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It’s easy to look at the generations ahead of or behind your own and find aspects to criticize or stereotypes that seem to be true. It’s harder to self-analyze your own peers – and yourself – for flaws. But that’s exactly what Reddit asked these 13+ teens to do, and boy did they come through!
#15. Unbelievably normalized.
“19 so could be yelling at a cloud here, but distracted driving is unbelievably normalized. I’d say texting while driving decreased as I got older, but people checking Instagram or changing the song on their phone is standard. I’d estimate 90% of cars I’ve been in driven by teens had the driver look at their phone on the highway.”
#14. Addicted.
“Juuling. The amount of teens who juul and are addicted to it is absurd.”
#13. A general lack of ambition.
“Probably a general lack of ambition. Very few of my peers actually have an intrinsic drive to succeed rather than parent instilled expectations. We are too scared to pursue our passions.”
#12. A lack of sleep.
“Lack of sleep and fucking bragging about their lack of sleep.
Example: “Wow I had so much homework I had to stay up till 2”
“That’s nothing man I pulled an all nighter to play video games”
Am I the only one with a decent sleep schedule?
Also why the fuck do I still feel tired all the time despite getting over 9 hours most of the time?
Edit: Apparently everyone is concerned about my sleep. I don’t actually feel tired all the time, just before I get out of bed. After breakfast I’m usually fine.”
#11. Playing games.
“I’m 19 but this is still relevant at my age. I just hate how young people feel the need to “play games/act mysterious and distant” when talking (texting) to someone they are interested in. Am I the only one who just wants to have a nice relaxed conversation without having to ponder on dumb shit like how long I should wait before I reply to not seem “desperate” ?!?!?
EDIT: Interesting how everyone who replied assumed I’m a guy when I’m actually a girl haha. But I wasn’t talking about me personally specifically but more of a general mentality I noticed.”
#10. As a joke, now.
“Not only do people do it as a joke now, but having mental disorders is something “cool” now. I dont know if it’s like this everywhere, but the school i go to has more people than there should be faking depression/other mental disorders and using it as a kind of quirky feature of themselves. One example would be bipolar. People ive interacted with just switch between emotions and its obviously forced, ask them why they do that and its because they’re “bipolar” because thats totally how people with bipolar disorder actually act. Maybe im just ignorant, but from what ive heard and read abour bipolar disorder its more of either deep depression and mania, switching between the two every now and again.
Edit: i say “they” when it really was only one person. Not sure why i used they instead of her lmao.”
#9. Wannabe influencers.
“The wave of wannabe “influencers”. In 10-15 years time, there could be a lot of unskilled workers.”
#8. Face-to-face.
“Inability to talk face-to-face and confront people with problems. So much of daily life has a factor of anonymity that people have learned that their statements A) have no consequences and B) no disagreement will be solved with words because that’s what the internet teaches us.
-Malicious competitiveness. In short, we strive to improve ourselves for the sole purpose of lording it over others.”
#7. A lack of respect.
“I don’t think very many people will read this but it can’t hurt to write it down anyway. A lot of these are personal experiences and some opinions so my apologies if you don’t agree with what I say.
One issue I keep seeing is the complete lack of privacy and respect for others. Kids at my school will post pictures they think are funny that mock other students; the kicker here is the student being mocked has no idea. Filming and recording of people without their permission is completely baffling to be because I just don’t understand. Sometimes my friends will take a picture of me without my knowledge to send as a streak and I won’t know until the receiver shows me. It reminds me of that model who made fun of the overweight lady at the gym by taking her picture and spreading it around. Why? What makes you think that’s okay?
Another issue which is a bit like the first is lack of privacy of themselves. Teens are posting selfies and personal pictures of themselves that could potentially ruin their lives. “Selfies? How do selfies ruin lives?” For example, one girl in my class posted a video and selfie of her smoking weed and then sent it to a few people. Then those people saved it or passed it on. Eventually her parents and school found out and she lost a scholarship to a college. Just because she was dumb enough to post those pictures. There’s also kids ranting about how stupid other people, teachers, students, etc. are on social media and guess what! It’s public! So those people see it! And then they get in trouble and lose opportunities in life because of it (like scholarships).
Yet another problem is the normalization of mental illness. It’s okay if you have depression, anxiety, or any other issue. It’s not okay to hear a friend tell you that they’re struggling and you’re trying to one up them saying, “Haha that sucks. But I have depression and anxiety.” This is personal experience from my school so it may vary for other teens. Mental illness is now “cool” to some kids and they brag about their obviously self diagnosed depression because they felt sad after their goldfish died. Sorry, Sharon. It’s normal to be sad and it demeans people with actual depression.
Lastly, some of my classmates are probably going deaf. You don’t need to blast your music from your headphones so anyone in a 10 foot range can hear your friend’s SoundCloud rap. It’s not healthy for your ears. I just don’t want to hear your music!
TL;DR: don’t take pictures or videos of random strangers, don’t post stupid shit of yourself on the internet, don’t self diagnose depression because it badly reflects on those who actually have it, and turn your fucking music down.
Edit: Some people have been confused on what a streak is. On Snapchat you have a score and you get more points for the amount of pictures you send. When you send pictures back and forth for a long period of time that is called a streak. Usually the pictures aren’t much; some people take selfies, others a black screen, pictures of their shoes, and sometimes pictures of random people nearby.
Edit ²: Thank you for the gold!”
#6. More and more desensitized.
“Im 19 so im on my way out of “teenage years” but i worry that my generation is getting more and more desensitized to tragedies. We see so much graphic stuff online almost everyday now. I don’t think we’ll ever get to experience the shock people felt on 911.”
#5. Constant social.
“Constant use of social media to compare standards of living and evaluate popularity of individuals based on how many followers, views or likes one gets. Social media ruins self-image and the fact that even 10 and 9 year olds are looking at 20-something or 30-something year old people as ‘goals’ based on what they LET YOU SEE (which is hardly as it EVER IS) is an issue.”
#4. Nobody wants to be here.
“Nobody wants to be here and we can’t figure our shit out.”
#3. I have no clue.
“Having no direction in life. It’s ok to not know exactly what you want to do, but not even having a vague interest or any idea. Example: “I know I like science so I’ll try different things there and figure out what I like” versus “I have no clue and don’t know my interests.”
#2. We’ll suffer the effects.
“For context I’m 15 and experience Tinnitus due to an ear infection (fluid and swollen membrane, might be Otitis Media). The constant high pitched ringing is getting on my nerves.
I think a lot of teenagers, going into adulthood will suffer the effects of blasting music into their ears, I can’t believe how loud some people play their music, if I can hear it from your headphones then there’s a fucking problem. On top of that when I point it out to someone I get the sideeye as they reluctantly lower their volume to acceptable levels and then a few minutes later I hear it blaring again.
Tinnitus is really fucking annoying kids. Please take care of your hearing.
Edit: Yes, I know openback headphones are amazing and are an exception to what I say, but it’s probably best to not use them in public (sound leakage both ways). I love my K712s but I can barely hear the music over the background noise, which would make me turn them up and then the cycle continues.”
#1. Antisocial.
“A lot of them seem antisocial, at least in my school they are. They do have friends, but they don’t really talk to people they’ve haven’t met yet. It really isn’t a problem with older teens though, it’s mostly the younger teens that are like this.”
See? I little self-reflection never hurt anyone!
