Is there a great difference in teenage years?

I think every generation see teenagers as being abnoxious, that was certainly so in the 1960s. Whether they are actually obnoxious, in any generation, I really doubt.

Every generation has to separate themselves from the one above and stretch out and experience the world that they live in. The best way to show your independence is to turn your back on everything your parents hold dear.

Move on 15 years from 15 year olds. Most 30 year olds are taking life seriously, careers, marriage, families.

It is, as they say, a stage we all have to go through.

I just don't recognise these differences at all. Perhaps they are perceived? I was a teenager in the 60s/70s and there were a lot of drugs about. There was plenty of hate, racism, disrespect, bad manners, underage drinking and sex. (I lived in a very affluent area if that makes a difference).

I've had a career teaching teenagers (at a FE college in a not so good area) and was always impressed (overall) by their very good behaviour and caring, sensible attitudes.

SurChengin

I agree with your point about social media, at least when it was my turn for the mean girls to be mean, I went home at 4.00 and had till 9.00 the next morning before it resumed.

Not so now, there’s no getting away, I worry for young people on the wrong end of it, life must seem unbearable at times.

I agree with you Sara65.

Another big difference for today's teenagers is that they are assessed more regularly than when I was at school.

There was only the Vietnam war to concern us as on several occasions Britain looked as if it may have become involved and that would have brought back National Service
You surprise me, Grandad.
Perhaps you’ve forgotten about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of nuclear war which overshadowed my teenage years, 1962-68. I was also aware of the terrible fire at Windscale in 1957 and the possible effects in human health.
Then there was Harold Wilson’s devaluation of the pound in 1967 which caused some anxiety.
In the same year we had the first Arab-Israeli conflict, a portent of much worse things to come. And the Torrey Canyon oil spill, the first high-profile environmental disaster.

Plenty for a girl whose parents took a daily newspaper and listened to the six o’clock news every evening to worry about.

Let’s hope the young women of today don’t have to endure this sort of thing, which in 1970 was considered by many men (and women) to be normal and acceptable
m.youtube.com/watch?v=xhHB0dOVOYs

I think the greatest difference is in the level of maturity.

So many children these days have their lives micro managed by their parents so by the time they reach their teens they are still effectively children compared to my generation at their age.

I have witnessed many teenagers in a town centre phoning mum or dad to collect them!

The main joke of course is that Corbyn wants to give them the vote at 16

janeainsworth, in regard to your post @02:23 today, I would agree that the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962 was clearly a great concern to all who lived through that period. Indeed it was the only time throughout the cold war years that I felt I and many others could well have found ourselves caught up and possibly annihilated in a nuclear war.

The reason I mentioned the Vietnam war as priority was for the reason that had Britain become involved (which looked very likely at times) National Service would have been brought back, and as young men that would have affected us without doubt we felt.

Other matters that you point out in your above post also gave rise to anxiety, but throughout the 1960s I was in my teenage and early twenties years when jobs and wages were plentiful with life being far more straightforward than today, and thoroughly enjoyable I found.

In Bristol where I spent those years, I was never offered drugs, with fights and knives etc being of no concern to us. We did hear rumours of cannabis use among the student population of the city, but they seemed to keep themselves to themselves in the Clifton area of the city which few other young people ever visited in those days.

As I said in my earlier post in this thread, in my teenage and early twenties years I lived for my motorbike, my mates and a gang of girls that would to hang around with us which was all good for a great laugh and in that nothing ever seemed to be serious.

Hope this explains better how I found life in the 1960s and my attitude to it as a young man of those years.

However, I would agree that life for young women was somewhat different in what they were allowed to do, and the standards expected of them still. That said the 1960s were great "breakout years" for young women I found.

Every generation tut-tut’s about the “youth of today.” It’s just how life evolves. Nowadays information is everywhere. Teenagers are so well informed. I’m not saying it’s a good or bad thing, it just “is.” It’s the older generation who created global communication. I was a teenager 1965 to 1971 and was sooo naive! Today’s teenagers will go on to create the generations after them and they will probably end up on Gransnet talking about the same subject. Lol.

Teenager in the 60s. Definitely more respect for everyone and better manners all round. Expectations from adults were higher so feel teenagers were more mature than today. Today much more money to spend, have views on a lot of topics but they are usually repeated from media, not own thinking. We didn't expect to have food "on tap" nor did we party so much (think school Proms even). Voting at 16/17 goodness, couldn't make my mind up what to wear at weekend (not so much choice either) never mind which political party I thought would be best at running country. I even think 18 is too young. Drugs were around but not the heavy heroin/cocaine types so much as they are today.

I would mostly disagree with the statements which came from the OPs group of older people. I don't see the world in the way stated there.

Jennifer - 16 year olds voted in the Scottish independence election. It all went just fine, the sky didn’t fall in, and many would argue that young people choose their vote more carefully than older people as they’ll be living with the consequences for a lot longer.

I have to admit I had a little chuckle at "usually repeated from media, not own thinking", having followed threads on here.

I don't know what kind of teenagers you know 4allweknow, but the ones I've come across very much have their own thinking.

It's said that 'comparison is the thief of joy' and with youngsters looking the social media I think it encourages them to compare themselves with others so much more.
We compared ourselves with the models in teenage magazines and found ourselves wanting - not pretty enough, hair disastrous, body wrong shape - now it's so much worse.
Porn is easily available and it's skewing ideas about what is normal. Girls are under pressure and boys too it has to be said. They are sexualised before they gain the maturity to cope with it.
The Kardashions/Beckhams of this world are another case in point - no-one is allowed to be 'good enough' anymore, you must be perfect. Who is, for heaven's sake?
I think it's worse today and I'd hate to be a teenager now.

When my youngest was in senior school, it was just the beginning of things like MSN and Beebo ( I think that’s right!) initially it was banned, and then it crept in by stealth, with us allowing her to take part in a sporting forum. The desk top computer was in a corner of the living room, and I could hear what her and her friends were giggling about in the corner, but there was an incident once when they were sent a very pornographic photo, which I think now I probably should have taken to the police.

My point really is, that they now all have phones and laptops, and I imagine it’s almost impossible to know what they’re watching, or who they’re talking to.

Scary times.

My son’s friend (12) had fairly explicit porn sent to his phone by another one of his classmates recently - his mum, quite rightly, phoned the community police officer and the boy was spoken to informally. I’m having to navigate a whole other level of social media and phone use now - it’s changed so much in the ten years since my older 2 were starting high school. I hate it.

I agree with a lot of what Martha Beck says , especially about manners! But the knife culture , although worrying is not really new, is it!? I was brought up in 50/60s as were most of us , you telling me you don’t remember ‘teddy boys’ with their ‘flick knives’ and the chains wrapped around their hands inside their pockets. Also on the point of dress culture ....the teddy boys were always smartly dressed in suits , shined shoes, and spotless white shirts. Don’t be fooled by ‘hoodies’ ...it’s just fashion and not a sign of criminality!

....I’d forgotten ‘knuckle -dusters’.... nothing much changes...we just get older and with selective memories!

I worry about the levels of on screen violence our young are exposed to in film, tv, online entertainment etc. Every era has had its challenges I suppose, but it's variety and content seems darker, more available and insidious these days.

I was a teenager in the 80’s and hated travelling on buses because a lot of the other school kids were loud, rude and had no respect for anyone.
I didn’t hang around the streets or drink cider and smoke in the park (although I know a lot of my friends did)
I also knew nothing about sex as my parents had never explained anything to me - except when I had my first period and my mum said ‘right, this will happen every month and you can get pregnant now!!’
I still had no idea what she was talking about ?
One of my best friends at school had a couple of abortions before she was 15 but again we never spoke about it.
Experimenting with neon make up in the 80’s was an experience - what I must have looked like! ?

I have a 24 yo DD, 23 yo DS, and 14 yo DD.

The eldest two both work and have moved out of home.
My youngest is fantastic at make up thanks to the online tutorials nowadays.
Yes she has more money than I used to, but uses it to go shopping, out for lunch with her friends - it was Wagamama yesterday or saves it for a particular pair of trainers.

Both her and her two best friends are well behaved at school, work hard when there and have regular sleepovers at each others houses.
They don’t hang around the streets, smoke or drink in the park but again they have friends who do so in that respect teenagers haven’t changed!
It’s the same with being respectful to both peers and their elders. Nothing’s changed...

I talked to all my kids about sex, drink and drugs, so that’s a huge change from my youth. They could have an alcoholic drink with a special dinner, and we as a family have never smoked I guess that’s rubbed off on them.

I think that listening to your children is a HUGE thing! I don’t think my mum in particular ever really listened to me, and that’s sadly given us a fractured relationship now.

I don’t want that with my children - we are incredibly close. They call me daily and I tell them I love them every time I say goodbye to them.
I want them to be able to come to me and talk to me no matter what the problem is.

There was nothing on that list about equality or feminism (unless I missed something). Thank goodness we aren't expected to be nice little secretaries, willing to sit on some creep's lap any more!
Sex, drugs and rock n'roll have been around for a LONG time and certainly existed in my teen years. Anyone remember teddy boys? They were (reputedly) the knife-wielding things of the day in the 50s.
As for teens being more street-wise - maybe they are. But they don't seem very mature to me. Young men especially seem to be children till at least their 30s. As others have said, our generation were out working much younger - it was fairly usual for girls in their late teens to be wives and mothers and running their own homes and for most teenagers to be in full-time work. I don't think there was anyone at my school in the 6th form who didn't have a Saturday job - now nobody seems to have them.

"things"? I'm sure I wrote "thugs"!

Yes, teenagers today are taught about sex, the risks of infection or unwanted pregnancy, taught about drugs etc. at school, but speaking as a teacher I know that a good many pay no attention when warned about health risks.

Teenagers still, just as we did, listen more to each other than to what their parents or teachers say.

It never was easy being a teenager and it still isn't. The problems have changed, that's all.

I think it changed during the 60s. I was a teenager late 60s and early 70s and I think we were all aware that we were very different from the teenagers of the 50s. Everyone was quite worried. I don't think it was just relative, I think there really was a rapid change around that time.

I am another who finds Grandads innocence as a teenager, a bit surprising. The cold war and the threat of nuclear anihilation overshadowed our childhoods as Global warming does our grandchildren's.

Yes, we were used to it and I didn't waste any sleep over it, but it was there all the time. The fear of the Soviet Union, the constant reminder of how brutal its government was: Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968. The fear of conventional war and attack by the USSR was certainly significant in my teenage years.

Perhaps because my father was in the army, I was also aware of the world wide creeping of communism. He served in Hong Kong, during the Korean War. Hong Kong was the supply base for the war and my father was in logistics. Later during service in Malaya, there was the threat of communist insurgence there. I watched the parade in Kuala Lumpur that marked the final end of the Emergency, as it was known.

But more than anything the knowledge of a possible nuclear holocaust was always there.