In your opinion, is it hard or easy to be young in the modern world ?

Depends on what you mean by “young.” Teens? Twenties?

I think that every generation feels that the one before it has it easy- they live in a new https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200539168073820&set=np.87542026.1406661333&type=1&refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Fn%2F&src=email_notifnormal, and that it is “much easier than the ones after.” I think that each
new generation faces it’s own challenges and therefore the one before thinks that they are
obviously easier than the ones that they faced.

I mean about teens.

Life is the hardest thing you ever do. And when you are young, you have little to compare your trials to.

Everyone has battles, and they are very real to the person experiencing them at the time.

It’s both. Most young people in the western world have many luxuries, things to entertain them, all their basic needs are met.

I think they have more superficial pressures probably than 100 years ago. Clothes and other material things were less important to impress other people.

Gender roles were fairly defined a long time ago, which has positives and negatives. Teens today are overwhelmed with trying to figure out what to do next, what to study, what career, so many options. Less pressure to marry than generations before. More pressure to be completely independent.

Many families tend to be more disconnected now, at least in America. I mean extended families, less contact with reatives who can be helpful to guide children. Not most families, but enough that it is worth mentioning.

Well, that was interesting. I wanted to change my answer because it really didn’t make sense! I probably shouldn’t have, and had a link show up
that I didn’t put there. That’ll teach me to use my desktop and not my iPhone!

It just is. Each generation has its problems and challenges.

Many teens do have it easy. It wasn’t long ago that I was a teen and I think it takes getting older to be able to appreciate just how easy it was. I thought it was hard then, as most teens do, but now that I know what being an adult is like, I know I had it easy back then.

I don’t think it has a whole lot to do with this generation. Life a few decades ago was different. It’s not these kids that are spoiled brats – it’s just that they are living in a different time where life in general is easier and kids have the opportunity to be kids.

Some teens have it hard, sure, but not the average teen, I don’t think. Though, if perception is reality, all teens have it hard.

I think each generation has their own demons that they need to conquer. Personally, I believe that the ones faced by my generation were the most difficult that had ever been encountered before and that nothing that follows will be as bad as we had it.

@rojo Is that the Vietnam generation?

I was a teen from 1968 to 1975.

@rojo Somehow I knew that had to be the case. History is my worst subject, but I was born in 68 so I know things like The Tet Offensive, Martin Luther King being killed, Bobby Kennedy killed, Civil Rights Act passed, Some big airline crashes and a hijacking I think, and others I can’t think of now. The next several years we had the Nixon scandal, continued civil rights unrest, but exciting things like the moon landing. What stands out most to you? Doesn’t have to be something I named.

Same as it ever was.

“The modern world” is a big, divers place. The experience of a black teen in Chicago’s south side is many orders of magnitude more difficult than that of my kids, who grew up less than 15 miles away.

My kids will still have to wrestle with the age-old existential problems that come with being human; those don’t change with time and place, and are invariably difficult. But in the great sweepstakes of possible human circumstances, they’re winners. They have a supportive family, intelligence, good education, sound bodies, a highly developed society, etc. They’ve been dealt a good hand.

But there are also some very hellish situations out there. I don’t think those will ever go away. Young people caught up in those face incredible difficulties.

The big change for the kids of today is coping with communication. The need to be in constant contact with others has become so important that individuality is difficult to attain. Everything becomes a group decision. Privacy is gone. Standing alone on your own two feet is harder. Obviously there are kids who don’t go that route, but they are definitely in the minority from what I see. I hope I’m wrong.

@Sunny2
I’m not sure I agree. In books and movies set some time ago, children always seem to be in groups. That may be portrayed entirely wrong, I haven’t done any research. But if it is anything close to accurate, that would mean young people today have more of a private life than what was typical. In any case, even adults did not have a lot of privacy in the past. Space is essential for privacy, and families tend to have more of that nowadays. Were you only referring to communication over the internet?

I don’t think it’s any easier or harder than it was at any other age, if the family support and backing is there. I thought it would be harder as my nephew was growing up. Now he’s taking care of at risk kids in his job, and the kids love him. It’s amazing what can be done with a good base. My nices turned out pretty good too.

In the pre-modern world it was difficult for young people to get access to all kinds of information and knowledge.

In the pre-modern world it was more difficult for young people to mob other young people – today a secretly taken photo in the locker room sent to ten “friends” can ruin the life of a teenager.

@JLeslie. I believe the pivotal moment for me was the twin massacres at Kent State and Jackson State Universities in May of 1970. I was a young, naïve teen who had just turned 15 at the time and the fact that the US government would shoot and kill its own unarmed citizens and that there would be no repercussions and no-one would be held responsible for the slaughter was, at that time, unimaginable to me.
My attitude toward my own government was forever tainted. I have never trusted them and never will. And the fact that they were National Guardsmen at Kent State had forever tarnished the reputation of the military for me. It is one thing to go overseas and kill people who are trying to kill you but to shoot unarmed citizens of your own country; that is unforgivable.

@rojo Kent State was horrific. Also in the early 70’s the public became aware of the Tuskegee Experiments, which sicken me. There are still black people who don’t trust doctors or the government because of it. It was Hitleresque in my opinion. Once revealed much stricter guidelines for ethical reseacrh were inacted, and it actually caused some harm with the peduluum swinging the other way. Many meds are were never tested on children during the 70’s, because of ethical concerns, so the drugs are given to children without appropriate testing based on adult research. There have been medication that harmed children because of it, because dosages were not adjusted well, or unforeseen side effects happened in children and not in adults.