How are you different from your elders?

Question

Now that I have lured you all in…

What are your thoughts on the current state of our youth? When observing changes in the society, what differentiates the current youth from the Baby-Boomer generation (for most of you, your parent’s generation) aside from age?

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How are you different from your parents when they were kids?

Answer 1

To be honest, I don't talk to a lot of youth, so I can't say for certain what's going on in their minds. Allz I see is what's in the media and on the street in observation. One thing is clear, though, they do demand respect and don't like to give it. Also, girls walk around with skin-hugging clothing, cut up to here, down to there, etc. I don't like it one bit. This gives the boys the idea that this is what a girl is supposed to dress like. Whenever I go to the mall, all I see are young kids, and almost all the girls are dressed like prostitutes.

If you look at music videos, the guys are dressed in baggy clothing, and EVERY ONE of the girls is dressed like a hootch and gyrating and shaking her stuff for the guy's entertainment. I'm afraid the youth take this for normal, which it ISN'T.

How am I different from my elders? They were Catholic, I'm Baha'i. Other than that, I like to seek new points of view, rather than going with conventional wisdom right away and not consider another alternative. I'm not knocking conventional wisdom, I use it often. I'm saying that I like looking at possibilities before making a decision.

I'm 37, not a baby boomer and not yough either. Lol, I'm a Generation-X'er.

Answer 2

Todays young generation seem to be a bit more Disrespectful, Selfish, Ungrateful, Uncaring, don`t want Responsibilities, No Shame in their game. that`s the "now generation", tire easily Very impatient, not all of them, but a great many of them have these type characteristics opposed to the boomers, but I blame most it on us, (the boomers).On the other hand, unlike our boomer gener. The now generation Matures a lot faster,and are computer smart,more outgoing, get to own more cars,they have and spend more money than we did at their age.

Answer 3

One thing is money. Sometimes, I'll be talking to my grandmother about jobs these days & specific fields. And she asked about how much they pay. I'll say, for example, an entry level job in a particular field is $30,000 a year. She doesn't realize that in today's terms, that really isn't alot of money. She just says, "You can't expect to go out there and get top dollar right away." To her, because of her generation, a $30,000 salary right out of school is the same as $80,000.

So, the concept of dollar amounts is very different, especially if the elder isn't taking into consideration that the cost of living has gone up since they were my age. And with it, to a degree, so has the income. It's not that she isn't aware of things, just doesn't look at the whole current picture of the job market. As a result, she thinks I tend to expect some astronomical income.

Answer 4

The only new thing since the baby boom and 70s is the new and improved gangster. Now they are rap gangsters instead of Frankie Sinatra gangsters!

Personally, I have fun with mom, because she is from the old days. She needs to be enlightened.

But back to your question, our youth are looking for an identity and we look at them doing drugs as bad and ridiculous. But we find hippies as heros for doing it. The classy rich folk of the 50s 60s and 70s were that way toward the hippies and we look at them as too rigid. We need to become enlightened too toward our youth and their drugs. It is a stage that will make and shape their identities. Without it, our future generations will not be able to look back and say, my mom or dad was one of those rapper gangsters.

Answer 5

Humans always pride themselves to be a higher species because of their ability to think and make decisions. In my opinion, the ability to think is starting to get in the way of our lives. Because people think, and everyone think differently, quarrels and fights are started. Because people think, their school essays get discredited; students are not supposed to think, they are supposed to 'think' like people of the past who had written some books or some form of evidence and include those in the essays. Because people think, those who don't think have to conform to the ideas of the former. Because people think, they cannot come to a decision about some things and it will always be there, never-ending, never gonna be solved. Because people think. Too much in fact. Wouldn't it be good if everyone just do things without thinking too much? Go for it. On impulse. On instinct. Would that make things better? Look what has all the thinking done to us. Yes, we have the technology, the entertainment and everything else which people of the past did not have but we no longer have the simplicity in people. I'm not saying that people in the past did not think but they were smarter. They don't think so much. What's the point of thinking so much and still no conclusion and decision could be made? Doesn't that make you feel worse?

Bottomline: we think too much. Don't k. To whoever this is applicable to.

Answer 6

The current state of our youth is frightening. Their parents are from the first generation of "daycare" children and "latch-key" kids. Their parents raised themselves, and they were not given any moral fiber with which to raise their own children.

Our children are nothing more than Orphans with parents or one parent or whatever adult decided they didn't have to be somewhere else at the very minute they had children.

Answer 7

I'm an athiest bisexual feminist artist who doesn't eat meat. pretty much the exact opposite of my elders.

If you look at how much the media (in all it's forms) influences young people today, you'll see why we're different than past generations, where most influence came from parents and family.

Answer 8

Youth today are modernized due to computers, MP3s unlike our elders who just have radios and TVs,
Youth today are diminishing in moral values due to exposure on sex and violence unlike our elders who are conservatives and afraid of religious teachings, and
Youth today are dynamic because they adopt to changes unlike the elders who do not even want to learn the intricacies of computers.

Answer 9

Respect is what comes to mind.

Today's youth have issues with respect, demanding it, not wanting to give it when it's due and harming others in the name of it.

Answer 10

todays kids have no respect or proper parenting. children having children. gangs and kids at 8 shooting each other. society is not at fault but the parents. the upbringing is how the child turns out. my mother died when i was three. my father never had much time for us as relatives helped raise us. i swore i would never be like my father, never there or emotionally. beat on us. it was the fifties and sixties. times when everything was considered ok to do or was behind closed doors. i loved my kids and helped them as they needed it. i taught them that to do it on your own you learn more than having everything bought for you. from my first car to going through college. i worked full time and went 20 credits a semester. owned my own little 5 bedroom house i restored. i taught my kids how you feel better about yourself, but don't take crap from anyone. there is no respect for kids today as they have no respect in themselves. they are lazy, selling drugs as they want the fast buck instead of the honest one. find them dead or in jail all the time. in our times we had respect for elders and we knew they went to war. today, you get the punks who think their bad and get their butts kicked from our generations who was in nam and desert storms.