When can you start complaining about the youth of today?

[AJS-]

As per the title.
I'm in my early 30s and it seems odd to hear people who are significantly younger than myself moaning about the youth of today.

So what seems like a decent age to you?

[Fort Jefferson]

If you're only 30, how can anybody be significantly younger?

[Riley Blue]

Never - we were all young once.

[AJS-]

Fort Jefferson said:

If you're only 30, how can anybody be significantly younger?

I suppose that depends on your interpretation of significant

I would say a 21 year old is significantly younger than me, and at 21 you are the youth of today, hence have no business complaining about them.

[carmonk]

Whoa, some early starters. In my early 40s now I feel like I can, but in my 30s and earlier I was out there boozing and giving it large alongside them. Not doing anything criminal, of course, but unfortunately it had to be said I fitted in pretty well.

[GTIR]

Riley Blue said:

Never - we were all young once.

Word.

Wot Mr Blue says.

Every generation complains about the youngsters. "When I were a lad" etc etc.

Shut up. We don't care man.

[Cock Womble 7]

As soon as you find yourself thinking "Blimey, doesn't that copper look young?"

[Baryonyx]

In your 20's. By my early twenties the generation gap was obvious. The youth had become such a disgrace in such a short space of time and I was quite glad to be working full time and having nothing to do with them!

[43034]

I'm currently 17 and I do it now

[Willy Nilly]

Most young people (teens) I meet are decent enough. Barmaid in the pub I was in today was really pleasant and did her job well. We get a number of teenagers in our running club and they are all good sorts.

There are quite a lot of old (70 +) people that are really rude.

[carmonk]

On the roads at least I've found that the chavs are the most polite. I don't think I've ever let a chav out, or given way, without them saying thanks. Compare that with about half of the rest of the population, and about 5% of botox-faced 4x4-driving peroxide slappers.

[Special K]

Cock Womble 7 said:

As soon as you find yourself thinking "Blimey, doesn't that copper look young?"

I was pulled over the other day and thought exactly this.

[carmadgaz]

Started in my late teens when I started noticing the people in the bars starting fights were years younger than me (and I was only 18) and cemented when I started helping with the Scouts again. I know we were little monsters but not as bad as they are!

[Farrant]

I'm 19 and moan about 'kids these days'.

[captainzep]

I said never.

Because by and large they are the same as they ever were.

[CypherP]

captainzep said:

I said never.

Because by and large they are the same as they ever were.

I don't agree with that at all. A large portion of today's generation of children and young teenagers seem far more agressive, troublesome and have an attitude towards others that only really seems to convey a criminal mentality.

Of course, this doesn't extend to every child and teenager, but being only 25, I can't remember any times where I threatened anyone, caused any damage to property or stole anything. Yes, I hung around with friends on a Friday or Saturday night with a couple of cans of Fosters that an older friend had managed to get me on the off chance, but I'd never put myself in the same class as some of the chavs/delinquents that frequent the local off licences or high streets late at night these days.

With that in mind, I was complaining about the youth of today from about 21 onwards. A lot of them are a different breed, and seem far removed from what I remember teens being like 10-15 years ago.

[Twincam16]

When your generation's dominant 'youth culture' is clearly and dramatically different compared with the prevailing one.

For example, when I was a teenager, Britpop ruled the charts, British culture was cool without being considered racist, and the kids put on Mockney or fake Mancunian accents in order to be cool. Fashions were a mixture of the outgoing rave scene, the brief grunge spike, and a kind of vague '60s mod-inspired look.

Compared with 'grime', the very notion of British rap (where everyone still seems to be on about American themes in an American accent as far as I can see), those baggy jeans and acres of gold bling, and that strange 'speak like a foreigner even though you're as English as an old oak tree' accent that 'da kids' put on, my 'era' might as well be a million years ago, especially when I think back and remember the clothing being adopted without irony by young students falling dramatically out of fashion in the early '90s and being ridiculed on TV comedy shows.

So yes, I can complain about 'the youth of today', because I am young, but I am not a 'youth'.

[Twincam16]

Also, if we wound the clock back over 50 years, the exact-same complaints that get aimed at today's 'youth' (too many American influences, a fixation with branding, a reputation for violence, antisocial behaviour and defiance of authority, assumptions of widespread drug abuse and sexism) were being made of kids like this:



Then this lot ten years later:



And then these:



Then this bunch in the '80s:



Then when I were a lad, people complained that Britpop was promoting regressive, violent 'New-laddism' and a resurgence in football violence, binge-drinking and sexism. So there you go.

[captainzep]

CypherP said:

captainzep said:

I said never.

Because by and large they are the same as they ever were.

I don't agree with that at all. A large portion of today's generation of children and young teenagers seem far more agressive, troublesome and have an attitude towards others that only really seems to convey a criminal mentality.

Of course, this doesn't extend to every child and teenager, but being only 25, I can't remember any times where I threatened anyone, caused any damage to property or stole anything. Yes, I hung around with friends on a Friday or Saturday night with a couple of cans of Fosters that an older friend had managed to get me on the off chance, but I'd never put myself in the same class as some of the chavs/delinquents that frequent the local off licences or high streets late at night these days.

With that in mind, I was complaining about the youth of today from about 21 onwards. A lot of them are a different breed, and seem far removed from what I remember teens being like 10-15 years ago.

Well I'm 35.

I remember my Dad (a teacher) coming home from various schools in the early 80's or telling me stories from the late 70's. Kids in vicious fights, fking around on train tracks, deaths, kids going nuts in class, -having to have two staff in the classroom to keep a lid on things, breaking windows, pregnancies, torturing animals and what have you.

Regardless of our own decent upbringings which endowed us with 'respect' etc. (even though I was drunk in school and did a few drugs), bad parenting and bad estates are as old as the hills.

As twincam says, there'll always be differences in youth culture as it develops, but some overall 'moral decline' is the made-up bks of Daily Mail headlines.

[Zwoelf]

Cock Womble 7 said:

As soon as you find yourself thinking "Blimey, doesn't that copper look young?"

As soon as coppers and schoolteachers are younger than you.