What drastic differences do you see in the youth of today as compared to when you were a youngster..?

Question

Some differences that really jump out at you?

The common denominator in most answers was "lack of respect"..interesting!!

To:Justme:..Scary, it is..I agree.

Answer 1

In my days:
1) all were expected to at least pass grade level, if I were to bring home a 'C" on a report card, I had some fancy explaining to do, and "the teacher doesn't like me" never cut it
2) WE all could read decently, do math decently, knew geography, could tell you where any country was without looking at a globe, and we could all write coheretly...we may not have been the best spellers, but we were not the worst, either. AND That was with an 8th grade education
3) We had cliques, but not malicious gangs. One Murder was headline news, and we were NOT picked on because we made good grades, and in fact, were admired....
4) We could leave the house and be gone all day without our parents worried sick that we had been abducted. I had total freedom on my bike to go wherever I wanted. Shoplifting was not a sport, and getting into trouble with the police meant getting into much worse trouble at home
5) IF we wanted to make extra money, we worked after school..a paper route, working retail, bus boy, waiter, clean up duty at a shop, clean up at filling stations, etc. WE did not sell drugs, and in fact, I had no idea what drugs were.
6) WE didn't drink...there were no drinking parties in my town!
7) I spent every summer of my school life with a job. IF I had the family car fo ra date, I earned it by doing the lawn, raking leaves, helping clean the house, weeding, painting, etc. NOTHING was free in life.
8) IF I got in trouble, my parents were not there to bail me out..they were waiting for me and that is when the real trouble started
9) At 10 1/2 years old, I was responsible enough to baby sit my brother..and I ran a tight ship. AT age 14, I cared for babies, changed diapers, etc. while my parents ran the tavern they owned...and I could NOT go to sleep until they came home...I was paid 50¢ an hour to do this, and welcomed the money
10) I was expected to get very good grades so that I could to to a state university! and I did...there was NO fiddling with what was expected.
11) My parents did not expect my teachers to be baby sitters. IF I got into trouble, my parents did not head over to the school and raise hell, threaten lawsuits!
12) My parents took the job of parenting seriously..they did not dump it onto everyone within sight! They did not lavish me with gifts in an attempt to buy love, and in fact, made it well known that I would behave in such a way that was acceptable. If I were rude to an elder, I caught hole hell and was made to appologize immediately. Thinking back on it, my parents did nothing to "win" my love, their job was to raise a responsible person in life, and the love part just came along with the job. IT was not tantamount in our family that we all hug and kiss, the words "love" were not thrown around, it was just assumed that love was part of the deal.
Today, Parents dont' really seem to give a damn what happens to their kids, as long as they buy them the lastest and greatest game sets, cars, give them far too much money, and god forbid, the kid has to get a job. Kids are leaving school knowning nothing, not even able to get a job at McDonalds, becasue they have no idea how to make change! .. If a register doens't tell them the change, they are lost. NOT all kids are like this, but far too many leave school, frustrated that they know nothing, know full well they threw away a future, and know full well the only thing they are equiped to do is sell drugs to others...at this rate, everyone will be a drug dealer and on one will be a customer. IF I had to guess, i would say that the future generations will havel at most, 5% to pick from for their business leaders and politicians, for the other 95% will be too ignorant to do anything bu meanial labor. The US has set forth policies that are completely out of kilter wth life. 'no child left behind" is a ridiculous concept.. if a child cannot perform to grade level, it does thm a huge harm to cast them into the next grade where they can do nothing but fall farther behind, becoming so frustrated that they drop out of school ..a very, very sad situation has arisen in the US , and it began in the early 60's, has gone downhill ever since! Goldwing

Answer 2

I can answer this very simply. I was a youth 20 years ago, as you can see, I turned out fine. ha ha Parents were better parents in my day. They had better priorities that put the family first, not financial gain. Youth today are spoiled rotten because their mums and dads are too busy working to look after them. It's a more materialistic world we live in. Parents buy their children crap instead of spending time with them. Or they put them in front of the telly or a play station. Then they wonder why their kiddies are failing at school and become juvenile delinquents. And is anyone happier for all the stuff that they have today? No

Answer 3

It is unfortunate that todays youth seem to have no limits on anything. Perents don't want to parent, they want to be "cool" with their kids. Todays youth have an advantage that we did not, they can call social services and report "abuse" if they get paddled. We KNEW we would get punished in someway by the police, parents or school system.
We played outside and got a lot of excercise. I don't remember too many TV programs because TV was a limited luxury. Our rooms did not have the latest tech devices and if we crossed out parents, those small luxuries would be taken away. "Go to your room " meant something, not, OK, well I can play on the computer, watch TV, download music to my Ipod , watch a DVD talk on the phone. WE got the switch or the paddle and were grounded. We worked part time jobs when we were in school to buy the things we WANTED, our parents didn't hand them to us. We learned the value of a buck We didn't feel a sense of "entitlement" that people owed us something and they HAD to buy us the latest thing.

Answer 4

I find the new generation of youth more intelligent and quick minded when compared to their counterpart of fifties and sixties. They pay more attention for better upkeep of their health.. Mechanically they are more skillful and they have better risk taking capacity. They are now so smart that cheats have difficulty in befooling them.They are more travelled and can understand the ways of different people much faster.Tolerance level is much low in them. They have very little respect for their elders. The new generation further think that they possess all the knowledge in the world and experiences of their elders has zero value in current era.They are a selfish lot and never entertain any desire to make a sacrifice for other members of the family or the society.They do not have any respect for the womenfolk as we did 50 years back.

Answer 5

How they spend their spare time. I remember when the kids got home from school, they would change into their "play clothes" and head outside to play baseball, kickball, hide & go seek, and countless other games. They were always busy and they would be active non-stop until sunset. Now, the majority of today's youth just plop themselves down in front of the TV, video games, computers and spend hours on end not moving anything but their fingers. That's just one thing that jumps out at me. But, as other have mentioned, there are several more!

Answer 6

It would take far less space for me to outline the similarities. There are many youngsters today who have been brought up in loving families where the parents took a genuine interest in the children and who instilled values in them. The parents were there for the children when they were needed, and gave them freedom where it was warranted and discipline when it was warranted.

Most kids today have not had these advantages and it shows.

Answer 7

We had a very interesting article in our paper. We have been having huge problems with "drinking and drugging parties" while parents are working......the teacher took the approach of not lecturing them on doing it...but how would they handle it if someone ODd...or something else went wrong......these kids answered they would take their friend and dump them in a dumpster, rather than get help because they didn't want to get in trouble. Did not care about anything but what they wanted for that moment. Made me sick.

They felt it was fine to dump friends in strange places once they outlived their usefulness....if you get my drift. (Unconscious girl....car load of guys) She deserved it....what else would you expect guys to do in that situation? I mean sickening. No respect for life or property or anything. I pity this world when they are in charge with this sort of thinking. There are some really decent kids.....but I'm seeing this attitude be the most prevalent. Rude, arrogant, selfish.....thank heavens I do see the nice ones....they give me hope.

Answer 8

Drug use seems to be regarded as "normal". Binge drinking the same. They have a sense of being entitled to do whatever they like or want. I don't think we had that in the early 60's when I was a teenager.

I would not say that I am frightened of them, I usually get along fine with the ones I know - but I do feel that we are living on different planets from them.

Answer 9

The youth of today do not take time to be children anymore, in other words they grow up to fast . Also they have a lack of RESPECT for others,but our world as we use to see it has also changed drastically. It takes change to bring about change.

Answer 10

It's terribly sad for me as I see the youth of today as people with a sense on entitlement that is unbelievable. There doesn't seem to be any respect or accountability anymore. It seems to me that this nation now has a bunch of predators that have no remorse on their hands. People are afraid of their own children... It's terrible to have to fear a child!

I don't meant to say that there aren't some wonderful kids out there... I just don't see them very often, and the news never seems to report on them!