16-year-old here. My experience is probably markedly different from most teenagers in the US (I'm an immigrant who goes to a competitive school full of other immigrants) but I find that, for the most part, this article hits the nail on the head. High School is nothing like the usual media portrayal - I've never heard anyone even talk about a party, nobody's doing anything stronger than weed, nobody's fucking or even dating at all.<p>Smartphone use definitely has a negative effect. I'm in some APs, some Honors, and some regular classes and the #1 difference I've observed between the kids in each cohort is how often they're on their phones. The CP kids leave their phones on their desks and are making out with the damn things whenever they can, sometimes even when the teacher is trying to lecture them. The Honors kids have them under their desks and only use them when they have nothing more pressing to do. The AP kids have them on mute in their backpacks. (I leave mine in my locker, and only use it to listen to music.)<p>Most of the anxiety is over college admissions - not necessarily to the Ivy League (everyone knows that's just luck of the draw), but the "second-tier" schools (Carnegie-Mellon, Rensselaer, Duke, Cornell, etc.) where over-achieving can still net you a good chance of admission. There's a lot of focus on "building your brand" and trying to "stand out" (make your life more "interesting" in the narrow ways that look good on a college application). The more technically-oriented kids are balls-deep in resume-driven development; they follow the tutorial for every trendy tech buzzword possible (mostly data-science and ML stuff) so that they can blog about it on their Squarespace-generated portfolios. I'm a member of the FIRST Robotics Team and, like everyone else there, I do absolutely nothing, because the team has 5 times more people than it actually needs. I once witnessed the entire programming subteam (about 20 people) spend 3 hours trying to flash an SD card.<p>The main thing I notice among my peers is an obsessive (borderline autistic) focus on "getting in" and having good credentials. Enjoying your life and doing things that you take pride in are secondary to the all-encompassing drive to impress people who know nothing about you. I wish I could say I'm above it all, but I've certainly internalized it to some extent - I feel a nagging sense of guilt when playing video games, or reading books that don't imply intellectual clout, or anything else that's internally rewarding but "non-bloggable". If I had to characterize my generation with a pathology, it would be exhibitionism.
Finland has mandatory military service for males. So every year you most of the young men (mostly age 18 to 20) into a controlled environment and go through standardized testing and observation.<p>- Physical fitness has gone down, overweight goes up.<p>- Intelligence peaked among those who were born in 70's and has been in slight decline last 18 years. Similar results can be seen in other developed countries.<p>- Anxiety disorders and depression have increased.<p>- Social skills have gone up. Young men are more social and better at working together than any time before.<p>- At the same time there is small but growing group of young men with almost no social skills. They can't get friends or maintain friendships or work in a group.
I became a young father with 19, after way too much party starting from 15. So naturally I was concerned that my son would behave like me at that age. Or even just 50%.<p>So I was kinda dissapaointed how well behaved he is now with 22. Mostly interested in E-Sports, Tinder and his CRM job.<p>Said that, becoming a father at 19 was a great career move. Got a job making websites in the dot-com area as I needed money and was very motivated.<p>So when the first education programms in Europe started ad websites, webprogramming.I had already 7 years experience. There is value in a non standard CV.
Kids are so less adventurous nowadays.<p>I'm not sure about teenagers, but for college students, it's more obvious. I believe it's because society is less forgiving - young people spent a ton of money or taking loans, work hard at school, cannot find jobs that are not stressful and underpaid. Or couldn't even find jobs at all. One step wrong and they would be screwed.
I am also curious about the effect of "private" communication channels for kids.<p>They can be hidden to parents and friends irl but still remain public online. I have seen many groups of depressed teens online without adults or someone with experience in them. They all encourage each other to be more depressed because they all have a similarly sad life. The only perspective that gets shared is that life sucks and it isn't getting better.<p>I think before the digital age, it must have been hard to do it irl or not?
Another vote for the Lead Hypothesis.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead–crime_hypothesis" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead–crime_hypothesis</a>
The fact is competition has been increasing every generation at a ridiculous rate. I like to think society would desire to remove competition as a requirement for everyone and allow basic needs being supplied for a somewhat enjoyable life.<p>Sadly, I think it will take two generations of travesty before anything substantial happens if at all. I predict a lot of suicide & homelessness if not for some disaster and that wipes out a good portion of the population. Kids aren't dumb nowadays with social media showing them how much of an advantage being born into good genetics or financial privilege happens to be.<p>I assume a lot of progress will happen regardless. The newest generation has everything at their fingertips. They get to read past experiences and how to approach things while the information is criticized more so than previous decades.
Teenagers have no chance to be badly behaved and significantly less future prospects unless they dedicate their lives to wageslavery as young as possible
Hedonism doesn’t need to be conflated with bad behaviour or rebelliousness. I think a splash if it now and then before you have too many responsibilities should be encouraged.
A while back (like 2012) I saw a paper making the claim that video games reduce violence. The idea was that video games are so popular amongst the teenage and young men that they end up not getting into trouble on the street. It seems like smartphones are an extension of this observed trend.
I would be interested to know what teen film people consider most representative of their experience. I love “Dazed and Confused” because it seems like the archetypical US high school experience. I was shocked that the director intended it to convey the boredom of that lifestyle because it seemed approx 1000 times more exciting that my teenager lifestyle in the 00s. American Pie was popular at that time but faaar from reality.<p>I wonder what films teenagers these days relate to.
It's been 10 years since I was a well behaved and anhedonic teenager. Not only did I fit what the newspaper describes but I actually read the The Economist cover to obituary (the obit is the best part). Now that I'm past that it seems the "wild years" don't so much disappear as move back half a decade.
In 30 years if not sooner, humanity will look back and be horrified with this time when we let a whole vulnerable generation fall prey to social media and hyper connectivity while parents bought stocks of the very same recreational drug manufacturers and peddlers who hooked our children to their product.
Be mostly due to many things have been curtailed by laws, bylaws and other restrictions.<p>However, online has been an avenue of teenage expression that seems to of taken up the slack in many area's.<p>But hard to compare say 70's childhood experience with todays without factoring in that many aspects of life changed.
I graduated from high school 2010 and spent most of my time sneaking around my parents' back to find alcohol and get in a quicky with my girlfriend. I guess you could say it set me back, but I was never on the ivy track in the first place. I can confidently say that I have a wildy more successful career than our valedictorian and I work for our salutatorian's biggest competitor at the same career level.<p>I am not nearly as smart as either of those people, but if you have drive then you'll turn out just fine. Getting into Harvard is not the end all, and I wouldn't trade those years for anything.<p>I agree that grades are money, but burning out at Harvard will set you back more than 'only' getting into BC.
I grew up at the beginning of the consumer internet.<p>My parents would tell me to go play outside with the other kids but AOL had just peaked and no one was outside. People were captivated.
Let’s not forget that this is all taking place in an environment where wages are going down, the environment is getting worse- this generation is likely to make less money and have a much more difficult life than, say, the boomers. There is no stability anywhere, no guarantees of anything. Once upon a time you could skip college and still get a union job at a mill or something that would allow you to buy a house and support a family comfortably. That’s gone now. That has to be part of it.<p>I often hear boomers complain that kids aren’t taking enough personal responsibility or that they’re entitled and it just makes me crazy. They are growing up in a <i>much harder world</i> than the one the boomers faced and it’s not their fault at all.
Graduated in 2010, immediately went to university didn't really know how school/finance worked(personal fault). Just went for phys/eng dual major... failed out(personal problem). I had things in my favor too eg. poor person grants. I picked up debt, I was not into computers/coding before this, it was like a chore to do a C++ class and just did what I needed to get by... luckily the thought of getting rich through making websites/ad revenue entered my mind in 2013 or so and I learned how make websites "full stack" mean while being unaware of sql-injection, xss and trivial stuff like that. My website ideas were dumb as hell but I still learned(LAMP at the time). A few people helped me out a lot Quick is one guy, but yeah, I try to return the favor now/help people asking questions.<p>Anyway I'm an SE now, not quite 6 figures, no degree... I don't know if I lucked out or what... but not having a degree is always on my mind but it does seem to boil down to competence and other possible avenues eg. freelance or your own businesses... I'm still not out of debt but if my life continues I should get out soon.<p>Just funny as I kept dreading my college days ending because my GPA was bad, I had debt and I didn't know how I was going to make it. I had so little clue about life back then... initially I was washing plates and what not, now the amount of money I make for my area is nuts... I can't imagine failing/going back... I don't live in extraordinary means but hard to imagining making 1/4 a 1/3 of what I make per hour.<p>Oh 96 is not indicative of my age I just choose that random number, I'm in my later 20's though<p>I'm pursuing freedom now (FiRe) as the fear of losing my job is always in the back of my mind/having to live on some schedule too... I don't need much.
This generation has fully internalized consumer capitalism. Music is about success, not dropping out.<p><i>Edit</i>: See e.g. <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22985678" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22985678</a> in this thread.
I was raised as a nudist (I'm in my 20s now) and that really helped during my teen years to keep me "focused".<p>This doesn't mean I was focused on my studies or anything. But it did mean I generally gave far less shits about peer pressure than my friends at the time.<p>It's something I highly recommend if you have a close relationship with your immediate family. Let the inhibitions fall and allow the kids to realize they don't have to keep up with everyone.
After decades of increasingly rebellious movements, it seems like the last few have been rebellion for the sake of rebellion - progress for the sake of progress. Perhaps this is the pendulum swinging back.
Non-paywall link for folks who are not privileged enough to have subscriptions to all the publications that matter..<p><a href="https://outline.com/JWArFB" rel="nofollow">https://outline.com/JWArFB</a>
Teens typically look up to pop culture produced by people who are about ten years their senior.<p>For current teens, that consists of vapid millennials.<p>No music, no cool behavior, no new anything.<p>The only cool stuff teens can find is from their grandparents' generation or older.<p>So then all they can do is go to YouTube and post a comment under some 80's video "Sigh, I was born at the wrong time" and then go back to behaving nicely.