Are young people less mature this generation

[Deleted]

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”

Has anyone already quoted that?

[tankbug]

I aren't suggesting it's really an issue though I still argue real life experience trumps academic experience

Well, that depends. At school you are forced to learn things you can easily avoid in real life, some things that you might actually find useful or broaden your mind. I'm a developer, and I would say that in school I learned a lot about the big things, the concepts, the history, the various tools, but I wasn't very good at using my tools until I sat down and had hands on all day long in my job.

[Deleted]

Well, that depends. At school you are forced to learn things you can easily avoid in real life, some things that you might actually find useful or broaden your mind. I'm a developer, and I would say that in school I learned a lot about the big things, the concepts, the history, the various tools, but I wasn't very good at using my tools until I sat down and had hands on all day long in my job.

I agree, I think school does a good job on preparing. Uni perhaps not so much.

[xChurch]

Sounds like a parental problem.

[Deleted]

Sounds like a parental problem.

Actually it's various things tbf, parenting maybe 1 of 20 reasons

[Annoying]

Mm. There's also a real lack of useful life skills being taught in schools and critical thinking is often discouraged from an early age.

But school was never for life skills. It's for numeracy and literacy. Numeracy+literacy=higher GDP.
Parents are for life skills. I can't comment on critical thinking, as NCLB and Common Core are completely alien to me, but my generation (I'm 31) in no way had critical thinking discouraged.

[Deleted]

Young people are stupid. They always were. They always will be.

(I am in that generation btw, not some old grumpy dude. ... okey, maybe not old. Still grumpy. Sometimes.)

[Dug]

I do think the push for a college education straight out of high school has stunted peoples growth as far as "real world" experience goes. I wouldn't call that maturity though. I know plenty of people that went into the real work force right out of high school that are still immature as shit. Sure they pay their huge bills and do all the "adult" things but that's out of necessity. Personality wise they're still stuck in high school.

It's also a problem with parenting with the rise of more helicopter parents not letting their children do things and gaining experience. Building them up from day 1 to be the most successful they can be. Well, academically at least.

[unbound]

A discussion I was having with my mother (64), sister (42) and aunt (67) about young people aged between 18-25. Essentially we were questioning whether they're less mature due to gaining world experience at a much later age. For example my mother and sister at 18 had moved out, learned to drive and had a steady career whereas today that is less common. Granted this is mostly the governments fault as they encourage you to stay in education till 25 and as useful as that is academical colleges / uni's generally are their own self contained realities.

Personally I know not EVERY 18-25 is less mature than that age group 20 years ago BUT I suspect a large majority are in personal experience. What's your opinion?

It's called rose-colored glasses. Most people forget the stupid things they did and the stupid opinions they had when they were in their late teens and 20s. If you take the time to focus on very specific events when, say, you were in college, you will be able to remember the very stupid things you said or did...or observed others in your age group back then saying or doing things that were very stupid.

I think the true change that is happening the current generations is basically the internet. The kids are recording their stupidity, so it a) sticks around for a long time and b) gets observed by lots of people. Young adults in past generations didn't have their stupidity exposed at that level...typically it was restricted to word of mouth spreading slowly (if at all depending on how complicit their friends were) and not very far.

[Tuesdays]

I think that every generation has their issues... just, the newer generations have more toys to use to display those issues... better.

I think the problem is that they are expected to act like adults at a much earlier stage, but are scolded like stupid little children, for every little mistake made isn't helping.

I used to have 30 minutes of homework a night tops, my kids had 3+ hours of homework every day, not including the month long art projects and countless book reports, science projects, creative stories ect that snow balled into the weekends.. Kids are not allowed to be kids, and when they can finally enjoy some freedom, it's too late and viewed as immature and lazy.

Toys can be used as an excuse, but I think they real problem is not letting kids grow up naturally. No need to make them start cramming knowledge from the 6th grade to the very end of college.

[Lady Dragonheart]

I think the problem is that they are expected to act like adults at a much earlier stage, but are scolded like stupid little children, for every little mistake made isn't helping.

I used to have 30 minutes of homework a night tops, my kids had 3+ hours of homework every day, not including the month long art projects and countless book reports, science projects, creative stories ect that snow balled into the weekends.. Kids are not allowed to be kids, and when they can finally enjoy some freedom, it's too late and viewed as immature and lazy.

Toys can be used as an excuse, but I think they real problem is not letting kids grow up naturally. No need to make them start cramming knowledge from the 6th grade to the very end of college.

Well, in all seriousness, when I mean toys, I mean internet use, smartphones, and all sorts of mobile devices. My position is that the younger generation appeals to have more issues because they are more social and these issues are much easier to find because of of the evolution of social media.

[TITAN308]

But school was never for life skills. It's for numeracy and literacy. Numeracy+literacy=higher GDP.
Parents are for life skills. I can't comment on critical thinking, as NCLB and Common Core are completely alien to me, but my generation (I'm 31) in no way had critical thinking discouraged.

The problem is a lot of parents are now relying on schools to raise their children.

So basically you end up with a bunch of kids who grow up perhaps being book smart, but are street dumb, so to say.

[Deleted]

Well, in all seriousness, when I mean toys, I mean internet use, smartphones, and all sorts of mobile devices. My position is that the younger generation appeals to have more issues because they are more social and these issues are much easier to find because of of the evolution of social media.

I argue this generation is less social due to this. Young people rarely have conversations or meet people because they can text or IM. It's a double edged sword imo

[Theodarzna]

A discussion I was having with my mother (64), sister (42) and aunt (67) about young people aged between 18-25. Essentially we were questioning whether they're less mature due to gaining world experience at a much later age. For example my mother and sister at 18 had moved out, learned to drive and had a steady career whereas today that is less common. Granted this is mostly the governments fault as they encourage you to stay in education till 25 and as useful as that is academical colleges / uni's generally are their own self contained realities.

Personally I know not EVERY 18-25 is less mature than that age group 20 years ago BUT I suspect a large majority are in personal experience. What's your opinion?

Everyone is convinced the generation after them is less mature.

[Tuesdays]

Well, in all seriousness, when I mean toys, I mean internet use, smartphones, and all sorts of mobile devices. My position is that the younger generation appeals to have more issues because they are more social and these issues are much easier to find because of of the evolution of social media.

Definitely, it's a huge vent of problems that have existed for a very long time, but had no medium to break up the issues.

Before the internet they were troubled kids as a whole, and swept under the rug.

[Lady Dragonheart]

I argue this generation is less social due to this. Young people rarely have conversations or meet people because they can text or IM. It's a double edged sword imo

That's still having a conversation, though. They're just doing it electronically instead of verbally.

[Deleted]

Everyone is convinced the generation after them is less mature.

I think it's true... less responsibility usually affects maturity. I suspect 100 years people were more mature because they had to be. Maturity isn't in as much high demand today

[Tuesdays]

I'd think yes on average in the western world. Being cuddled, shielded from challenges, not given responsibility, etc. etc. takes away a lot of opportunities to grow up and develop.

It's worse in the middle class and up in China though. Their one-child policy has created a super weird "generation" of only-child's that the families had to make sure succeeded. Being cuddled, given all the attention and treated as princes and princesses seems to have made them very poorly prepared to handle adult life on their own. Quite a few interesting articles about it floating around.

I agree with this also, but disagree with the responsibility part a little. They are not given responsibility aside from school, but school in my opinion eats into home life too much, and that eats into everything else.

[Deleted]

That's still having a conversation, though. They're just doing it electronically instead of verbally.

Different skill set though, I feel basic human social interaction skills are suffering because of it

[p291u]

I think a better question would be "Are young people more coddled than previous generations?"

aka Safe Zones

100%. In fact, there is a particular image that comes to mind: