Complaining about the younger generation

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roronoa79
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28 Feb 2021, 11:06 pm

Do any of these quotes seem like they couldn't have been said today?

Horace, 20 BC wrote:
Our sires’ age was worse than our grandsires’. We, their sons, are more worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt

Yoshida Kenko, 1330s wrote:
Modern fashions seem to keep on growing more and more debased … The ordinary spoken language has also steadily coarsened.

Thomas Barnes, 1624 wrote:
Youth were never more sawcie, yea never more savagely saucie . . . the ancient are scorned, the honourable are contemned, the magistrate is not dreaded.

a letter in a French magazine from 1777 wrote:
Whither are the manly vigour and athletic appearance of our forefathers flown? Can these be their legitimate heirs? Surely, no; a race of effeminate, self-admiring, emaciated fribbles can never have descended in a direct line from the heroes of Potiers and Agincourt

Granville Stanley Hall, 1904 wrote:
Never has youth been exposed to such dangers of both perversion and arrest as in our own land and day. Increasing urban life with its temptations, prematurities, sedentary occupations, and passive stimuli just when an active life is most needed, early emancipation and a lessening sense for both duty and discipline


From a young age I picked up on this ages-old cliche of adults complaining about the youths of today like they're unprecedentedly immoral/lazy/self-absorbed. I noticed how it happened to my parents, and their parents' parents, and so on. Yet I grow older and still see people falling into this ancient, cliched fallacy.

Am I losing my mind here?? I noticed this when I was like 8 and swore to not fall into this nonsense.

Do the kids of today annoy me? Plenty of them do! They're kids. I remember how it was and I cut them some slack. I hear people my age complain that our generation was so much more well-behaved and I want to ask them "Were you not paying any attention to anything we did growing up?" Teens have always been rebellious and foolish. It's part of growing up.

Do the kids act in ways I don't approve of because of changes in society? Of course they do! They grew up in an environment with different social mores and technology than their parents did--like us. Their reactions to these things are new and frustrating sometimes. I remember how it was and I cut them some slack.
Nowadays we blame social media.
Before that it was the internet.
Before that it was video games.
Before that it was television.
Before that it was movies.
Before that it was radio.
Before that it was popular literature.
And so on and so on back to the beginnings of society.

I can't possibly be the only one to notice this. Does this not bother anyone else? Is it not irritating to anyone else when members of your generation act like their parents' generation didn't level the same tired, cliched accusations at them?


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goldfish21
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01 Mar 2021, 2:52 am

Yeah, I'm with you.

Noticed the same old cliches. Always irked me, because I like kids & get along with them well - part of why I have tons of God kids + my nephews in my life. Bugs me when people say they hate kids, like wtf? You were a kid once and someone put up with your crap and let you live lol f****r.


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Fireblossom
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01 Mar 2021, 3:47 am

I've noticed this too, but it doesn't really bother me as long my generation's difficulties aren't belittled. It's true that in some ways, my parents' generation had it way harder, but there are also things that are harder for my generation than theirs. I think it's just a part of human nature to compare current times to old times and we end up comparing people while we're at it.



KT67
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01 Mar 2021, 4:39 am

I'm hopeful for this generation.

Bigotry seems rarer.

On a shallower level, there's so much 'aesthetics' stuff out there. Including ones with a focus on a study (I love dark academia myself and I'm 32).

In my day, you either embraced chav stuff or became a goth.

Goths were the ones with brains back in my day. You had to dress that strangely just to be interested in literature over fighting. Of course I did that. Then stupid idiot opticians said 'you do know those dark glasses aren't meant to be a fashion accessory'... of course I did, I was light sensitive :roll:

I like how studying is cool with this generation & bigotry is uncool with this generation.

Of course there's stuff they don't know. But they're kids. No 17 yo likes to be told 'you're a kid' but that doesn't make them not kids to me, a 32 yo. I can be more patient with that lack of knowledge - and preparation to learn - than with older, deliberately anti-intellectual, types.


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Lost_dragon
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01 Mar 2021, 7:27 am

Yeah, I've almost always been aware of this. Personally, I'm technically in gen Z but I'm a cusper (with my sister being gen Y due to our age difference). I find myself feeling stuck in the middle sometimes when I hear generalisations being made about gen Y VS gen Z and I can identify with trends from both groups.

Especially when I go on social media and see videos such as 'Well at least gen Z doesn't do this!" and "Oh yeah? Well at least we don't *insert insignificant thing here*!"

Or "Gen Z remember this but Gen Y remember this other thing" and it'll be two things I remember. I feel rejected by both. :lol:

When older people want to insult me, they'll usually say something degrading about Gen Z, but if younger people want to insult me they'll tell me to go join Gen Y or that I'm "not really Gen Z". There's a lot of gatekeeping that goes on and pride about what generation you are. It's always been this way, fashionable to hate on generations that you're not a part of. Often this is a way of creating a community identity based on age and shared experiences. Still, it's not always particularly clear cut and fashion is a very fickle thing that repeats itself. It can descend into toxicity.

No generation is ideal. The older generations have faults, the newer ones do, and the ones that will follow sure will too.


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kraftiekortie
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01 Mar 2021, 9:02 am

I'm a Baby Boomer (Generation Jones subset)....I don't see much difference, really, between people of previous and subsequent generations.

It's ridiculous to generalize about individuals when it comes to generational tendencies.

I've met quite a few nice Gen Z-ers, and more than enough irritating Baby Boomers....



CockneyRebel
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01 Mar 2021, 4:02 pm

I have many hopes when I hear about today's generation. There's less bigotry and discrimination. Today's youth are more accepting of everybody than my generation was. I couldn't walk down the street wearing a T-shirt with a German flag, 20 years ago. That was still very frowned upon. People are less likely to make ignorant noises to my face than they were even 10 years ago. More mothers are keeping their babies, whether they have a disability or not and I think that's a good thing. Autistic people who are non-verbal are now part of the work force. Gays and lesbians are now able to get married in most parts of North America. Trans people are starting to get treated as they are instead of how they look. The world is also a wall to wall mosaic of multiculturalism.


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goldfish21
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01 Mar 2021, 4:19 pm


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