This generation of teens is doing quite well

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**youbedead**

micahaphone wrote:
Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:
micahaphone wrote:Well, you're only REQUIRED to stay in high school until you're 16, but only a crazy idiot would get out without a high school diploma. The school system goes: Kindergarten (Not sure if required), then 1st-6th grade is elementary school, 7th-8th grade (sometimes including 6th and 9th) is middle school, aka combining the worst parts of elementary and high school, then 9th-12th grade is high school. When you graduate from high school, you're 17 or 18, depending on your birthday.

Ah, I see. And I presume High School diplomas are the key to university, as A-Levels/equivalent qualifications are here, judging by the importance you put on 'em?

Not just that. Over here, there is much competition to get into college, as you cannot get a decent job without a degree. So you need to have good grades on your transcript, and participation in various clubs or activities if you want a shot at being accepted into a good school. Also, most places will not hire you if you don't have a high school diploma, or maybe a GED.
A GED is a test that you can take to get out of high school early but still look as if you've put some thought towards your future.

Hell it hard to get a job period if you don't have some postsecondary education, at least one third of all college graduates are working in jobs that don't even require college education

**TheMuffinMan98**

Lol that's just stereotypes, there are plentyy of fine teens who no the difference between right and wrong. Im turning 13 in three days and so far life has been alright.

**dogma**

biccat wrote:
You've probably got a biased sample size

Most GEDs are for people who are over 18 and dropped out of high school.

Probably. I went to public school, but it was a really good one (top 5% in state when I was there), and that colors my perception.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Samus_aran115 wrote:I believe it. Mainly because I'm part of it.

Never smoked, never drunk, never had unprotected sex, never get into a car without wearing a seatbelt, never been overweight, never gotten into a fight, don't cyber bully, don't IRL bully, never broken a girls heart without repairing it, never killed anyone, never killed an animal, never been racist, never failed a class that wasn't an elective, never vandilized anything other than the back of textbooks on middle school

Most people my age are basically the same ;3

Funny thing is that I've done all of those things (except killing people and behaving in a racist fashion), and my profession makes most people consider me a fine, upstanding member of society.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

micahaphone wrote:
Not just that. Over here, there is much competition to get into college, as you cannot get a decent job without a degree.

There are also a ton of colleges, including JuCos that basically can't turn you away. There is a lot of competition to get into good colleges, but if you want a degree in say, accounting, you will get one; provided, anyway, that you have a C average in high school (not very good by any standard).

**sebster**

biccat wrote:You'll be saying the same things in 20-30 years. Don't worry, your time will come.

Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.

Seriously, biccat gave the perfect response to this topic on the first page. People have been pissing and moaning about the next generation for centuries, yet the new generation that comes along shows itself to be at least as capable, and often more capable than the one before, only for that generation to then turn around and piss and moan about the next generation after them.

I think this is probably due to a few things. Negative predictions tend to gain more attention, and be assumed more "realistic". If there are two people debating, and one is saying that an issue is getting better, and the other is saying that it's a disaster and we're just about to tip off a cliff into anarchy, most people will consider the second guy more grounded and sensible. I don't know why, people just seem to assume bad news is more realistic.

There's also the problem with people seeing the next generation and seeing how they act rudely and generally don't know very much, and somehow assuming that that's how they'll be like that forever. They somehow miss the idea that they're not rude and ignorant because of something inherent in their generation, they're rude and ignorant because they're still young. Just like every generation before them, they'll grow up, move into adulthood and smarter and more respectful.

The last point is that good news isn't news, if teen pregnancy is growing you'll see story afer story on the issue, but if we get control of the problem and teen pregnancy starts dropping then you just won't see it reported, instead they'll move onto the next issue. When we come to terms with obesity you won't see stories on obesity reducing, instead you'll just stop seeing stories about obesity.

The result of this is people believing, generation after generation, that society is facing inevitable decline in the next generation, despite generations marking a steady incline in social progress.

Oh, and thanks for the article Melissia.

**Albatross**

@dogma - So you're finally admitting to being a cyber-bully?

Sweet lord.

Gailbraithe was RIGHT!

**Karon**

Albatross wrote:
Karon wrote:Kids today are a bunch of tools. They all sag their pants, and don't even realize where it came from. They do it because its the "cool thing" to do, it is unbelievable.

That was also true 12 years ago when I was 16. No new generation is uniquely 'bad'. Kids throughout the ages have irritated older generations. You can read 200 year old news reports of roaming teenage gangs in London that sound remarkably similar to modern-day papers reporting similar stories.

Indeed, the difference is 12 years ago (I was 12) real music was popping that led my life (DMX). Everyone understood what sagging your pants meant, its that you payed attention and understood Hip-Hop, at least where I grew up (east side of Chicago). I also was like one of around 100 white kids in a predominantly black school, which may change my perception on a lot of these things.

Today, all kids listen to is bs.

200 years ago....early 1800's, yummy industrial revolution.

**Samus_aran115**

Albatross wrote:@dogma - So you're finally admitting to being a cyber-bully?

Sweet lord.

Gailbraithe was RIGHT!

I can't help but feeling like anything is better than Lil Wayne, Nikki Minaj and Kanye west

**Emperors Faithful**

Samus_aran115 wrote:
Albatross wrote:@dogma - So you're finally admitting to being a cyber-bully?

Sweet lord.

Gailbraithe was RIGHT!

I can't help but feeling like anything is better than Lil Wayne, Nikki Minaj and Kanye west

Dogma, I'm really happy for you and imma let you finish but I just gotta BLAME THE VICTIM!

**Brother Heinrich**

well if the kids really get better generation by generation, then let the older generations keep pissing and moaning about it because in the end its only positive progress. Or so the stats say

**sebster**

Karon wrote:
Albatross wrote:
Karon wrote:Kids today are a bunch of tools. They all sag their pants, and don't even realize where it came from. They do it because its the "cool thing" to do, it is unbelievable.

That was also true 12 years ago when I was 16. No new generation is uniquely 'bad'. Kids throughout the ages have irritated older generations. You can read 200 year old news reports of roaming teenage gangs in London that sound remarkably similar to modern-day papers reporting similar stories.

Indeed, the difference is 12 years ago (I was 12) real music was popping that led my life (DMX). Everyone understood what sagging your pants meant, its that you payed attention and understood Hip-Hop, at least where I grew up (east side of Chicago). I also was like one of around 100 white kids in a predominantly black school, which may change my perception on a lot of these things.

Today, all kids listen to is bs.

Yeah, today it's all terrible. But 12 years ago music was incredible. Let's just look at the five biggest singles of 1999 to see how awesome music and authentic music was back then.

1. Britney Spears "...Baby One More Time"
2. Lou Bega "Mambo No 5 (A Little Bit of ...)"
3. Eiffel 65 "Blue (Da Ba Dee)"
4. TLC "No Scrubs"
5.Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way"

Those songs suck utterly and completely. 1999 was not some magic year where people had taste, only to see it disappear all of a sudden. When you're a teenager you spend the time to go and find good music that doesn't played on the radio, you listen to that stuff to death and years later you think that was the music of that time. It wasn't, the music getting played was Cher's Life After Love, which was also released in 1999, same year as those shitbombs above.

Right now there's kids listening to great current music, great stuff that isn't getting played on the radio, who in twelve years time will be complaining about music just the same as you are.

**dogma**

Albatross wrote:@dogma - So you're finally admitting to being a cyber-bully?

Sweet lord.

Gailbraithe was RIGHT!

**Melissia**

sebster wrote:
Karon wrote:
Albatross wrote:
Karon wrote:Kids today are a bunch of tools. They all sag their pants, and don't even realize where it came from. They do it because its the "cool thing" to do, it is unbelievable.

That was also true 12 years ago when I was 16. No new generation is uniquely 'bad'. Kids throughout the ages have irritated older generations. You can read 200 year old news reports of roaming teenage gangs in London that sound remarkably similar to modern-day papers reporting similar stories.

Indeed, the difference is 12 years ago (I was 12) real music was popping that led my life (DMX). Everyone understood what sagging your pants meant, its that you payed attention and understood Hip-Hop, at least where I grew up (east side of Chicago). I also was like one of around 100 white kids in a predominantly black school, which may change my perception on a lot of these things.

Today, all kids listen to is bs.

Yeah, today it's all terrible. But 12 years ago music was incredible. Let's just look at the five biggest singles of 1999 to see how awesome music and authentic music was back then.

1. Britney Spears "...Baby One More Time"
2. Lou Bega "Mambo No 5 (A Little Bit of ...)"
3. Eiffel 65 "Blue (Da Ba Dee)"
4. TLC "No Scrubs"
5.Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way"

Those songs suck utterly and completely. 1999 was not some magic year where people had taste, only to see it disappear all of a sudden. When you're a teenager you spend the time to go and find good music that doesn't played on the radio, you listen to that stuff to death and years later you think that was the music of that time. It wasn't, the music getting played was Cher's Life After Love, which was also released in 1999, same year as those shitbombs above.

Right now there's kids listening to great current music, great stuff that isn't getting played on the radio, who in twelve years time will be complaining about music just the same as you are.

Indeed. I actually tend to like modern alternative rock better than '90s and early '00s alternative rock anyway, I think that particular genre has improved...

**Karon**

sebster wrote:
Karon wrote:
Albatross wrote:
Karon wrote:Kids today are a bunch of tools. They all sag their pants, and don't even realize where it came from. They do it because its the "cool thing" to do, it is unbelievable.

That was also true 12 years ago when I was 16. No new generation is uniquely 'bad'. Kids throughout the ages have irritated older generations. You can read 200 year old news reports of roaming teenage gangs in London that sound remarkably similar to modern-day papers reporting similar stories.

Indeed, the difference is 12 years ago (I was 12) real music was popping that led my life (DMX). Everyone understood what sagging your pants meant, its that you payed attention and understood Hip-Hop, at least where I grew up (east side of Chicago). I also was like one of around 100 white kids in a predominantly black school, which may change my perception on a lot of these things.

Today, all kids listen to is bs.

Yeah, today it's all terrible. But 12 years ago music was incredible. Let's just look at the five biggest singles of 1999 to see how awesome music and authentic music was back then.

1. Britney Spears "...Baby One More Time"
2. Lou Bega "Mambo No 5 (A Little Bit of ...)"
3. Eiffel 65 "Blue (Da Ba Dee)"
4. TLC "No Scrubs"
5.Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way"

Those songs suck utterly and completely. 1999 was not some magic year where people had taste, only to see it disappear all of a sudden. When you're a teenager you spend the time to go and find good music that doesn't played on the radio, you listen to that stuff to death and years later you think that was the music of that time. It wasn't, the music getting played was Cher's Life After Love, which was also released in 1999, same year as those shitbombs above.

Right now there's kids listening to great current music, great stuff that isn't getting played on the radio, who in twelve years time will be complaining about music just the same as you are.

#2 is a classic ^.^

I was more thinking on the lines of....

It's Dark and Hell Is Hot - DMX
Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood - DMX
...And Then There Was X - DMX
Ryde or Die Vol. 1 - Ruff Ryders
Blackout - Method Man & Redman
The Slim Shady - Eminem
Still I Rise - Posthumous Tupac (the last good one)
I am.... - Nas
Nastradamus - Nas
Master - Rakim

When you compare that pure Hip-Hop to the gak that is called "Rap" today, which is nothing more than pop music, I think you can see my point.

**sebster**

Karon wrote:#2 is a classic ^.^

After I posted that I was going through year by year, I actually got lucky that you said 12 years before, because 1999 was a particularly gak tastic list of five tracks. Most other years had one good song, a couple of years even had two. But 1999, man...

When you compare that pure Hip-Hop to the gak that is called "Rap" today, which is nothing more than pop music, I think you can see my point.

But you can pick the great stuff released in any year, forget about all the crap that came out that same year, then compare it to the crap that's on the radio now, see the first list is much better than the second list and conclude music isn't what it used to be. People have been doing that for a long time. They were doing it in 1999.

Thing is, you aren't comparing apples with apples. You need to let time work it's magic and sift away all the crap.

**Karon**

I see what you are saying sebster, and you are correct. My parents do the same thing I am saying here, they hate my "taste" in music.

Its not necessarily 1999, I started listening to this music in 1998, when DMX exploded.

**youbedead**

Karon wrote:I see what you are saying sebster, and you are correct. My parents do the same thing I am saying here, they hate my "taste" in music.

Its not necessarily 1999, I started listening to this music in 1998, when DMX exploded.

Hell in 1969 when abbey road, led zeppelin I and II, and the rolling stones let it bleed were released do you know what the top single in the country was.

Sugar Sugar by the Archies.

Whats popular is in no way representative of whats good

**micahaphone**

Worst part? The Beatles' most popular year in music, when they released their best album, you know what the number one song was? "Sugar Sugar", by the Archies. Popular music is almost never good music.

I prefer some good old Sonny Rollins myself.

**dogma**

Karon wrote:
When you compare that pure Hip-Hop to the gak that is called "Rap" today, which is nothing more than pop music, I think you can see my point.

You're putting DMX on a list with Nas, Tupac (overrated as he is), and Rakim? That's damn near blasphemy.

Anyway, what you're seeing now is the massive popularity of crunk hip-hop, mostly because its great stuff to play at college/high school parties, meaning that it appeals to the group that basically drives popular music.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

sebster wrote:
But you can pick the great stuff released in any year, forget about all the crap that came out that same year, then compare it to the crap that's on the radio now, see the first list is much better than the second list and conclude music isn't what it used to be. People have been doing that for a long time. They were doing it in 1999.

Thing is, you aren't comparing apples with apples. You need to let time work it's magic and sift away all the crap.

Lest we all forget that Big Willie Style came out in '97.

**sebster**

youbedead wrote:Hell in 1969 when abbey road, led zeppelin I and II, and the rolling stones let it bleed were released do you know what the top single in the country was.

Sugar Sugar by the Archies.

Whats popular is in no way representative of whats good

Somebody reads Cracked

Automatically Appended Next Post:

micahaphone wrote:Worst part? The Beatles' most popular year in music, when they released their best album, you know what the number one song was? "Sugar Sugar", by the Archies. Popular music is almost never good music.

I prefer some good old Sonny Rollins myself.

Somebody else reads Cracked

But yeah, I agree with both of you.

**GalacticDefender**

Melissia wrote:http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/03/31/stepp.kids.all.right/index.html?hpt=C1

The kids truly are all right
By Laura Sessions Stepp, Special to CNN
March 31, 2011 8:29 a.m. EDT

Editor's note: Laura Sessions Stepp is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, formerly with The Washington Post, who specializes in the coverage of young people. She has written two books: "Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both," and "Our Last Best Shot: Guiding Our Children through Early Adolescence."

(CNN) -- Stop anyone on the street who looks, say, older than 40, and ask whether teenagers are doing better or worse than a decade or two ago. Odds are she or he will say worse -- and be wrong.

Hollywood writer and director Lisa Cholodenko was correct: The kids are all right. In fact, according to a massive study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teenagers are doing better on a bunch of important measures, even as they've increased in number and diversity.

Every time I talk to parents, I am moved by how few know this. Or, if they've read about it, how they don't believe it. Peter Benson, president of the Search Institute, a youth development think tank, also runs into this skepticism.

"If we did a poll of American parents," he says, "and asked, 'How many times have you seen research about adolescent pregnancy showing that kids are being more responsible?' the vast majority would say, 'I've never seen that.' But if you ask them how many times they've seen stories about kids sexting pornography, they'll say, 'I see something on that every day.' "

Few measures of teen well-being are as remarkable as the decline in teenage girls getting pregnant and giving birth. According to a newly released study by the National Center for Health Statistics, 39 of every 1,000 girls ages 15-19 gave birth in 2009, a historic low. Experts attribute this in large part to the wider availability of information about, and access to, reliable contraception as well as a small decline in the proportion of teens having sex.

Other positive markers are found in the CDC's 2010 report. Since 1990:

• The proportion of high school students who smoke has declined, and so has the proportion of those who drink.

• Fewer underage teenagers are driving. Fewer teenagers drive while drinking or ride with drivers who are drinking. More students report wearing seatbelts and significantly fewer are involved in fatal car crashes.

• Firearm-related deaths have declined. So has the percentage of high school students who fight or carry a weapon.

• The percent of high school students who have seriously considered suicide has declined. So has the proportion of suicides.

One serious problem, according to the CDC, is that more teens are getting fatter. A lot fatter. But aside from that, they appear to be taking better care of themselves than the generation that preceded them.

So why can't parents acknowledge this? Parenting experts will tell you that one of the most effective ways of raising a young child is to catch him or her "doing something right." Isn't it time we shifted our focus to what the older youth are doing right and encourage them to continue? As many teens lament, "Why is it that parents only pay attention to us when we get into trouble?"

A mother myself, I understand how easy it is to be discouraged by the almost daily news reports of youthful misbehavior. Journalists and TV hosts regularly interview social scientists on the problem du jour, and those experts reach back into their university training where they learned what amounts to a delinquency model of adolescence.

As Frank Furstenberg, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, once said, successful adolescents are treated as "escape artists," who have managed to get away from the negative influences of their peers. So parents may think their kids are OK and still trash their kids' friends and classmates.

Parents also worry about other parents who, if you believe television, are either AWOL, morons, or, like the parents in Cholodenko's "Kids" movie, trapped in their own neuroses. Apparently a lot of grownups are worriers: A survey by Benson's Search Institute found that more than two out of three adults thought other parents were doing only a poor-to-fair job raising their children.

We've all heard that anti-parent litany: Other moms and dads don't spend time with their children; they don't set limits; they're friends, not parents, to their kids.

We may need to rethink that. If teens are doing better, and parents are, as the experts tell us, the biggest influence on their children, then many parents must be doing something right. Let's help parents understand this by reminding them that they are more influential than they think, that their influence has not been lost to peers and popular culture and almost any way you count it, the kids are all right and getting better.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Laura Stepp.

So, American teens are actually making great headways in many areas of responsibility, regardless of the news reports-- with the main problem of this day and age being that teens are increasingly overweight or obese. What's your opinion/reaction on this?

People should stop eating at fething mcdonalds for every damn meal, stop cramming down sugar, and go do something outside for at least 2 fething hours a week. FAT PEOPLE ARE FAT!!!!

lol sorry

**Monster Rain**

Albatross wrote:@dogma - So you're finally admitting to being a cyber-bully?

Sweet lord.

Gailbraithe was RIGHT!

Careful Alby.

Dogmatron will break your brain next!

**ShumaGorath**

I don't understand the "blame the victim" joke.

**halonachos**

It has something to do with a certain user who is no longer with us saying 'Blame the victim' repeatedly several times with some other very colorful language.

**ShumaGorath**

halonachos wrote:It has something to do with a certain user who is no longer with us saying 'Blame the victim' repeatedly several times with some other very colorful language.

Must of missed that one. Anyone I didn't like?

**FITZZ**

ShumaGorath wrote:
halonachos wrote:It has something to do with a certain user who is no longer with us saying 'Blame the victim' repeatedly several times with some other very colorful language.

Must of missed that one. Anyone I didn't like?

Gailbraithe...the thread itself is burried somewhere in the OT...but it was quite entertaining..

**ShumaGorath**

FITZZ wrote:
ShumaGorath wrote:
halonachos wrote:It has something to do with a certain user who is no longer with us saying 'Blame the victim' repeatedly several times with some other very colorful language.

Must of missed that one. Anyone I didn't like?

Gailbraithe...the thread itself is burried somewhere in the OT...but it was quite entertaining..

Dogma must have baked himself a cake. When I get the boot I doubt it will be so illustrious.

**Emperors Faithful**

ShumaGorath wrote:
FITZZ wrote:
ShumaGorath wrote:
halonachos wrote:It has something to do with a certain user who is no longer with us saying 'Blame the victim' repeatedly several times with some other very colorful language.

Must of missed that one. Anyone I didn't like?

Gailbraithe...the thread itself is burried somewhere in the OT...but it was quite entertaining..

Dogma must have baked himself a cake. When I get the boot I doubt it will be so illustrious.

No.

Joking of course, please stick around.

**halonachos**

The trick with Dogma is to not think when you argue against him. If you just repeat the same inane stance he'll eventually get tired and give up, or the thread will get locked.

**dogma**

halonachos wrote:The trick with Dogma is to not think when you argue against him. If you just repeat the same inane stance he'll eventually get tired and give up, or the thread will get locked.

If you catch me near midterms or finals the former is pretty easy to induce.

**sebster**

halonachos wrote:The trick with Dogma is to not think when you argue against him. If you just repeat the same inane stance he'll eventually get tired and give up, or the thread will get locked.

I, and I think a lot of other posters besides, have noticed you doing this, by the way