Growing up in this decade (2020s)

[IndependentAdjudicator]

A lot of MNs say the decade they grew up in is the best.
I was an 80s teenager and I think it was a great time to be a child/teenager.
But if you could travel time, and be a teenager now, how do you think it would compare to your decade?

(Inspired by a chat this morning with my 12 year old, who said wouldn't it be fun if we could swap our decades for a week, to see how each would fare!)

I was a teenager in the 1970s. The things I loved about it were the freedom to be anything you wanted from a hippy to a punk, the political activism, the freedom to roam and to be uncontactable. Equal pay and discrimination acts were coming in and the future felt optimistic for a young woman.

I'm not sure any of that applies now. I wouldn't swap.

No. I do not envy today's youth.

1960’s 👍

I turned 18 in the early 90s and the sense of freedom, adventure and hope we had just isn't felt by today's youth.

You couldn't pay me enough to be 18 today.

@Diosmonet you took the words right out of my mouth.
I turned 18 in '91 🙂

Same here. Turned 18 in 92. It’s a very different world now -a strangely regressive one. I’m so glad I grew up in different times. Much more freedom, more debate, felt more empowering for women than it does now. Would definitely not swap although would love today’s teens to have the experience of the 80s/90s

I wouldn’t swap. I was a kid in the 80s and a teenager in the 90s. The 80s wasn’t the most idyllic decade to grow up, to be honest: I lived in a northern town in an area that saw little of the famous 1980s prosperity down south, and was often full of litter, crime and poverty. The era was marked by public tragedies like Hillsborough, the Herald of Free Enterprise and the King’s Cross fire. Food was generally grim (though my mum was a great cook). There was an air of gloom and Cold War paranoia in global politics. Even so, childhood was closer to ideal than today’s kids have it: no Internet, plenty of time to be bored and/or unsupervised; more of a community spirit and shared experiences in terms of church, school, neighbourhood and so on. Most of all, there was less of a sense (even in the “money money money” 1980s!) that everything in life was about financial value above everything else. People still cared about things like education for education’s sake, community and shared endeavour, a politics of collective social responsibility.

The 1990s were an even better decade to grow up in - big strides forward in feminism, positive trends in politics in the second half of the decade, the end of the Cold War, people felt optimistic and energised. I think my era was better overall than DD’s is, sadly.

Even as a 70s teenager I totally agree about the optimism and energy of the 90s. Tongue in cheek fun, great music, loads of new political initiatives that really benefited ordinary people, laid back fashion and the feeling women had shaken off the shackles that had bound them. I so wish we could get some of that back for today's young people.