I remember being in my teens and would hear from people 10-12 years older than me, that they had more respect when they were our age (14) at the time. Now im 30 in London, I find it crazy to hear how younger kids speak to each other, and the level of disregard shown to others around them. Maybe it’s me, but is this a common thought?
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There are quotes from ancient Greeks over 2000 years ago complaining about the younger generations not having the respect or civility of their elders. It’s always been like this.
Yep it’s beyond a common thought. It’s been well documented throughout history as a phenomenon.
I’m 22 and recently had my first ‘kids these days’ moment when I was getting off the bus with a lot of schoolkids, and none of them said thank you to the driver. But that was probably happening years ago too, when I was a kid.
As /u/jaraxo says, it is common to feel like this.
As I have often said in these forums though, I have surprisingly found the opposite. It has amazed me for decades now how nice, polite and good-spirited young people are. I always thought I’d turn into a ‘country’s going to the dogs’ type of person, but I really have not….
Kids today are way nicer than when I was a kid (I’m late 30s). I find they’re generally more respectful and considerate. There are, of course, still dickhead kids around. But in my experience, they’re much less common.
I think that notion has always been around but personally I feel that kids are a bit kinder and nicer today. Obviously there will always be some that are just awful but in general they seem less savage than 20 years ago.
Why can’t they be like we were,
Perfect in every way,
Oh, what’s the matter with kids today?
[The 2,500-Year-Old History of Adults Blaming the Younger Generation](https://historyhustle.com/2500-years-of-people-complaining-about-the-younger-generation/amp/)
It’s as much a way of life as every generation saying that music was better in their day and now everything sounds the same.
I feel the opposite but its probably my environment. When I was younger I was round people my own age, most were annoying horribly chavvy bigoted cunts.
In my 30’s, I live in a nicer area and go places kids and teenagers have no interest in going to (for example they don’t flock to an independent coffee shop but they will absolutely cram into a train station McDonald’s). The only time I’m near young people is things like public transport, and I don’t see them as being much worse.
Teenagers are now taken in by vanity, reality shows, fitness, social networks, video games. When I was a teenager, these types didn’t really care about that stuff and would rather hang about the streets and hassle people. I much prefer the new quieter digital teenagers.
Millennial here, I honestly think the next generation are way more respectful than mine was. Hating young people is for boomers.
It’s a common complaint.
I don’t notice most kids. Occasionally there’ll be some on the bus acting up, but it’s rare and I’d have been badly behaved in public at times too.
You don’t notice the well behaved kids minding their own business.
Gen X, I think generations go through exactly the same phases. I personally have a lot of time for GenZ.
I think that’s because most people don’t notice most kids just quietly going about their days. You only see the ones who are rude, loud or obnoxious.
I run events and the vast majority of the kids who attend my events are polite, friendly and kind. I find the parents a nightmare to deal with but the kids are great.
Conversely, in my local area I’m convinced every child is the spawn of satan because we’ve got a small group of troublemakers. There’s enough kids in total for my tiny settlement to have a school and I couldn’t pick out the majority of kids in the area and say “yeah he lives in this area”, but the troublemakers make me “hate children”.
Personally I think old people/adults are more disrespectful now than they were when I was a kid.
> 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 (469–399 B.C.)
So yeah
Remember that on a spectrum of “piece of shit” to “little angel”, you *probably* fell somewhere in the middle as a child, since that’s how averages work.
For you to actually notice the behaviour of a child it probably has to be toward one of the extremes of that scale. And then it’s more likely to be the “piece of shit” side because that’s the one more likely to exhibit loud and disruptive behaviour
So ignoring generational trends and looking at pure probability, at any given point in time you’re generally going to have people who were “alright” kids themselves noticing nothing but “piece of shit” kids as adults and convincing themselves the younger generation is terrible
I wonder if some of it is shifting use of language. I was only talking to my brother (we’re 29 and 20) the other day about how older people texting reads differently to a younger person, and different again to someone about the same age as us, because there are different conventions in writing.
There’s a couple of Tom Scott videos about it:
[Why “No Problem” Can Seem Rude: Phatic Expressions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnH0KAXhCw)
[why typing like this is sometimes okay.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS4X1JfX6_Q)
We used to give shit to adults and throw stuff at their cars. I find kids these days are more reserved. In fact I hardly see kids playing out these days, I just think it’s a thing for older people to complain about younger people.
I mean it depends on perspective.
When my parents were younger people would literally just set things on fire, not care about litter at all or vandalise things for the fun of it.
That still happens now but I think people are more aware of issues and aren’t as egotistical, on average.
I mean there’s no point comparing sensible adults to kids anyways, it’s worth comparing what each generation was like in their youth.
Tbh I find most of the kids nowadays nerdy as anything. No happy slapping and hardly any teenage pregnancies.
The level of respect is probably pretty similar. The levels, types and rapid escalation to violence however, seems to be waaay worse
I find kids respectful. The ones you aren’t normally have problems at home. Same as when I was growing up 2,000 years BC
We were all kinda dicks at that age
No, I’d argue that they’re actually nicer and more educated.
I’d rather deal with a bunch of kids/teens at once than one entitled old fart who thinks the world revolves around them.
My 14 year old son couldn’t believe that all boy and all girl schools were the norm in the 1980s. His first reaction was to show concern about how tough it must have been for people who didn’t identify as their birth gender…… I didn’t have the heart to tell him what would likely have happened to a teenage boy in a 1980s all boys secondary school who announced he wanted to be a girl.
But you say “in London now” which makes me think you grew up elsewhere. As a born and bred londoner I would say that kids probably are either more clued up and sensitive than in my age or just as bad, I don’t think they are worse…but then we were pretty rude to each other back then
There seems to be much less of a spirit of rebellion and hellraising attitudes among younger people lately, they’re more likely to be online playing games alone in their room than rampaging around town, as was tradition. I also have encountered more polite, thoughtful teenagers recently than ever before. Small rural town, so not really representative.
Just more cringe.