So what is wrong with the young people today?
This link shows that it was a problem started from centuries ago that is relevant even to our present time.
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32 Answers
Nothing is “wrong” with them.
From your link: “It should be noted that the attribution of some of these quotes is historically shaky.” In other words, several of them are fake (indeed, a couple of them are well known fakes). And even if they were real, all it would show (as your link acknowledges) is that old people have been complaining about young people forever. It wouldn’t prove anything at all about the young people themselves.
I think the fact that both parents need to work outside the home has had a bad effect on children the last 40 years.
People have been complaining about younger generations for eons – “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.” Socrates
Nothing. They’re just different from how you were at their age. Yeah, I think some things they do and ways they think are strange, but then, I think a lot of what many adults do and ways they think are strange.
As annoying as it is when the older generation complains about the younger generation, as if they are uniquely bad/disappointing, it is completely normal cross-cultural human behavior that has gone on for centuries and will continue on for centuries. I’m sure I’ll be complaining about the young people when I’m older. (My conservative friend who’s my age already is; he thinks Gen Z is a “lost cause” because they’re too “woke”).
@smudges It is a very popular—and very widely distributed—fake that comes up almost every time a discussion like this occurs. The actual source is from a passage in someone’s dissertation where they are summarizing several texts at once. If you’re interested, you can read about it here.
I said this once, offhand, about 40 years ago, and my husband repeated it for years, which is why I remember it:
Oog and Moog are chipping flint one day, with the usual grunts and hand signs. Suddenly Oog says, “Holy smoke, I can talk.” And the second thing he says with his newfound language is, “The younger generation is going to hell in a handbasket.”
I was raised by wolves. They ate my puppy.
I’m still upset.
Problem with youngins today. They’re always on their dang phones. They’re rarely in the moment. And in the rare times they are involved in somethinng, they have to post it on Instfacetwit. – Not Socrates
Dagnabbit! Now get off my lawn!
See @Jeruba ‘s post.
It happens when an individual reaches an older age and hearing about youths doing shameful/criminal think we forget what happened in our age, and even what we did. It didn’t seem harmful at the time. Yet it was.
Two days ago, a young boy was beaten up by three older lads. They stomped on his head. He was air-lifted to a medical center. Has this happened before? Yes.
There’s nothing to look forward to. They can’t afford houses and child care is 1000 dollars a month.
I was at a local state fair and some kids behind me in line were already talking about the debt they’re in from college. It’s great that they’re actually trying and going, but an 18/19 year old shouldn’t be 12k in debt with more piling on top on the way.
@LuckyGuy It was caught on CCTV, I think. Fortunately, the young lad is now home and mending, just dealing with a lot of pain. Time will tell if the perpetrators are punished.
@Blackberry And yet some young ones are landing on their feet. My question is, why do some succeed where others fail? Has that changed over generations? If so, why?
Undisciplined, with no respect for their elders, or others, and no compassion for others.
It isn’t just young people today…it’s young people throughout time. The OP used a citation that has some fake (or probably fake) quotes on it. But the idea isn’t new. You are looking at a generational difference.
Every person, when they are young, is looking for ways to declare independence, to take their parents’ learnings and outdo them, to make their mark in the world. They are full of new ideas they want to push.
Every person, as they get older, see the younger people acting like they know it all, that they are invincible, that they malign all that the elders have gone through, discounting it as being useless.
Both sides are correct and both sides are wrong. Young people, in their efforts to spread their wings, come up with a lot of ideas. And like most ideas, many of them are really bad ideas. They don’t have the experience of life to temper their thinking so they want to rush forward and repeat many errors that their elders have likely already made and learned from.
But just because you are older and have more experience doesn’t mean you know everything or have thought of everything. And yes, many of those ideas from the young people are really stupid. But some are not. Some have true merit and can be the building blocks of new ways of thinking, living and thriving. The enthusiasm and drive that spur these ideas are what often gets tamped down as we get older and more comfortable in our existence.
Nothing. That I was also wrong about when I was young.
I disagree @kritiper. Most have compassion. I’ve had lots of young people step up to give me a hand if it looked like I needed it.
We need to chill with the young people bashing. If they are what some of you are saying, ask yourself who raised them. Our generation? Our kid’s generation? Either way it comes back to us and it means we screwed up somewhere.
Whatever older people said about you when you were young
Thanks for all your answers.
@kritiper Just like people said about your generation when you were young. maybe not you in particular
@Pied_Pfeffer
Pretty vague criteria. Do they have upper middle class parents? Did they sacrifice their health in exchange for pay by working at a hazardous chemical factory?
Then there’s statistics…obviously someone’s gonna make it regardless because all you need is any warm body that can show up for work and do what they’re told long enough.
@Blackberry There are children who are given proper guidance through parenting and the school system when it comes to education. This includes applying for scholarships. The key is what the child desires. If a student isn’t interested in a career that requires a college degree, they should be guided in that direction.
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