Oh...My...God... Teenagers really are more idiotic these days.

My kids are 3 years old and 8 months. I don't see how I can be considered a teenager when I'm old enough to get alcohol(which I don't take advantage of cuz I'm trying to diet and beer guts are terrible). Plus the requirements for teenagers is the word "teen" in their age, right? Like, thirdteen, fourteen, fifteen, and so on.... I'm twenty-four. There is no "teen" in there. When I turned twenty I became an official adult and shed the teen skin.

Though I'm not going to say my generation isn't at fault for anything. I've noticed a lot of things in the news about people my age doing stupid things. I've noticed a lot of pedophiles popping up lately that are my age... >.
 
Here's the thing: I was given a sex ed class when I was younger. Our 6th grade health class was made to watch a video about Ryan White. In neither of those situations was the word 'bleach' even mentioned, and I still knew enough not to fucking drink it. People truly are getting dumber.
 
[quote name='BluesCluesMama']thirdteen[/QUOTE]


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[quote name='BluesCluesMama']Plus the requirements for teenagers is the word "teen" in their age, right? Like, thirdteen, fourteen, fifteen, and so on.... I'm twenty-four. There is no "teen" in there. When I turned twenty I became an official adult and shed the teen skin.[/QUOTE]

You're saying a lot of different things, all highly confusing and at ends with each other.

First off, a generation is generally around 20 years or so in terms of when people are born. So that could mean that teenagers on up to a twenty year old would be considered in the same group.

Second, I don't know if this varies by state, but usually you are considered an "official" adult at the age of 18, which....well, that classifies them as a "teen" by your standards, but the law and government would try people as an adult. It's the age your parents are no longer responsible for you, that you are supposed to move out and get an apartment and go to college, etc.

Third, various cultures around the world use different ages to commemorate adulthood. I guess the best example I have is the Jews, where a boy becomes a man at the age of....I think 13. A girl's fifteenth birthday is a HUGE day in Spanish culture, with a party thrown that actually rivals a wedding in terms of planning, execution, and funding.

However, that leads me to my fourth point, which is that no one just becomes an adult magically at some point. People grow up at different times. Sometimes a kid's parents die and they have to raise their younger siblings, so they grow up quickly. Other times, people are spoiled rich fucks who get everyone handed to them, and never grow up (Paris Hilton). You're talking about using one's age as a definite indicator of maturity, and that's confusing it with legal terms of calling someone an adult.

So you're really making some odd and confusing remarks here.
 
All I know after teaching high school kids over the past few years and comparing them to my old high school from around 10 years back is that very little has changed.

The popular, nasty words have changed slightly but there's a great deal of overlap in their lexicons.

Attempts to get sex in many ways, positions, and with many partners remains the same, although perhaps the impregnation factor has probably increased a little bit. Still a surprising number of people getting pregnant around field trips, though.

The dumb shit they did back in my day is about equal to the dumb shit they do now. The only difference seems to be that they are focusing a bit less on getting things from dealers (save for pot) and are taking getting high into their own hands. Then again, it isn't like our school back in the 70's, where you could find someone doing pretty much anything imaginable just 20 feet away from the building proper. ;)

In the end I'd like to propose that stupidity isn't a generational matter. It is often, however, a fine source of comedy on some otherwise uneventful days!
 
I've got some buddies and we all drink bleach
You know we practice what we preach
We're not a drunken bunch of frat-boys
Trashed on beers
Or a stoned bunch of hippies
With no careers
I wanna drink bleach with a Georgia peach

My pals and I all drink Clorox
Or eat Snowy Bleach right out of the box
Teenage suicide rate's shot high
And we understand the reasons why
Bleach does more than whiten socks

Don't you wanna hang out with the Bleach Boys, baby?
In a world where ministers murder golf pros
Don't you wanna drink some bleach tonight?

Maybe there'll be a party at the beach
We'll bitch about life and chugalug bleach
No one's getting high, and no one's getting drunk
I've got a case of bleach stashed in my trunk
I wanna die with Clorox within reach

I'm very proud of the respect I've earned
And my voice is very deep cause my throat got burned
Bleach keeps you young so I've been told
Cause no one who drinks it lives to get old
Drink it with a chaser was the first thing that I learned

Don't you wanna hang out with the Bleach Boys baby?
In a world where midgets run for mayor
Don't you wanna drink some bleach tonight?

I had 26 friends in the beginning
But now it seems our numbers are thinning
Some people drive fast, others love to bet
Still others snort coke in a private jet
But drinking bleach is my way of winning

Don't you wanna hang out with the Bleach Boys baby?
In a world where welders own our schools
Don't you wanna drink some bleach tonight?

I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I am so bored!
I am so bored!

-The Dead Milkmen circa 1985

You think teenagers are only getting stupid now?
 
I think the difference between people now and previous generations is the access to immediate information overload, which in turn means you can blame dumb shit on a lot more sources.

I remember hearing from adults that they used to have teachers in high school that - during sex ed class - were told things like "If you hold hands, you'll get pregnant."

It's the same issue now, but suddenly you've got ten fold the number of sources to pick and choose from. So now kids can go online into myspace, Facebook, Youtube, or Wikipedia, read some dumb shit, assume it's true, and try to get away with stuff.

It's just a gigantic game of telephone, except instead of purple monkey dishwasher, you get kids telling other kids that bleach will stop HIV.

One of my high school teachers during sex ed used to tell us that she had students coming up to her all the time at one point saying that they avoided getting pregnant by throwing up. She had to correct them by saying that the stomach and intestines have absolutely nothing to do with child birth, but the kids didn't care.

It's just that attitude multiplied and magnified these days, coupled with a greater ability for people to spread it around (24 hour news, endless news websites, etc).

So I dunno. Does that make each successive generation more idiotic? Hard call. It certainly helps them be given access to a huge amount of falsified testimony from ridiculous resources.

I wonder, though, if each generation is more willing to believe in such trash. That's the bigger issue here. Are kids so hard up for sex and resisting HIV that they want to drink bleach, so they tell each other it's ok, and they all believe it even though it says it's poisonous, and they just shrug that off as a "That's what they WANT you to think" ?

I mean whenever I hear about some stupid shit now, there's always some bullshit explanation from the person who did it. It's always someone else's fault, they told me to do it, I'm innocent, etc. There's this overwhelming nature to blame everyone and everything else now.

I've rambled on enough for the time being.
 
[quote name='AngellicLulu']I can't believe the OP is a year older than me and bitching about this.
And at least in my part of Florida, sex ed is not that bad. I'd blame the internet for the stupidity over a sex ed curriculum. It also depends on who teaches it. My father teaches anatomy and he is very open with the kids.
I'll admit I teach elementary school so the human growth and development is very basic. I don't participate in the curriculum either.
But to say teenagers are more idiotic is just ignorance. 5 years ago, teenagers were doing the same crap and mainly it was attention seeking behaviors. I've heard the mountain dew thing for years on the internet.
Teaching elementary school lets me preview the next generation... and from what I see... nothing different is coming from these kids then what came from the kids around me when I was a kid.[/quote]So you think that abstinence should continue to be taught? Wouldn't it be better to teach them how to really prevent pregnancy instead of letting them find these little nuggets of stupidity? I would hope that if they knew about real birth control, they wouldn't go around drinking clorox.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']So you think that abstinence should continue to be taught? Wouldn't it be better to teach them how to really prevent pregnancy instead of letting them find these little nuggets of stupidity? I would hope that if they knew about real birth control, they wouldn't go around drinking clorox.[/QUOTE]
They teach birth control and abstinence that's why I'm confused. At least in my county, that's how it's approached. Unless it completely changed very recently.
 
[quote name='AngellicLulu']They teach birth control and abstinence that's why I'm confused. At least in my county, that's how it's approached. Unless it completely changed very recently.[/quote]That is weird. Maybe it's a county by county basis.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']That is weird. Maybe it's a county by county basis.[/QUOTE]
Well, I know the curriculum I was taught was codeveloped by my father who works as an anatomy teacher and health professor and that was the curriculum the county used. It may have changed but I think I would hear my father complaining about crappy curriculum.
 
[quote name='BluesCluesMama']My kids are 3 years old and 8 months. I don't see how I can be considered a teenager when I'm old enough to get alcohol(which I don't take advantage of cuz I'm trying to diet and beer guts are terrible). Plus the requirements for teenagers is the word "teen" in their age, right? Like, thirdteen, fourteen, fifteen, and so on.... I'm twenty-four. There is no "teen" in there. When I turned twenty I became an official adult and shed the teen skin.

Though I'm not going to say my generation isn't at fault for anything. I've noticed a lot of things in the news about people my age doing stupid things. I've noticed a lot of pedophiles popping up lately that are my age... >.
 
[quote name='naes']Three years old? And you're 24? :lol:[/QUOTE]
Why are you laughing about that? 21 is a fine age to have a child. Now if she was in her teens when she had a child it would totally fuck up her debate.
 
[quote name='AngellicLulu']Why are you laughing about that? 21 is a fine age to have a child. Now if she was in her teens when she had a child it would totally fuck up her debate.[/quote]
I knew no one would see the connection at first. Think outside the box.
 
I think that depends on the person. I have a 24 year old cousin who is about to be a father and i wouldn't trust him to take care of a house plant.
 
I very much dislike anyone younger than me (I'm 23), but things seem worse today because of the Internet's ability to, not just share eventful stories, but all world news - even oddities like this Florida Bleach fiasco. One must take into consideration how news is so very accessible today. I grew up in the 1990s, and even I didn't have such simple access to news. In my research days, I had to visit libraries and tediously scour their resources for stories I needed for my research. We often overlook things we use often but casually regard. Things may seem worse, these days, but, maybe, it's just because news is now only a click away.
 
When I was in school, sex ed (if you can call it that) wasn't taught until high school. For the one week that it was discussed in health class, the boys were taught about the male reproductive system and the girls about the female. At no point was I taught about the female side of things.

Made for a really awkward wedding night... ;)
 
[quote name='chasemurata']In my research days, I had to visit libraries and tediously scour their resources for stories I needed for my research. We often overlook things we use often but casually regard. Things may seem worse, these days, but, maybe, it's just because news is now only a click away.[/QUOTE]

Oh yeah! Well, when I was a kid, we had to walk 10 miles in the snow, uphill both ways, to do research from stone tablets found in the desert. Or something like that, I don't really remember any more ;).

Anyway, yes, I agree that the internet and specifically things like Youtube not only give access to a lot more stupid ideas for kids to try out but also report that stupidity back to us in near real-time. Stupid shit happened all the time before and we just never heard about it so much.

A funny aside about the sex ed classes... I never had a one while I was growing up. At what point do they usually teach this stuff? It could be because I went to private school from 6th grade on. I think the parents would have been pretty pissed if they wasted valuable time on things like that at a private school ;). As such I have no basis for commenting on what should or shouldn't be taught in such classes - I really don't know. But I need to think about it as my dughter becomes a teen. FWIW, she does a lot of eye rolling at the (very mild) crazy behavior she sees out of kids her age. So I'm not too worried about her.
 
[quote name='io']Anyway, yes, I agree that the internet and specifically things like Youtube not only give access to a lot more stupid ideas for kids to try out but also report that stupidity back to us in near real-time. Stupid shit happened all the time before and we just never heard about it so much.[/quote]

I agree entirely.

Another thing to take into account is that the world has changed quite a bit. Each generation has become a little more self-centric, I think. Coupled with today's speed of life and desire for instant gratification and you end up with an awful lot of people doing an awful lot of stupid things.
 
[quote name='io']Oh yeah! Well, when I was a kid, we had to walk 10 miles in the snow, uphill both ways, to do research from stone tablets found in the desert. Or something like that, I don't really remember any more ;).

Anyway, yes, I agree that the internet and specifically things like Youtube not only give access to a lot more stupid ideas for kids to try out but also report that stupidity back to us in near real-time. Stupid shit happened all the time before and we just never heard about it so much.

A funny aside about the sex ed classes... I never had a one while I was growing up. At what point do they usually teach this stuff? It could be because I went to private school from 6th grade on. I think the parents would have been pretty pissed if they wasted valuable time on things like that at a private school ;). As such I have no basis for commenting on what should or shouldn't be taught in such classes - I really don't know. But I need to think about it as my dughter becomes a teen. FWIW, she does a lot of eye rolling at the (very mild) crazy behavior she sees out of kids her age. So I'm not too worried about her.[/quote]

Hahaha... It was only a 7 mile walk for I. ;)

Also, I think health and physical education are wastes of time. I'd like to see health made a part of advisory/homeroom, or included in a science course. Physical education should be eliminated. Even with mandatory physical education, today's youth (and adults, for that matter; later generations) is overweight. I fail to see the benefit in making Porky exhausted before his Algebra test.
 
[quote name='dastly75'] the 10th grade teacher stretched a condom over her fist down to her elbow to demonstrate...umm something.[/quote]


1. How not to have sex.
2. To show you that figuring out where the condom goes is harder than you think.
3. To make you never ever want to have sex because that image will always stay with you.
 
[quote name='io']A funny aside about the sex ed classes... I never had a one while I was growing up. At what point do they usually teach this stuff? It could be because I went to private school from 6th grade on. I think the parents would have been pretty pissed if they wasted valuable time on things like that at a private school ;). As such I have no basis for commenting on what should or shouldn't be taught in such classes - I really don't know. But I need to think about it as my dughter becomes a teen. FWIW, she does a lot of eye rolling at the (very mild) crazy behavior she sees out of kids her age. So I'm not too worried about her.[/QUOTE]

They taught us Sex Ed in either 7th or 8th grade, I don't remember exactly. I do remember that you had to get a permission slip signed to take the class, and if you didn't, you were sent to the Desert Survival class.

I also remember that they had a fake testicle to help us identify testicular cancer, but our class got the wrong box, and we ended up with the fake breast for the girls. Some guys tried to convince the teacher that we should try that one, as we may need to help inspect our wives one day, but when the girl's teacher found out we had the wrong box, she flipped out.
 
This kid at school told me he used a garbage bag as a condom. I'm pretty sure he was joking, but I really couldn't tell.

My sex ed class was pretty dumb. All they showed us were a bunch of girl's infected eyes and guys with shit all over their face and told us "THINK BEFORE YOU HAVE SEX!" Or at least wear goggles.
 
[quote name='Blackout542']This kid at school told me he used a garbage bag as a condom. I'm pretty sure he was joking, but I really couldn't tell.

My sex ed class was pretty dumb. All they showed us were a bunch of girl's infected eyes and guys with shit all over their face and told us "THINK BEFORE YOU HAVE SEX!" Or at least wear goggles.[/quote]

W.T.F

All I remember from Health class in high school was watching some made-for-TV movie about Bulemia starring Calista Flockhart. :rofl:

Oh yeah, and our school police officer told us some crazy stories including some guy who strapped his dick to his car and put it in gear and chased it down the street. There must be some joke here about autoerotic asphyxiation...:whistle2:k
 
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