Kids these days, eh?

[Dogg Thang]

OLD MAN POST:

So I was watching This Is England. For the most part, it's not like my childhood at all but I certainly recognised many aspects of it and it reminded me of some times and things I had long buried away. One of the things Shane Meadows talks about in interviews is the different groups and subcultures that there were among kids in those times - metal heads, skinheads, punks, goths and so on. I kind of went through most of them myself, although less punk and I skipped skinhead altogether. Meadows reckons kids don't really have that these days and I wondered, is he right? I grew up a bit while many kids were becoming ravers and I guess some crusties (new age hippies) and then...? All I can think of are the emo kids, who were watered down pop goths and then just diluted versions of the others, like the cleaner, nicer, Green Day skater type punks for example. And now, well, it all seems so sanitised these days.

When I was young, all those groups couldn't be missed. They owned the streets. But now, I'm not seeing them or any noticeable new groups in their place. But that might be because I'm old and I'm not seeing it or not going to the places they hang out.

So I'm wondering...

What modern groups are there among kids these days?
If these sorts of subcultures no longer exist to the same extent, why not?
Is it a good thing? A bad thing? A bit of both?

For me, I reckon the Internet plays a big role of course. When we were young, we didn't always have an easy time finding a sense of belonging and I think much of what was attractive about those groups was just feeling like being part of something. Music and ideas were passed around in person so instantly had a sense of connection attached. Whereas now, we can all find like minded individuals on the Internet so maybe these groups serve no real purpose any more. Music (just as one part of youth culture) appears to have lost value, and I don't mean just financial. With me, I loved games in a big way and yet very few kids around me did so I was alone in that. If we'd had the Internet, I'd have found tons of people like me online very quickly. That seems like a good thing.

And yet I wonder if that can negatively affect a sense of actual physical community? Has that created a divide and conquer scenario that we older people interpret as apathy among the youth? Or worse, that the kids are completely buying into the commercial corporate world our generation and the generation just above us owns? Will this prevent the youth from making the world their own and why aren't they doing that already?

And here's something to take you back...

[dvdx2]

Technology (mainly internet/mobile phone) has completely transformed the way young people interact. I had a chuckle the other night in a coffee shop were these 4 kids (around 15 years old) were attempting to have this conversation about movies, whilst they all looking down using their mobile phones, fingers frantically moving. (They might as well been at home in their bedrooms alone)

I also remember looking out my office window about 6 mths ago and there was this group of young people (13 boys) walking up to a university open day. Ten of them were using their mobiles, whilst walking and talking....

Its even infested the workplace , were the young twenty somethings will sit at lunch table in silence on their lunchbreaks addicted to their mobile phone....

Regarding gaming, the new online technologies are even less of an incentive for young people to interact or leave the house with their hundreds of internet 'friends'. Meanwhile their social skills arent developing; false confidence is gained behind a mic/keyboard; lack of exercise and poor diet is hiding a multitude of future problems (both physical and mental)


If all that isnt affecting groupings, subcultures etc i dont know what is.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, I agree. Any of us here will know that online connections do have value and that just because we're staring into a screen does not mean we aren't interacting. But it seems easier for the older generation to ignore 100,000 kids online than it is to ignore 50 kids hanging out on a street corner. As valuable as online global connections can be, they seem to be stripping the youth of their relevance in many ways. Am I wrong?

[capcom_suicide]

Einstein said it well: I Fear the Day That Technology Will Surpass Our Human Interaction.

[Kit]

Man, I think they seem to be 'trying' to grow up too quickly atm as they're exposed to all this adult interent ****, and it's ****ing them up as they clearly aren't emotionally ready.

Lot of the teens nowadays seem into ket and self harming. I don't remember anyone self harming when I was growing up but I know at least 4 people now covered in scars.

[sj33]

I definitely think the connected nature of modern society has a lot to do with it. At 28, I'm a tad younger than many people here so I arrived just after many of these cultures, but my father was a punk during the late 70s-early 80s period (and still is, in fact). I can only imagine what is must have been like back then - not only did people not have the internet as a tool to help find like-minded people, but society in general was also much more judgemental of 'subcultures' and essentially drove people to form such physical groups. If you were a punk in the early 80s when the media continuously portrayed you as a threat to society, you'd go out of your way to find like-minded people for a sense of belonging and security. This would appear to have been a benefit for my father in the long term - he formed long-lasting friendship networks who he is still in contact with, and as a music journalist this network is more important than ever.

Things are very different today. Not only is it incredibly simple to find like-minded people and communities on the internet to give us a sense of security and belonging, but it is also more easy than ever to totally abandon these groups and move on the the next 'culture' that interests us. Newer cultures don't last because people no longer rely on their physical existence for belonging, and can just move on. Society is also more accepting these days - people aren't scared of punks, or metalheads, or goths, or anarchists, or whatever the kids these days are in to - these social groups no longer serve that role of reinforcement and security.

It is easy to take an overly-cynical views of things. Ultimately, the greater connectivity is a good thing. I was a gamer for my entire childhood, but met very few people who really took it in the same way I did until the internet became a thing and like-minded people were in abundance. I wouldn't be with my wife now if we didn't have fantastic technology that allows people from one side of the globe to contact people on the other. But we certainly might be seeing a death of the social groups of old, for better or worse.

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah I don't in any way intend to vilify the Internet or modern communication and I also don't want to make out like it was better back in my day. The truth is that I probably would have been a happier child had I known more people shared my interests and I could interact with them, if even not in person.

But I do wonder if the side effect has stripped power from today's youth. Is it apathy? Do kids genuinely not care about the world in the same way many subcultures had political leanings and often engaged in discussion? Or is it that, when they do, it is buried in Internet boards and so just too easy to miss or deliberately ignore? Is there a stronger more passionate group there beyond the Pokemon gifs and troll face memes that I'm not seeing? And if I'm not seeing it, who is?

The world may be more accepting to those particular groups mentioned but mostly because they just got integrated into society - that always happened and it was the next group that was feared or made out to be the bad guy. The closest modern equivalents who drum up similar feelings that I can think of are just chavs and hipsters. Nobody likes the poor ol' hipsters. But the world seems more accepting to me only because there isn't all that much to oppose - it feels like to me that the youth have lost their voice. And yet we're back to making out that illegal immigrants are the bad guy and we are in the age of the NSA and constant surveillance and so much more. And I think generations gone by would have had a role there, whether for or against but with passion. That's not aimed just at the youth by the way, that one is on all of us.

I reckon there are probably tons of interested kids in reality. I think part of me thinking there isn't is likely just good old generation gap but I also think there's a real lack of visibility and people will be ignored whenever they are easy to ignore.

I guess part of this comes from a feeling that today's youth are getting shafted in many ways and being left with the debts and debris of my generation and the one above. I wish to see the youth take the world back.