between my generation and our parents and my generation and my kids - we share rock music, progressive music, rock concerts ...

Peace!

reply to post by Truthhunter80


Hi,

A very good point about being spoiled and having a safety net to fall back on. I had a friend in Berlin who amazed me by buying whatever her daughter (10 years-old) wanted. Usually was interesting for 5 minutes and then shelved until the next demand....

Peace!

reply to post by thedoctorswife


Hi,
Love the 29 months old bit!

Yup - despite the stereo, the TV, computer, amplifier and guitar my son sometimes seemed to be bored. I used to be happy playing those round large black things (LP's I think they were called) for hours....

Peace!

I am 47, grew up in a town very similar to Mayberry on the Andy Griffith Show. That being said, I saw a lot of turbulent times...drug use was pretty much MaryJane...and the occasional beer. That's it.

The biggest change I see is motivation to work and the developement of life skills. Any kid with a push mower and a rake made extra money doing yard work...then there were those that did conventional part time jobs. As a manager, I have young men and women that want a job with no life skills...how to balance a check book, use a hand saw and hammer... my brother and I use to build tree houses, forts, bridges across a creek.... and I had a checking account at 12 for my yard money I made...

As for violence, we were not violent...the occassional school yard wresting match was all... after we got licenses...an occassional back road drag race. That part of today's youth really bothers me... the overwhelming use of force and violence versus a reasonable solution. Most of this I blame on the parents...my mom and dad watched my brother and me like a hawk. They stayed on top of us 24/7... and looking back I am glad they did.

As for boredom, you better not get bored around my folks... you would be put to work...raking the yard, working the garden, washing the car, washing dishes,...

We also didn't have all the freedom and conveniences so many kids today enjoy.... going out to eat was something special reserved to a weekend night or vacation... bedroom doors stayed open... and my folks knew everyone of my friends... and their parents.

My kids do not get everything they want because im on my own and there simply isnt the money for it and i refuse to take out credit. Ive never been in the situation where my children had been drinking behind my back because i have always offered a little try of it at home, i dont know if this tactic works in every case but its worked for me, also kids are growing up quicker, when i was 11 I was still making furniture out of matchboxs for my Sindy House, the other day my 11 year old came home from school and asked for a spray on tan because her best friend was having one! Blurghhhhh.

All this talk of kids growing up quicker is funny. Sure, they seem to be. With pre-teens becoming more vulgar, violent and more likely to abuse substances.

But they also seem to be staying home longer. Not leaving the house until their 30's. Lord knows it isn't because they're busy with college.

Rather than growing up early they are reaching for a very low bar early.

Get a gold chain, criminal record for street cred, knock up a couple of fatties and you're riding high on the ghetto fabulous scale. No need to grow beyond that. Well, no way to grow beyond that even if you wanted to. The record, bastard children, and complete avoidance of any real measured growth or learning pretty much ensure you'll die in the small life box you've built for yourself.

I always hear "kids aren't any worse" coming from mouths of all types. Then explain the constantly falling standards at school, at work, in society. With less to do (no farming, child labor, raising siblings) than ever before you'd think education would be the top priority. Either academic or skill related. Each year though the schools drop more and more despite having more money then they've ever had and more and more kids just coast by. That was the big answer to the drop-out problem in many districts by the way. Just make it easier to coast so they don't drop-out. A wonderful service.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

I have a brother 74 years old. I am an older guy also.

I have 4 kids from mid 30's to youngest 21 and in college. Kids today, where to start.

I think the kids are information overloaded with instant access to everything. Younger minds see the information, but may not be able to process the news in proper perspective.

I think the education system is a joke. Pass kids regardless because we don't want little Johnny have a complex from being stupid. I knew kids that took three times to pass a grade. When I graduated high school, there were kids 20 and 21 years old. Now, kids get a pass from piss poor teachers and failed systems.

There has always been been alcohol and drugs. When I turned 18, I was in college the first time. (I finished in my 30's) I was literally drunk everyday until around 19 1/2 years old. Drank every day and did some incredibly stupid acts. Just thankful I never killed anyone driving drunk. The kids of today are less prone to drinking today because the laws have changed to be much more strict. When I was a kid, you got caught drinking and driving, at worse you poured the liqueur onto the ground. Most of the time, the officer would just confiscate the beer or whiskey for personal consumption. Now you"re arrested, and charged costing you thousands in attorney's fees.

Our video games were whatever we could come up with with the neighborhood kids. I remember my parents having the first television on the block. It was like 15 inches in a huge cabinet, black and white. You want color, there was gray. Color TV came out much later with TV shows in 1964-65.

The education system has changed dramatically for the worse. The was really a time you went to college only if you were going into a professional career. If you listen to career councilors now, you need a master's degree to wipe your ass. The entire system has failed due to a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the educated idiots in charge have a self imposed sense of over value for their education. A college degree used to mean something, now; it opens the door for minimum wage, entry level jobs.

okay, youth are not "getting younger". you are looking at things with an aged perspective and have forgotten how mature you really were as a kid. people used to get married and have children at 14. Children used to be put to work in factories. its only in the past hundred years that we've concocted this notion of innocence in children. if you know kids, they can be just as devious and deceptive as adults.

I'm 32
I was a bit of a quiet nerdy kid so I didn't do any of the wild things until I was about 17-18.
In my school however there were kids that regularly drank, smoked and we had quite a few that used to come into class smelling of "special tobacco" They also used to steal motorbikes and ride them round the school taunting the teachers..
There was also at least one pregnancy at 15 that I remember.

I went to a REALLY rough inner-city school though

I think there's more difference between small kids then and now, than there is between the older ones, apart from the gadgets I mean. When I was little I'd go out to play in the morning and come home only when I was hungry. We played with toys too, all the time. Skipping, hopscotch, cycling, footie, rounders etc. Even at school. We wore the clothes that were given to us and usually didn't ask for more. These games have stopped and have been replaced by gadgets and attitude "I have this, what do you have?". Nowadays most kids stay at home watching TV too. There's even a risk that if little kids go out to play their parents will be in trouble for neglect.

In my youth the main interests were boys, discos, money for chippy, boys, music, and boys. That hasn't changed much, though we'd have to put expensive mobile phones into that list now, & expensive clothes etc. Anything that costs tons of money. There's more access to drugs now too. I didn't know what cannabis was till I was 16. I thought heroin users only existed on the telly. Now they're everywhere, usually taking up the whole queue at the chemist, (pharmacy). Teenagers falling down drunk every weekend didn't exist when I was growing up either, though there was always one or two idiots "steaming drunk" on half a can of lager. They were the trouble-makers. But perhaps that was the beginning. We wore make-up but that was usually after school, a little mascara, too much rouge and some lip-gloss. Nowadays 13 year olds wear the full whack, even at school. Why do 13 year olds need a full covering of foundation, I ask you? Tide marks around the neck are funny though.

It's the spirit behind the act that matters.

Back in the day, if one took a toke it meant that
they were against the war in Vietnam and for equal rights.
It was a symbolic act, like burning a draft card or a bra, it was
an initiation into the right of the people to asemble, claiming the future.

Now in days it doesn't mean anything. Murdurers and politicians indulge,
hell even racists do it. And worse than that, this generation thinks they are entitled,
while at the same time doing means they have accepted that there is no future, and no one cares.

So yeah... there is a huge difference. All I see are a lot of people who enjoy the
sting of corrupting people, the thrill of crumbling society, and the
deception of self empowerment while doing no work.


David Grouchy

As a 60 yr old here are my comments:

In my day, we took more note of 'authority'.
There were consequences if we did wrong.
There were more restrictions on our social life.
Possibly our parents spent more time with us.

We didn't have the computer games etc but we didn't complain of being bored at every turn.
Or use that boredom to justify bad behaviour.

Teens have more money these days to spend on alcohol.
Drugs are more readily available.
The attitude to sex is less repressed (or more reckless, depending on your perspective!)
Witness pregnancy rates and the drunken behaviour on our streets.

Society generally is more selfish
We live in a 'want it now' society.

But this generation didn't come out of a vacuum.
They were bred by the previous generation.
So....

Hi,

First to the OS - getRadNZ - congratulations on a well-thought out thread - for a 16 year-old you should be proud of yourself!

To davidgrouchy;

Well, you said it regarding Vietnam - as posted earlier I was a 'hippy' (and probably at heart I still am!) and yes - Vietnam and the breakdown of the 'suits', sexual liberation was important - we were looking for a life change. Speaking with my children now though, whatever is happening in the world is happening - wars, tsunamis, eathquakes, political corruption. It seems as though the media with it's bland (albeit controlled) reporting, films with a surfeit of violence and computer games which appear to actively promote violence has made modern youth somewhat unfeeling - calous even.

To starchild10

I totally agree that we (the previous generation) are responsible. However, I think that too many of to-day's parents think the easy way out is by 'buying out' their offspring. Centuries ago I was asked at a job interview what my 'management style' was? Replied I didn't have one. If things were working let things well alone, if things were failing then be forceful (and if necessary, be dictatorial) and if things were going really well - then praise and reward.... Think all parents should do this - many don't like the hard part - being forceful and saying 'no'.

but there is hope - I never foced a school on my two - I let them choose. I didn't force university on them but by their own understanding (if you want something then either rob a bank...sorry...then work) they have got themselves through universities and both have jobs that they enjoy. (Note 'that they enjoy' - not something that was forced on them.

Peace!

I can't see a whole lot of difference between then and now as far as kids go but they are bombarded with far more media and since the 1980s have been more inclined to associate that a large price tag on a product makes a product more desirable regardless of the products ability to function... Parents these days are terrified that some sort of molester or other criminal type is just around the corner ready to grab up their child and sell them off into a world of sexual bondage, and that it is better too chauffeur them around and let them sit in front of a video game when at home than to let them go outside and play with other kids in the neighborhood even while carrying a cell phone that seems to be in more pockets and purses than pocket combs or loose change ... We ran all over the place, and could go to a neighbors house to call home to let our folks know where we were. We walked to school ,rode bikes and only feared the impending nuclear attack from Russia ... Teenagers that have bicycles generally never ride them but instead have them on expensive roof racks that are mounted on Japanese cars with dropped suspensions, over sized wheels with low aspect ratio performance tires and fart can exhaust systems..... They seem to adapt to computer technology very easily but can't count back change if they have to take a retail job which was a must 25 years ago..... They have seen their parents use credit cards and live in debt because of the pressure to have more than the guy down the street that is facing foreclosure and bankruptcy.... The kids are the product of the lies about prosperity of the Reagan years that ended the era of the U.S. being a nation that manufactured products that were highly valued by the rest of the world..... Their parents bought into the idea of manipulating money for profit and have passed it on... The problem is that most of them can't succeed at doing so because of the need for student loans that they will be slave to until middle age..... The kids of today are screwed up like all other generations of kids have been but to a greater degree due to the effective brainwashing of previous generations by the new media technologies that have been used to enslave the previous generations...... TPTB have been getting real good at setting us all up for the new agenda and like previous generations, the youngsters of today are now being molded to fit in to meet their needs..