From time to time, we hear complaints about how kids today are awful for one reason or another. Let’s be real — occasionally, these comments aren’t justified and are just plain hate towards children without any proper reason.
At the same time, sometimes, these criticisms can be absolutely valid. After all, sometimes even children deserve some critique, especially if it’s going to lead to an improvement in their behavior. And that’s why we’re here today — to see what people online deem to be reasonable criticisms of kids today in a discussion on Reddit that was initiated by the platform’s user u/Jerswar.
More info: Reddit
#1
I mean the amount of teachers in America complaining that students of all ages, including teenagers are unable to read properly is probably something to be concerned about
Image source: nottherealneal, Maël BALLAND
#2
Kids today don’t know how to be bored. They don’t know how to entertain themselves. They grab the phone the moment they’re not being stimulated. I had to learn how to deal with boredom. They don’t have those skills.
Image source: TwoAmoebasHugging, Maria Geller
#3
Kids today will self-diagnose mental health conditions to justify their difficulties in life.
Don’t get me wrong, young people with legitimate mental health struggles affecting their lives do exist, but unless a medical professional evaluates you and makes a.diagnosis, I will take your #ActuallyAutistic TikTok with a grain of salt.
I also have a hard time believing that so many people from Gen Z have DID, it’s an exceedingly rare diagnosis, so much so that there’s even a debate among trained psychiatrists about it potentially not even being a real thing at all.
Image source: SomeMillennialHippie, cottonbro studio
#4
They are worse in school – not just academically but behaviour-wise as well.
A teacher friend told me about how she is constantly getting s**t on by her classes. From how she described it, it sounds like outright bullying.
She basically said that they openly mock and laugh at her for everything she says or does. In her words ‘a running commentary of criticism’.
A school in a nearby town lost 18 teachers at Christmas, all quit from being sick of the abuse.
My year was considered awful when I was in school, but it was mainly refusal to do things, arguments, the usual.
Nowadays it’s less back-and-forth with students and teachers and more just a barrage of insults and threats.
After hearing that I really wonder how long teachers will last as a whole if something doesn’t change.
Image source: QueenQueerBen, Arthur Krijgsman
#5
Kids today are still suffering with the aftermath of lockdowns combined with the overexposure to certain badly regulated forms of social media(TikTok).
Image source: Logical-Wasabi7402, Katerina Holmes
#6
Their social skills leave a lot to be desired.
Image source: FatnessEverdeen34, kat wilcox
#7
The kids today have victim mindset. They will over-react instead of accepting their fault and working on them if you try to criticise them.
Image source: i_m_nobody_who_r_u, Andrea Piacquadio
#8
They seem to have a lot more anxiety than my generation. We were more relaxed. These kids have anxiety and crazy expectations.
No one played a sport year round for 20 hours a week when I was kid with few exceptions. These kids play constant sports and after school tutoring and need to do homework, get good grades, and be start athletics at the same time. Gen X didn’t give a s**t about any of that. We opted out.
Image source: 1920sBig, Pixabay
#9
We are in our phones and devices too damn much to enjoy life WITH each other.
Image source: Individual-Voice-783, Mizuno K
#10
They’re overly anxious. Our brains were not fit to withstand criticism on a global scale (which social media offers) and children without yet a prefrontal cortex are stunting their mental health capacity.
Image source: Comfortable-Ear-9186, Monstera Production
#11
Having worked at a university, younger people aren’t very good expressing their needs. Whenver someone came to my office for something, I had to play with words to try decipher what they were trying to say in order to give them the help they needed.
Image source: leafyfire, George Pak
#12
I really dont mean to sound like a boomer here, but instilling work ethic before adulthood is critical, and I think there’s been a decline in that lately. Make sure kids are helping around the house, show them how to wrench on s**t, things like that.
Image source: cheesyellowdischarge, Zen Chung
#13
I feel like Gen Z is growing up in an era filled with rage bait more than there’s ever been in the past and public discourse is going to look wild when they’re in the 30s and 40s
Image source: Kalos9990, Stock Catalog
#14
I saw a meme- 50 years ago car manuals showed you how to adjust the valves….today they warn you not to drink the contents of the battery. And every year I’m alive I understand why my grandparents were so crotchety.
Image source: North-Department-112
#15
I have never seen such a failing in basic math and study skills. I’ve taught freshman in college who didn’t know how to do the simplest algebra possible and regularly failed open-book tests with the answers verbatim in the book. It hurts to grade.
Image source: greenwizardneedsfood, RF._.studio
#16
They need to stop f*****g disrupting foot traffic in public places to film themselves badly dancing to loud awful music on tiktok. Especially here in nyc. We’ve got rules man, don’t block the f*****g sidewalk.
Image source: DreadedChalupacabra, cottonbro studio
#17
Kids today have subpar typing skills compared to the generation that grew up with physical keyboards
Image source: JonRevolta1, August de Richelieu
#18
Less emotional maturity and lack of ability to cope under pressure
Image source: ryry_butterfly, Ike louie Natividad
#19
Around 2012-13, I spent a year working as an online tutor for essay writing. I had several students and graduate students from a well-known Christian university that had very low enrollment criteria.
I had undergraduates who couldn’t form a complete sentence, who totally lacked any knowledge of proper English grammar and punctuation, and who couldn’t tell me what the verb was in their introductory sentence. And yet, I was expected to tutor them in their writing skills in a very short period of time.
Their college had purchased a subscription for all of their students, and so avoided having an on-site writing center for students who struggled.
I had one essay I long remembered: a doctoral student’s dissertation was given to me to review, and the student’s “research” involved a Survey Monkey survey with 10 questions, that all of 10 people answered. ALL of her conclusions were reached from “interpreting” her survey results. The *only* source of information she used other than her survey results was the Bible. Really.
And it was only 5 pages long. FIVE PAGES!! For a doctoral dissertation!! Liberty University. Never hire someone from there.
Image source: STEM_Educator, Pixabay
#20
The ability to troubleshoot things. I’ve noticed this to be an increasing trend. If something isn’t working, they don’t appear to know how to find the answer. They grasp things quickly but I expected them to be able to solve things more easily. It seems to be going the other direction.
Image source: Vlaed, Andrea Piacquadio
#21
I work at ulta and I also know that sephora has this issue too. Kids (specifically preteen girls) today are actively using retinol. Using retinol at such a young age (the only exception is prescription-use) will damage their skin barriers.
Image source: Svnny-, KoolShooters
#22
They aren’t as sociable they used to be. When I was a kid, going to the neighbors house to wrestle in the backyard was common, now kids are much happier just sitting at home playing a game.
Image source: Trashpit996, EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA
#23
10 year old girls asking Santa for expensive skincare with active ingredients which should not be used by anyone under 25 or so, and literal kids flocking to Sephora and destroying samples.
Image source: cakez_, Ron Lach
#24
*some* kids today have a very limited attention span and can barely read despite being high school graduates. One of my kids’ friends is like this. A sweet person but basically consumes a media diet of YouTube shorts. She doesn’t read anything ever. When she talks she sounds like she’s speaking Newspeak from 1984. Instead of saying “this is delicious”. She might say “this is so so good.”.
Image source: Alley_cat_alien, RDNE Stock project
#25
One of rhe odd things about “the kids today” which I think will be important to look at in the future, is that kids today are consuming content made by Kids. That’s never happened before. But a lot of the youtube channels tiktok accounts, etc. That they look at, are made by kids the same age as them.
Image source: ChuckNorrisKickflip, Ron Lach
#26
I think Gen Z are very progressive when it comes to things like LGBTQ, disabilities and neurodiversity, but they have a big issue with ageism.
It feels like a pathological need to be young and a big fear about getting older.
Image source: SupervillainEyebrows, 𝔥𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔞𝔯𝔶 𝔭𝔢𝔯𝔞𝔩𝔱𝔞
#27
The kids today need to stop putting Botox and fillers into their faces before they’ve even finished developing their frontal lobes.
Image source: SauronOMordor, Jonathan Borba
#28
Sidewalk and hallway etiquette. Walking 2-3 abreast as others come toward them. I’m not going to walk in the street so you can hear what Aiden is saying. Move over or be moved over.
Image source: bgzkinsella, Brett Sayles
#29
The non-existence of media literacy. The amount of misinformation that is easily spreading on social media is scary. Especially when it comes to stuff like basic biology..
Edit: after gaining some new perspectives on this from the comments I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe this is more of a me problem since I’m so sceptic so I tend to double-triple check facts I see on the internet 🤔
Image source: pinkbarb1ie, Anna Shvets
#30
I haven’t read it yet, because I just saw it yesterday, but it proves the research by the American psychologist Jean Twenge showing that Americans are getting more narcissistic. It’s just happening everywhere in the developed world, and the trend began way before social media. I believe wealth is the cause.
Image source: theendisthis, Julia M Cameron
#31
Basically that their parents failed them.
Image source: Remarkable-Estate775
#32
A lot of kids nowadays don’t think they have to take responsibility for their actions. If anything, they think it’s hilarious and post it to YouTube and TikTok as a “challenge” . For example, the enormous rash of Kia and Hyundai break-ins, thanks to kids finding out how easy it is to break in.
#33
Knowing professional phone etiquette… Or how to talk on the phone period
#34
The real problem is the insane way they make a heart with their fingers…
#35
Speak in meme phrases instead of actually communicating.
Image source: BogdanSPB, Monstera Production
#36
Their small talk skills are next to nothing
Image source: 0Helpful-Candy0
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