Kids These Days (Episode 6)

Hey.
I'm grumpy today.

You want to know why?  Kids.  I actually saw a kid today, probably a group of those hormonal teenagers having a good time (tsk!) and they did something that I would have NEVER done when I was their age!!

Which is... right now.  I am one of those pesky kids and I do not tolerate adults degrading and undermining teenagers, as all of you know from my various posts.  If you haven't read them yet, here you go, episodes 1-5, go read them:

Episode 1 (These are the best years of your life)
Episode 2 (Phones)
Episode 3 (What do you want to be when you grow up?)
Boobs
Episode 5 (Relationships)

Alright, welcome to Episode 6!  I started drafting this after one too many high school teachers used the phrase, 'kids these days' (or something to that effect) and I realized I would love nothing more than to take that teacher by the shoulders...smile and be ever-so-prissy and polite... And scream, "WHAT'S SO WRONG WITH BEING A KID?!"

"Well, there's nothing wrong with beig a kid, per say, but, you see, kids nowadays are-"

No, shut up.  Yes, I said 'shut up'.  Yes, I have an attitude.  When you generalize my brothers and sisters and thereby demean their name, I'm going to have an attitude!  You want to know what kids these days are?

• Kids these days are growing up in the most technologically advanced age ever recorded in human history
• Kids these days would love to learn, but they've been taught that 'learning' is based in STEM memorization and standardized testing
• Kids these days are watching the world with apathetic eyes; they have grown up hearing about 9/11 and school shootings and once cared.  They had since learned that their heart can't take every blow
• Kids these days still want to smile and enjoy the world.  They love their fads just as much as you did when you were their age
• Kids these days are able to smile for a camera while people tsk and call them the 'selfie generation', the 'me generation'
• Kids these days are picked apart like frogs in biology lab, their every notion studied as if they were a creature from another planet not a human with their mind and ideals
• Kids these days are one of the most desirable demographic in history and are advertised to accordingly
• Kids these days grew up with both parents working, generally
• Kids these days have people calling them 'the hook up generation', and yet were never taught about proper love (also, many of them have divorced parents!)
• Kids these days are not responsible for previous generations' mistakes and poor parenting
• Kids these days listened to the news reports of millennials being written off as lazy no-goods and wondered how they could possibly be different
• Kids these days go to school to prepare for tests, do sports to get scholarships, and join clubs for their college application forms, and yet kids these days know that a degree does not mean a job
• Kids these days grew up with the open option of being gay for the first time in world history (whether you agree with that or not does not make it go away)
• Kids these days have a more diverse set of opinions than ever before and you're therefore more likely to meet somebody that doesn't agree with your every political-meme-inspired talking point
• Kids these days have been taught that naked supermodels selling something as silly as socks on billboards is normal
• Kids these days dress the same as we always have; fashion evolves the same as technology and people have been calling outfits scandalous since we learned to put together outfits.  Lots of skin is attractive now the way a tiny corset waist and massive bustle skirt were attractive to those in the past.
• Kids these days are dress coded because thats easier than teaching what consent is
• Kids these days know not to cave into peer pressure, but do they know to not peer pressure in the first place?
• Kids these days enjoy their technology, but believe it or not, do go outside.  Look!  Here's a picture to prove it:

#blessed #fidgetspinner #selfie #duckface #AreTheyAnnoyedYet #triggered

• Kids these days are able to befriend people across the planet with a click of a button
• Kids these days communicate differently than adults did, but different (does not equal symbol) bad
• Kids these days cannot vote yet, but their voice matters just as much as yours
• Kids these days are still kids; you can't mark off a whole generation before they're even grown

I want you to know something, and I want it to be engrained in your memory until you no longer look at young 'hoodlums' with sour eyes and judge them for their smiles and new-fangled ways:  The phrase, "kids these days," has been around since the beginning of time.

Every generation distrusts the inventions of the next.  Before there was wifi, there were phones and computers, then telegrams, then letters.  Life evolves and in this rapidly changing world?  Kids have to evolve with it.

Another note, before I end off.  This phrase, 'kids these days' has another effect: self isolation.  Even if it is just used as a throw-away talking point, it instantly fills every teenage heart with the feeling of guilt and makes you want to scream, "I am not like them!"

At this point, you might be saying, "But Noelle, it's just a phrase?!  God, you kids make such a big deal out of every little thing!"

Thanks.  But if it really is, 'just a phrase,' then how does it degrade a whole generation in one fell swoop?  How does it make me want to deny my existence in favour of, 'I'm not like them, I'm an good kid!'

Conclusion: a throw-away phrase that HURTS

Diagnosis:  we are individuals, not a stereotype.  Don't judge us, and if you must judge us, judge us individually.  Not as a generation, not as the image of surly disinterest that the media presents us as.

Sincerely,

Teenagers

P.S.

Hope you liked this post!  If you did, share it with your friends, and let me know in the comments what other phrases or topics you'd like me to tackle!  Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day