To think being a teenager today is a lot less fun/worse today

[Lifeofjackie]

Over protective parenting and tightened up rules around safeguarding means they get an awful lot less freedom/opportunities. Social media means they’re constantly in a social situation (never get to unwind) and means if you’re being bullied there is literally no escape. Far more academic pressure. So much of life online. These are just what I can think off of the top of my head but I’m sure glad I’m not living my teen years now. Of course there are clearly advantages to some of these eg the tightened rules about safeguarding/protection do definitely save my teens from awful situations. However, I can’t help but think the flip side of this is teens today don’t have as much fun or get life experiences growing up. Life today for teens seems so sterile and in a bubble.

YANBU. Kids today can’t do anything without it being videoed and put online. The pressure, especially on girls, to look perfect all the time is horrific. Being a teenager is hard enough without all this added shite. A lot of girls I teach have said they wish social media had never been invented.

YANBU teens now in my opinion are so overprotected ie with tracking and extremely tight curfew but then parents complain they have no life outside of being online

It depends - on the whole I largely agree, due to everything that's already been said. It just seems like a lot less fun and freedom these days. Plus the lack of things to look forward to - I didn't particularly like being a teen but at least the prospect of moving away, going to uni, travelling, and a home of my own in the not-to-distant future was achievable. So I always had the 'it will get better' option. Whereas now they have to accept uni will mean debts they'll probably never pay off, and even if they get a job extortionate living costs.

However there are some positives - increased safeguarding, plus while things might be worse for the 'average' teen for anyone who is a bit different - i.e. struggling with their sexuality, overweight, mental heath problems, bereavement etc. or even those with niche interests social media means they can easily connect with other young people going through the same thing. Whereas before if you were limited to only the very small number of people your age in your local town or village (particularly if you didn't live near a city), it could feel really isolated.

Also while I agree about the constant pressure to look amazing from social media there does generally seem more body acceptance/positivity from young girls - when I was a teen only the skinny girls wore really tight/cropped clothes, I wouldn't have dreamed of wearing them even though looking back I was actually pretty slim - whereas now pretty much all the girls I see, even those who were chubby to seriously overweight were wearing cropped t shirts and those tight cycling shorts all summer and not appearing to give a fuck. There are also a lot more clothing options available for bigger girls/women which is better.
Same with the trend of mainly wearing trainers to a nightclub - I really like it, it must be so much more comfortable, and safer.