For a start teenagers these days seem to be a lot more image conscious, how they look is important to them.... In my day you just threw on a pair of jeans some trainers wet your hair down and that was as good as it got, so today's image conscious teenager is purely a product of media pressure of how to look.
I also think teenagers today are a lot more self centred, I'm probably not very qualified to comment on all of this because at 16 I was in the Army and under a very different type of social order which was very disciplined and ordered, but to be honest I couldn't be a teenager these days, life seems over complicated for them, mostly their own doing I might add, what with social media, phones, computers that instant fix they get where each and every one of their friends can contact them at a moments notice in real time.
I think that puts a fair amount of unneeded pressure on them again all their own doing....
I'll give you an example I could turn off FOMOteens internet right now and within seconds he'd be in here saying "Internet is off"....that would be the limit of his conversation about the subject or the other favourite one is "my download is really slow".... but that's mainly because I throttle his connection or he'd quite happily take it all 24/7 and not give a thought to anybody else using the internet......
I'd have no sympathy of course because his life revolves around the internet, he's spent all weekend since Friday afternoon online solid (it's Sunday afternoon now) actually that's not entirely true he did come downstairs with his phone surgically attached to him once and sat with us but his face was crooked over pawing at his phone like a demented baboon in case he missed some mind blowing event online......and of course there are the refuelling stops for food and drink, but like a ninja he spends very little time on the mission, get in get food get out.....
Sometimes he turns his phone to us and says look at this ..... and we are subjected to some mind numbing banality which apparently passes for humour.
I sometimes despair at today's youth, their lives and minds instead of being expanded by technology have been narrowed to the point of bite sized drivel spoon fed to them by the likes of youtube, facebook, twitter or some other social media platform.... I do not think it's healthy one little bit.
To be fair to FOMOteen he's doing very well at school so I shouldn't complain but bloody hell get out in the real world and do something REAL !!!!
As for the other teenagers I come into contact with where I work well lets just say in the most part respect isn't part of their world, a prime example of that is opening a door before they do and they assume you're opening it for them and they come barging through......ONE of my pet hates about teenagers, they are completely in their own world anything on the periphery is of no importance to them, until it gets in their face.....
I've learnt though.....I ignore them and just carry on walking as if they aren't there, basic physics takes over at the point in that I am the larger mass therefore my kinetic energy is transferred to them, and do you know what over the weeks I've been employing this non verbal method of teaching them manners I see the same faces going for the door, then them seeing me and knowing I'm an immovable and much higher mass object and they give way......
but sadly it's not through manners it's purely through not wanting to bounce off me again in front of their yolo swag friends.......
I've got to be honest I tolerate teenagers but I have a very low boiling point with them, I much prefer when they've grown up a bit and become more aware of the world around them instead of the self absorbed years parents have to endure......
Things that will make steam blow from my ears with teenagers......
A) Disrespecting an Adult (guaranteed thermonuclear uncontrolled detonation)
B) Assuming they deserve respect for simply existing having done nothing to deserve it
C) Trying to negotiate (pointless in my eyes, rules are rules)
D) Tantrums (2 year olds do tantrums, do a tantrum with me in your teen years it'll be your last)
Other than that teenagers are really cool dudes man.......cough
