I'd give whatever for it to be that way, than be in slight fear for my life every time i walk out the door.
I wouldn't like to say it is the same here in the UK. More emphasis (from that) is placed on enjoying the teenage years retrospectively, while most TV involving teenagers is about the dark seedyness of life. So teens seem to get mixed signals from culture (at least I did when I was a teen) that is basically 'Your life is wonderful! Go to summer festivals and have the time of your life - because your life is terrible and filled with drugs and crime and Clamydia!'
I think that's supposed to be satire, but the author is not very funny or skilled. I remember Cracked used to have hilarious articles. Are they desperate for material and hence lowered their standards? I guess you could come across a gem every now and then, but this definitely isn't one of them. Can't comment on American teenagers, but the ones I've taught here have been great. Their attention span might be even shorter than that of a teenager in general, and teaching has been adjusted to their learning instead of their learning to teaching, but I think that's the way it should be. Man, I wish we had had learning apps and iPads in high school when I was a kid.
Though I know this is intended as satire, let us not discount the idea that there might not be a core of truth to at least some of this. Caveat: I live the American experience. This is an American opinion. These kids are the children of Gen-X. Gen-X is perhaps the most disillusioned generation still breathing. Everything we were sold during our formative years turned out to be lies. The shoulder-pad festooned halls of post Neoclassical business hallways were supposed to fill out Porche-driving pockets with money as we day-traded from the swimming pool. We were old enough to remember the mega-propaganda days of Reagan and American ultr-super-maxi-days-with-wings superiority. It made us feel like we could smack God's momma and not answer for it. What actually ended happening is that economic shifts and the tiny size of our generation made for the first generation of permanent live-at-home-30-year-olds (now aging into their 40's). The economy collapsed. Shoulder pads no longer equal power. Pensions from private companies after 20-odd years of service are only a memory. Thanks, mom and dad. The thorazine driven dreams of Ubermerica are all but a fevered nightmare. Now, what else do you expect from the children of this generation? The money you see in that video is not mom and absent-dad's. That's grandma and grandpa's money fueling that shite music. Why should they have much of any respect for anyone. Two generations of liars are what they have to go off of. That and Fox News. When the world around you treats fiction as fact, how can you respect anything? This one is nothing but older people being jelly. We wish we had this Star Trek shit going on when Salt-N-Peppa were having their 15 min. Sorry urybody but kids today did not invent this. It wasn't the Millienials either. It was Gen-X that brought it fruition, though the seed was already within the bosom of the Boomers. Gen-X isn't the first generation to feel flat-out lied to by their elders. We're not the first ones to pull aside the green curtain to expose the ugly little man at the switches and levers. No. There have been others before us for centuries, but the first to really get their voices heard in the modern era were the Beat kids. In many ways they were an ideal of rebellion that Gen-X never lived up to. They called out their sedated mothers and drunken fathers for the liars they were and then lived meager lives to pay for rebellion. They had the courage of their convictions. Gen-X did the same thing, but then turned tail, said sorry, and headed for mom's basement and yes, I'll take out the trash later. Stop nagging me... Gol! Ooo. Crap. Maybe I just need more coffee. Poppet, I remember when Cracked was a magazine you bought at the shop. Do they still publish it? Like, on actual paper?
Every generation hates and/or despairs of the generations following. Always has been, always will be. I have found teens to be no different from any other age group - a mix of good, bad, and everything in between.
No it's entirely 0nline, they moved it there in 2005ish. There's no more cartoons, no more movie spoofs. The core of the magazine was laid off. MAD on the other hand has moved to a quarterly release and is selling ad space like crazy trying to stay afloat. Cracked has taken a new perspective on pop culture, science, history and sociology. They have a cadre of columnists, but a lot of their content is actually generated by the readers who pitch ideas and then write their list articles. For the last 3 months they've been doing really interesting stuff with interviews. They've got in-depth articles on what it's like to survive a mass shooting, be a skinhead, or work as a whore.
I think many of us are in sublime denial about how awful we were as teenagers... Question: Was I ever that annoying? Moment of truth: Oh yeah...
Oh, helz yes. The day I came home with half my head shaved (the left side) and the right side coiffed with supreme care into an eye-hiding wing, curtesy of Aquanet. To that point it had just been the gothy clothing that my parents could deal with because it came off. The hair wing, however, was the start of my difficult period.
Yes. Many Americans today have sordid relationships with their parents. Boomer Moms and Dads hide in their castles and laugh at their hopeless children. And they sit on their treasures because they know exactly where they're going when they get too old to take care of themselves. Eastern Europeans don't get it. They love their mommies and daddies and want to bring them everywhere. That's why the United States is so big. So we can get away from our parents.
It's true, Nick. Fate dealt me an extremely lucky hand; else, I would have ended up exactly like the Gen-Xers I describe. I bought a home as soon as I could. My mom is a CPA. When property values in Florida started doing key bumps of heroin, my mom told my brother and I "Something wicked this way comes. Sell it or love it forever." I sold it. For a profit that would probably send me straight to hell if I believed in such a place. I moved away from America proper. I own my home outright in PR and almost 5 acres of land. I work for pocket money. I am, as they say, semi-retired at 45. But all of that was luck of the draw, and I know it well. My parents live on the far side of the property. I am happy they are there. The thing with getting away from one's parents, though, is not a facet that's part of my life. The boasting I see from time to time in the forum from youths (usually male) of near prepubescent ages at which they fled from home (with no reason given) as a sign of studliness is foreign to me. I just want to respond with "Ok. Do you want a medal or a chest to pin it on?" It's not part of my experience. I've got more of the Big Fat (fill in the Mediterranean culture of Origin) Life thing going on.
As a non-parent, aged nearly 66, I don't know very many teenagers. But the ones I do know I like a lot. They don't take things too seriously, but at the same time they don't think the world owes them a living either. Most of them are concerned about the future, and are realistic about it. We saw a lot of teenagers getting involved in the Scottish referendum last September, and many of them were given the vote for the first time. (At the age of 16.) I thought they handled it well indeed. Sure, they do teenagery stuff like giggle a lot and wear clothing and hairstyles they themselves will laugh about 20 years down the line. But in general, I think they're fine folks. Every generation has its problems to deal with, and this one is no different. But I reckon they'll 'make it' same as we did. I think they're going to be harder to fool than the ones who were teenagers before them.
Well, I'm glad I got that out of my system. Some of it, at least. As I read it now, the article does strike me as fairly flawed. Even yesterday, the appeal of it wasn't so much that I thought it was funny as it happened to strike a chord with the mental tangent I was on. It reminds me of a piece I turned into class recently about drug use. Well, on to bigger and better things.
I honestly can not believe we are discussing an article published on cracked.com. I wouldn't even give it the time of day.
Is this dress blue and black or gold and white? https://tribwtic.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/dress-color.png?w=537 Its a strange thing people are debating (at least at the extreme it is) about but the science behind its pretty nifty
Being a teenager has always been about rebelling against the older generation and finding their own way. It has happened every generation and a natural reaction from the preceding generation is to be critical.
Young men are stupid sometimes. I look back on things I did/said even a year ago and I cringe....sometimes weep (inwardly, of course)
