A QUESTION ABOUT TODAYS YOUTH...

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yes, and it’s that way b/c of the shit in the media and society and bad parenting.. i could go way deeper but let’s keep it simple now..

We live in a day in age where education is secondary to social structure, which has its importance, but it can’t be a replacement.

We need to stop thinking in extremes and find the balance, the problem is when the the family dynamic is operating like a family, no one is concerned about family matters – i.e. ensuring education is being properly governed.

I agree with sheriff. Mostly I’d say its the media. Kids see the celebs and say I want that! That’s where the problem starts. Then they get what they want only to find they are outdone by someone else. From there it becomes an endless “hand over hand” game where everyone is outdoing each other to stay on top. All the morals go out the window to outdo the next guy and we end up here. I’m affraid to see where we go when those children grow up and become examples to the younger generations.

i think hannah montana is the worst influence for kids. it really disgusts me

i think that family has a lot of influence over a childs behavior and it seems to be that parents are not as involved as they were before.. There’s also a lot of young parents who have no idea what they’re doing (no offense to any teenage parents but its true) and therefore the kids search for that family feeling in gangs and video games for example.

Not beyond what makes them products of their culture. Exposure to technology, the Web and social networks during their developmental stage has definitely set them apart from other generations. But I would guess that the world title for careless and irresponsible is still being held by the baby boomers who came of age in the 60s. Not that I believe all boomers were careless and irresponsible, just that it was incredibly fashionable to do so.

Ignorant? Maybe. Ignorant of what, exactly, seems to be the question. Certainly pop culture and “pop discourse,” if you will, has degraded into quantity over quality. It takes less effort (and ironically more hours) to play a video game than read a book. But, Harry Potter, as an example, is probably the most widely read adolescent book series in history.

I do think they are more sexualized and prone to violence thanks to the influence of internet and the evolution of video games in the last 10 years or so. They’re also much more sedentary for the same reason.

But, I’d also say the majority of kids are pretty good, wanting to learn, wanting to do something good for their community or whatever other ideal captures their imagination. It’s just that when we have poor behavior or poor judgement, it’s more extreme than it used to be. If their minds aren’t as robust as “they used to be” I’d chalk it up to the fragmenting of attention spans owing to all the media and communications gadgets, networks and crap that demand our attention.

I wouldn’t blame society, nor would I blame the educational system or pop culture.
I believe that the blame would have to lay entirely on the parents. In the end, it’s their choices that have the greatest effect on the child.
If a parent doesn’t have the time to deal with a child, the parent usually sits the child down in front of the TV. That’s the enabling attitude which ultimately does it.

@ skweel88 I agree and disagree at the same time. It would be hard to blame one and not the other. The tv and socity is where they get the ideas that cause the whole problem, but like you said though the reason they see all that is because of the bad parenting.

Kevbo made an excellent point about the 1960’s crowd. Baby boomers’ ethics, morality etc… have been passed down and convoluted to fit the social framework we live in today. What’s interesting to note is their actions and ideals ARE the framework for what we see today, so we might see the “Baby boomer” generation as “lazier” we are still operating on the same framework, the difference is the technology surrounding us gives us the facade that we are more productive, etc.

well, of course tv and society can have the effect. It’s the parents responsibility to determine what the child should watch. some programming is just for more mature children, and definitely shouldn’t play a fundamental role in their development. if it wasn’t for parents allowing their children to watch such programming, it wouldn’t be on. Or at least not on in that same timeslot. It’s not necessarily all just bad parenting—just bad time management for when parenting isn’t occurring.

Well, I wasn’t doing much 20 years ago (5 years old), so I can’t really say. What I can say is that I’ve noticed a large portion of my generation as children raising parents. Or to be more general, a whole generation of shitty parents spawned 20 years back.

The generation before that, was a group of really solid people who all fought through some really tough stuff, which helped to define themselves as people.

Maybe America has been “rich” for too long. Maybe it’s just easier for idiots to succeed in today’s world, since they’re so nurtured.

I can’t really find myself blaming the parents necessarily though. The whole corporate lifestyle has exploded;a lifestyle where its not only common, but encouraged to work throughout the night and forsake your family, having a personal life only on the occasional weekends where nothing is required of the worker.

careless and ignorant? I don’t know why everyone seems to agree that today’s youth is somehow less valuable than previous generations. We grow up in very different environments and no doubt lack certain traits generations before us had, but to say that in an internet driven age youth could be more naive than previously is pretty haughty.

Plus, aren’t most of you guys hating on ‘today’s youth’ youths yourselves? Sounds like today’s youth has a superiority complex over itself.

i don’t think i’m like the rest of the “youth”. at all.

I think it can be said about every future generation that the newer generation will be considered worse than the previous generation. For example in the late 50s to the mid 60s, the Beat Generation which produced some of the best authors was considered more careless then the previous generation. As time progressed, the hippies were considered worse than the beat generation. The hippies were followed by the rockers who were then followed by the punk movement and so on. SO you see, every new generation will be considered worse then the previous generation because it is a trend among newer generations to try to act as different as possible form .

What I will say about the new generation (since I and everyone born between 1976–2001 also fall in Generation Y) is that this generation is quiet possibly the most conformed generation of all time. Everyone these days is being spoonfed about what they should do with their lives. . We’ve all been raised by television to believe that we’d be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars Even the act of rebellion itself is a capitlized market these. Back in the 70s, people revolted against things they didnt like with protests. Today they do so by wearing a Black T-Shirt from Hot Topic with a rebellious message on it.

With that said, this generation will be the most successful generation. Look at the high-school drop-out rates and the number of people going to college each year. Its looking good for this new generation.

And quiet frankly, I do not think there is anything wrong with young people to be careless or ignorant. Its part of youth to do things without thinking. Sometimes you just have to be crazy. Sometimes You have to forget about what other people say; when you’re supposed to die, when you’re supposed to be lovin’. You have to forget about all these things. You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven.

@ Chimp711 it depends on your defination of “youth”. I’m young, 21, but the generation I’m referring to is younger than me. Not to say that some of what I said doesnt apply to my generation, but can you think of a group that that doesnt at some point apply to? At some point everyone is careless and responsible at some point.

The youngest generations don’t remember a time when there wasn’t an internet. Granted, there’s a lot of disgusting media out there that a lot of people buy into, but there’s also just a general abundance of information and stimulus out there for developing minds. Each generation sees society change seemingly more radically in expression with all content getting more and more controversial, and it’s now impossible to shield children from all the crap that’s out there. It’s very different even from when we were younger. I guess I’m just optimistic and think the internet will cure all.

I would consider myself part of today youth and I do think that some kids are out of hand, but not all of us are. We have to deal with tones of stuff thm really be to some kids like that social groups at school they flare getting way out of hand. I know of people that don’t like me just because they say me wear the same thing that they ha on one da at school, and those kids will make your life a living he’ll throughout school just because of that. Dealing with all of that drama and the steiotypes, youre expected to be an A student. Yeah right. Not to mention teachers, they are well all from different countries, and you wants to understand them? Youre kiddo g me, right? Now I don’t want you to think I’m playing the pithy me card because Im really not trying to but I k ow that with all of the pressures I have to deal with now sometimes I just want to be alone and somtimes that may seem like I’m depresssed or mad and hate the world but really I just need like an hour or two after school where I can just be myself and not have my mom down my back about things. So if you hve kids and are wondering why they want to be alone an thing thais why. So just give them some time ad if would all be fine. And if they have an older sibling, they are not like them at all, treat them like two different people they don’t do the same things. Just rember that. Oh if you were wondering I’m 15. :)

@ lauralove… you can tell that you’re 15. not only did your grammar and spelling show it but you made no sense in the argument you attempted to make.

Hey, look! The cool senior is picking on the new sophomore!

haha sorry typing on my iPod touch not very good at it but pretty much ithi k that kids do a t lime that but it bs auseof the stuff we have to go through at school ad at home. Its prety much a high school thing, we’ll grow out of it.

wow I really suck at typing on this thing, but I can’t remember what I was trying to say, sorry. I think like we do act like that, whatever you said, bit its because of what we deal with at school and home. But in no way are we less important than other generations, thais from something I read above.