Another report from the
February 27, 2007 9:13 PM   Subscribe

New York Magazine says it, science confirms it: the kids aren't alright.
posted by keswick (43 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: a CNN link to bolster something you said already? Not good.



 
I blame rock and roll.
posted by Stan Chin at 9:17 PM on February 27, 2007


We're all alright! We're all alright!
posted by amyms at 9:23 PM on February 27, 2007


Speak for yourself, amyms.
posted by lekvar at 9:28 PM on February 27, 2007


NEWSFLASH: We Americans still hate our young.

Where's the front page post about how much more violent people in their 30s are than teenagers?
posted by Critical_Beatdown at 9:28 PM on February 27, 2007


Yeah, America isn't obsessed with youth at all.
posted by keswick at 9:30 PM on February 27, 2007


So the big question is, what are we gonna do about it?

I say we eat 'em.
posted by carsonb at 9:31 PM on February 27, 2007


I'm confused. Isn't the New York Magazine's article's point that it's pretty different, but not necessarily bad?

That said, I've seen the work ethic of "average" college students decline in the last 10 years. I do feel the pressure in academia to cater to the so-called "millenial" student who may like "multimedia" more than books and find classroom instruction "uncomfortable".
posted by ontic at 9:32 PM on February 27, 2007


Speak for yourself, amyms.

Well, okay, I confess, I'm not alright either... But I thought enthusiasm and self-delusion counted for something!
posted by amyms at 9:33 PM on February 27, 2007


I think they used my roommate as a case study, as he doesn't give anything about anyone else.

Anyway, in unrelated news... WTF kind of photography is that?
posted by daninnj at 9:33 PM on February 27, 2007


Those damn kids, with their...youth..and..music..

And stuff.
posted by Cyclopsis Raptor at 9:36 PM on February 27, 2007


This is members of one spoiled generation (and only the ones with the resources to do so--not the majority) spoiling their own kids and perpetuating the cycle. It's not like it's a new thing.
posted by amberglow at 9:37 PM on February 27, 2007


suppossed...to...say....

something about...my lawn?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:39 PM on February 27, 2007


The "Me Generation" begets "Generation Me"--it's a surprise?
posted by amberglow at 9:39 PM on February 27, 2007


An FPP where the lead link is to a comment made by the poster about narcissism and self-centeredness?

MetaJoke, right?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:43 PM on February 27, 2007


oops, it was supposed to go the main FPP. hopefully matt and jess will fix it.
posted by keswick at 9:46 PM on February 27, 2007


Where's the front page post about how much more violent people in their 30s are than teenagers?

That story will never be printed.. and im *SOOOO* angry about it!
posted by MrLint at 9:47 PM on February 27, 2007


But... I am special.
posted by blacklite at 9:48 PM on February 27, 2007


"We need to stop endlessly repeating 'You're special' and having children repeat that back," said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. "Kids are self-centered enough already."

Did that really start just 20 years ago? I thought it was popular in the 70s as well as the 80s.

Anyway.
posted by delmoi at 9:49 PM on February 27, 2007


NEWSFLASH: We Americans still hate our young.

Not as much as the young hate, detest, and do everything humanly possible to insult the middle-aged.

You think you're being discriminated against at 16, wait until you're 40. Suddenly you become stupid and worthless (except when something has to be paid). You're ugly, you dress funny (said by people who FUCKING SHAVE THEIR PUBIC HAIR so it doesn't peek out from their JEANS), and you act weird because you're not spending thousands of dollars a year to follow every worthless fad. If you're a woman, you're suddenly considered an ultra-conservative, fat, hideous, retarded housewife who does nothing but eat Cheetos and watch Oprah.

Ageism towards the young by the older generations is a fact, but ageism by the young towards the older generations is also a fact.
posted by watsondog at 9:51 PM on February 27, 2007


I am special...
I am special...
You fuck off...
You fuck off...
Everybody loves me...
Everybody loves me...
You just fail...
You just fail...

Now buy me something off my wishlist, bitches...
posted by Samizdata at 9:54 PM on February 27, 2007


So young people today think that they're special and they can live how they want to. Oh no!

When the alternative is to be a replaceable cog in a dehumanizing machine, a little narcissism and self-centeredness seems like a pretty good alternative.
posted by tehgubner at 10:00 PM on February 27, 2007


Am not.
posted by Samizdata at 10:00 PM on February 27, 2007


I used to think my daughter's friends were a mess until I met their parents, at which point the kids suddenly seemed remarkably resilient and high-achieving to have overcome such obstacles in life.

Parents cause amazing amounts of damage.
posted by dglynn at 10:02 PM on February 27, 2007


You know what, this kinda stuff was interesting when Aristophanes was writing it. These youngsters can't harp properly on youth anymore. "Hey you! You talk with a funny lisp like Alcibiades." Now there's a proper way to insult those younger than you! That's comedy gold right there!
posted by Kattullus at 10:02 PM on February 27, 2007


For years now, I have been of the option that the last three or four generations have been horrified at the generations following, not because they were simply Old and Out of Touch, but rather because the kids actually WERE worse.

Just because a decline has been going on for a long time doesn't make it any less real.

Remember, these are psychologists who have studied more than one generation; it's not just parents talking about their specific children, it's researchers talking about a LOT of children, over a long period of time.

When even the objective measurements are coming back that 'kids suck', and that 'kids suck more than they used to suck', maybe it's about damn time we accepted that the decline is real and start working on, you know, reversing it.

It's not just something to joke about. It's real. Pay attention.
posted by Malor at 10:15 PM on February 27, 2007 [1 favorite]


liquorice, I find that I can communicate with people in the non-internet world much better now that I'm middle-aged. Youth can be stupidly distracting, for better or worse.
posted by maryh at 10:20 PM on February 27, 2007


Sorry, Malor, I wouldn't want to make fun of people who say my generation sucks. I'll try to be more alarmed by fluctuations in survey answers.
posted by Citizen Premier at 10:31 PM on February 27, 2007


Kids these days! ::shakes head::
posted by moonbiter at 10:39 PM on February 27, 2007


The new report follows a study released by UCLA last month which found that nearly three-quarters of the freshmen it surveyed thought it was important to be "very well-off financially." That compared with 62.5 percent who said the same in 1980 and 42 percent in 1966.

Sold-out ex-hippies throw a hissy fit because their kids realized that bill payments don't grow on parental trees sooner than they did (thanks, I suspect, to childhoods spent with too many naïve ideals and too little food). News at fucking eleven.

When even the objective measurements are coming back that 'kids suck', and that 'kids suck more than they used to suck', maybe it's about damn time we accepted that the decline is real and start working on, you know, reversing it.

You tell 'em! Never mind that youth violence is at its lowest in decades — these kids prioritize their own interests, a crime obviously far worse than the innocent robbery, rape, and murder of which your generation was so fond! And they believe in the serial comma — when will the madness end?
posted by IshmaelGraves at 10:44 PM on February 27, 2007


"If I ruled the world, it would be a better place,"

Damn right it would. (Well, at least for me)
posted by IronLizard at 11:00 PM on February 27, 2007


It's not so much about how I'm special, it's just that everyone else is so mediocre.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 11:01 PM on February 27, 2007


Study also confirms that Sloth, Lust also present in majority of teenagers. Panel suggests "Seven Deadly Sins" education in schools.
posted by tehloki at 11:03 PM on February 27, 2007


What does "very well off financially" mean? According to my own definition, you don't have to be that to pay your fucking bills, already. Earning a modest income will do that just fine. But what is a modest income?

Science!
posted by raysmj at 12:08 AM on February 28, 2007


Ishamael: Violent crime has increased in almost every major metropolitan area over the last couple of years.
posted by raysmj at 12:09 AM on February 28, 2007


I'll bite: Increased compared to what? Compared to what it was in the last 10 years? To crime in Victorian-age London? Ancient Rome?

This is what bothers me about studies like this: by what objective standards are the researchers judging what better and worse is? Going by the standard of what is more adaptive for living in the modern world, with it's high rate of technological and social change, the traits these kids are showing are not necessarily bad.

When a researcher says this-or-that is bad for society you know he's full of it, because that matter has certainly not Settled by Science™. It's politics. That's what the whole flippin' culture war is about. And since there is no agreement on this matter, how can any research be done using it as a baseline?
posted by moonbiter at 12:51 AM on February 28, 2007


Ishamael: Violent crime has increased in almost every major metropolitan area over the last couple of years.

Cite, please.

For nearly every young person with a "problem" there's a set of parents that helped them nurture it.
posted by maxwelton at 1:15 AM on February 28, 2007 [1 favorite]


NEWSFLASH: We Americans still hate our young.

You've got nothing on the English where being a kid is a crime with automatic conviction.
posted by srboisvert at 1:31 AM on February 28, 2007 [1 favorite]


I think I am a special person.
I can live my life any way I want to.


Must ... root ... out ... pernicious ... myths.
Otherwise ... next ... generation ... will ... impede ... production.
posted by joe lisboa at 2:52 AM on February 28, 2007


How many people would respond to these questions seriously?

Indeed. Doesn't everyone lie to people with clipboards?

And really, answering these questions in the positive is an idicator of narcissicm? Because, answering them in the negative is revealing:

"If I ruled the world, it would be a better place,"

No way, kiddo, George W. and the spineless Democratic congress have sold your country out to corporate interests, embroilled us in a neverending, poinless war, and funnelled wealth up from the middle class to the mega-rich for the good of everyone!

"I think I am a special person"

Look, kid, you're not special. You're a cog in the wheel. The best you can hope for is middle management. Get used to kissing corporate ass and feeling like a waste of space because your job is to sell people shitr they don't want for money they don't have.

"I can live my life any way I want to."

And finally, kids, if the past two election cycles have taught us nothing else, it's that your country is still filled with narrow, fearful bigots who don't approve of teh gay.
posted by eustacescrubb at 3:47 AM on February 28, 2007 [1 favorite]


something about...my lawn?

I think I left a scooter on it?
posted by dmt at 4:30 AM on February 28, 2007


"My difficulty with the current 'anti-social agenda' is that adults invariably fail to take responsibility for childhood, and they blame the children. That's why this whole discourse is so unjust. What these children want is not snazzy sports centres and computer courses. They need loving human beings that they can come into contact with. Nobody is prepared to pay for or invest in that, but this is what these children are starved of. They're starved of gentle, kind, thoughtful human contact."
Addressing a UK iteration of the moral panic about youth, but I think it's what we need to be thinking about. If we want to have societies which share values across generations then we have to engage unselfishly ourselves. These children are growing up in a world we have had a large hand in making.
posted by Abiezer at 4:37 AM on February 28, 2007


the kids aren't alright

yes, they're squabbling like children, grabbing everything they can, calling each other names, giving into greed and avarice, treating other people like objects, threatening each other over stupid shit like lifestyles, and running this world right into the ground as they bicker narcissistically about which one has the most toys and deserves even more ...

no ... wait ... that's MY generation
posted by pyramid termite at 4:48 AM on February 28, 2007


oops, it was supposed to go the main FPP. hopefully matt and jess will fix it.
posted by keswick at 12:46 AM EST on February 28


*This post is not about me, no really, it isn't.
posted by caddis at 5:02 AM on February 28, 2007


« Older Repair your carbon credit, cheap   |   Step Up to the Rad Monkey. Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments