This is so fucking shit for young people

[ssd]

Yeah i know its shit for everyone before you pounce on me

But imagine being around 20 just now...no pubs, no nightclubs, no jobs around, no buzz in your town centre, no excuse to dress up in something new, or planning your latest night out, meeting your pals and all the excitement of the night ahead.

Its just so fucking shite.

I got the train home tonight from work, Glasgow city centre is a ghost town. Places that were always busy boarded up, of course everything except like of newsagents and tesco's shut. Its Friday night. It was always jumping when i was young, absolutely jumping. It was dead. On the train was a bunch if young boys, playing music a bit too loud, all singing along....going home from the city centre at 6pm!!!!. I could have cried watching them all, a nice sunny evening and the only place they are heading was back to mum and dads, or a local park maybe, i dont know. They were about 18, casual dressed, haircuts, all wanting a good time with their pals and probably hoping to meet a partner if they were single.

Where is the life for these kids???

This has gone on long enough. I dont care if i never see inside a pub again. I've had a brilliant social life at that age. Now they have fuck all.

Its too much.

I agree with you, ssd, very much and thought your post was really poignant, I would have been saddened to see this too.

It really is that age group that will feel the ramifications of this now and the ripples of it later on too. They won't have had the free-and-easy lifestyle that is the province of young adults who aren't living in war time, it must be hugely upsetting and worrying for many and I think we'll see that evidenced as well in mental health demand.

I don't agree with the posters who keep blethering on that the 'young have sacrificed to save the old and vulnerable'. This isn't true. The young WERE sacrificed and many of us wish that this hadn't been the case. The elderly and vulnerable could have been protected far more quickly and if confinement was necessary (it was), then steps taken to facilitate that.

It's no good for anybody to cause divisiveness on the issue, many of us have elderly relatives or are elderly ourselves or we have young children or young adults. There are no untouched ages or people because all have been affected to varying degrees. Better to get people to rally together to make compensations for those affected most, I would wholeheartedly support that even though my children aren't young adults.

Just please, for the love of common sense and sanity, stop saying that 'the young have sacrificed for the old', because it just gets people's backs up.

We don't have young adults in the household yet do can't ask them from a young adult perspective.

But, it appears most people agree lockdown has been harsh on the young adults. Has anyone asked their young adults for ideas for solutions to take steps forward?

I can only offer suggestions from the pre-teen camp which are often imaginative but usually have at least one big, reality stumbling block. But hey never stop having ideas!

@Tealightsandd

It's massively shit, but it's even more shit for elderly. At least the young will have a chance to make up for lost time.

I don't agree. The truly elderly often don't go out much anyway. They have had their formative years. The young have had their retire lives affected by this. Their job prospect, chances to meet partners. So so much has been affected.

How do you propose to do this wealth distribution?
There really would be no incentive for people to work in high pressure / trained areas.

How is it fair to raise taxes on people who live frugally to pay for those who don’t ? I have several elderly relatives who live very modestly- no holidays/new clothes etc I wish they’d enjoy life more now tbh

I’m not opposed to paying more tax btw

Sorry off thread a bit but a few posters have mentioned this.

“ Just please, for the love of common sense and sanity, stop saying that 'the young have sacrificed for the old', because it just gets people's backs up.”
It’s a fact, whether we like it or not LyingWitchInTheWardrobe. I class myself as older and I agree with this statement and I feel for the young I really do. I earn a good living and think myself and other old/older people should pay for the financial cost of covid via pensions, wealth etc (those that can afford to anyway). I would gladly do this and would hope others would feel the same if the option was there. After all we are all in this together aren't we? Well aren’t we?

My young adults are desperate for everyone to get the jab including them & are fully supportive of vaccine passports if it gets life back to normal. They say everyone they know is the same. No vaccine hesitancy & don't care about the civil liberty aspects of the passports, they just want life to get back to as normal as possible. They & everyone they know has been following all the rules as closely as they can.

@PomLikeTheBattle

How do you propose to do this wealth distribution? There really would be no incentive for people to work in high pressure / trained areas.

How is it fair to raise taxes on people who live frugally to pay for those who don’t ? I have several elderly relatives who live very modestly- no holidays/new clothes etc I wish they’d enjoy life more now tbh

I’m not opposed to paying more tax btw

Sorry off thread a bit but a few posters have mentioned this.

Increase inheritance tax (lower the threshold) Progressive taxes on pensions Huge increase on stamp duty for those buying a second home There are loads of ways, don’t let people (usually those with lots of money) convince you otherwise.

@savethegrannies

“ Just please, for the love of common sense and sanity, stop saying that 'the young have sacrificed for the old', because it just gets people's backs up.” It’s a fact, whether we like it or not LyingWitchInTheWardrobe. I class myself as older and I agree with this statement and I feel for the young I really do. I earn a good living and think myself and other old/older people should pay for the financial cost of covid via pensions, wealth etc (those that can afford to anyway). I would gladly do this and would hope others would feel the same if the option was there. After all we are all in this together aren't we? Well aren’t we?

My point was, the young haven't sacrificed. They haven't because there wasn't a choice and they had no option the same as everybody else.

They WERE sacrificed though, have been hardest hit and I said so in my post. I thought it was clear but I'm not the clearest writer sometimes. Getting people who don't feel particularly attuned to young adults isn't going to be achieved by spouting continually that the 'young sacrificed' when that's not the case at all.

I don't disagree with you about funding/compensation for the younger generation, we absolutely should. It should be hitting the high earners - always them - whatever age they are.

@Cookerhood

My young adults are desperate for everyone to get the jab including them & are fully supportive of vaccine passports if it gets life back to normal. They say everyone they know is the same. No vaccine hesitancy & don't care about the civil liberty aspects of the passports, they just want life to get back to as normal as possible. They & everyone they know has been following all the rules as closely as they can.

I think this is generally the case too. Young people are worried about the environment, about BLM, about liberties. They worry about their identities, their mates, their looks, their interests. They are not overly devastated about economics, lockdowns or masks, or even that they couldn’t go clubbing every week. It’s a pain, but not devastating.

It’s like the twitter thread where a group of middle aged people started a campaign for young people not to have to wear masks in education. It was inundated by young people themselves saying that no one had actually asked them, and they were totally fine about wearing masks thank you very much!

Let’s take our lead more from young people. They could teach us a bit about coping.

They WERE sacrificed though, have been hardest hit and I said so in my post. But they haven’t been hardest hit. This is a complete myth with no evidence at all to back this up.

Those who are poor and at the bottom end of inequalities were hardest hit. That is the only fact we have.

[quote Rejoiningperson]@User135644 I think that’s a good point. Young people were not very evident in the lockdown protests at all, it was mainly middle aged people. Young people on the whole have just got on with being part of our community pandemic effort, even if it was hard. They were protesting about BLM, women’s rights and the environment. Good for them![/quote]
Yes exactly this. I just talked to my young adults about all this and they both say they and their friends have been far more concerned about BLM, climate change etc than a pandemic that just happened. They see it as something to simply get through, they are online so much as it is it's not such an upheaval to them as we might think. They have found it hard and are sad at what's been lost but in the end they care much more about supporting the vulnerable. I'm so impressed with their attitudes tbh.

@Rejoiningperson

They WERE sacrificed though, have been hardest hit and I said so in my post. But they haven’t been hardest hit. This is a complete myth with no evidence at all to back this up.

Those who are poor and at the bottom end of inequalities were hardest hit. That is the only fact we have.

Well, we could have a competition about it if you're willing to start a database so we can keep score? I'm not doing it.

For the reasons given throughout the thread if you bothered to read it, the age group 15-25 were/are at the pinnacle of finding their feet in the world, making some life-changing decisions related to education and work opportunities and that was scuppered. That was the point of the thread and it's something that was a terrific equaliser (which should please you) as it hit everybody in that age group.

Yes, people in that segment may have come from rich families, had swimming pools and gyms at home, but they too have been unable to do the things that teens do, things that are important like socialising, finding friends/girlfriends/boyfriends.

My children aren't this age so I don't have a horse in the race, they'll hopefully recover real normal life before any impact of covid, but I can still see the point that other people are making and feel sorry - in particular - for this age group of 15-25. It doesn't' stop me feeling sorry for everybody else but, 15-25 is the worst and hardest age right now.

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe that is why we have scientifically valid evidence though. So we can see past our own biases and get to facts.

It’s nothing to do with being a competition.

It’s also important because what we think, affects who we help. If we think the pandemic has worst hit young people, we will help young people more than anyone. When those who are in the bottom of the pile inequalities wise will even further lose out.

It’s really important that we do not only share opinions, but back up our assertions so we as a society try to address problems fairly.

It is not fair to say that young people are worst hit with no evidence for this.

So yes it’s OK to say that we feel bad for a certain group of people. Like the young. Or the old. Or whatever.

But it really isn’t OK to throw around generalised untruths such as ‘young people are worst hit’ - as all that does is feed into misinformation.

Rejoiningperson, post these statistics then - with the raw data and we'll see where the gaps are, shall we?

You have your view, I have mine. Neither is relevant or irrelevant, depending on how you look at it. There's no 'we' about it either.

Ha. Ha why don’t you back up your assertions?

Why do I have to do the work for your wrong assertions? That’s just lazy!

I have been juggling work and looking after a two year old and a four year old, it has been pretty brutal at times but I would take this any day over suffering through all this when I was 18. I feel so sad for young people whose university experience will be COVID and online learning.

I agree. I’m so glad I had my years of clubs and house parties before all this. I wonder if it’ll ever really feel as carefree as it was back then - at least not for a few years...

@ssd

Id be interested in actually hearing from the elderly to see if they think this has been worth it for them. For them to see the effects on the younger generation. Id guess at least 3/4 would say absolutely no way was it worth it.

But if course we'll never know.

Who do you class as the actual elderly? Lots of muddled history on here. There is probably no-one alive now who was an adult in the war. My parents, both dead now were both children in the war. People I know in their 70s and 80s have been managing well at home, feeling sorry for the impact on young people. I spoke to an elderly aunt (88) last week and all she could say was how hard it had been on her the young members of her family.

I have found it tough (63 and CEV) but my heart goes out to the 16 to 25 age group.
If you are in your late 20s or 30s you have had plenty of years of socialising . A few might have had weddings deferred but most will have been able to celebrate milestones like leaving school, 18th and 21st birthdays, going out with friends to a pub for the first time, garduating, starting a career, learning to drive etc.

I completely agree OP. There is no doubt at all that teens and young adults have been the hardest hit in so many ways. ANd I say this based on personal experience as a parent and as a healthcare clinician working in mental health services for both adults and young people/adolescents.

And for those wanting "evidence" there are statistics to back this up. See here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-mental-health-and-wellbeing-surveillance-spotlights/covid-19-mental-health-and-wellbeing-surveillance-report-spotlight-age-groups

My 18 yr old is in her first year at uni. She has been having on line tutorials/lectures since Jan. Cant go anywhere, confined to her flat with half her flat mates only most the time. My 21 yr old is in her final yr at uni and has been alone in her student house for 9 months as her housemates have returned home. She has no face to face contact, often has no real life contact with anyone at all for weeks at a time. She is struggling to complete her disseration, and is very stressed. She has no job lined up for when she graduates(without a graduation cermony of course) in 2 months time and is not hopeful of finding one. She has been unable to do her part time job (in catering) for over a year and so has really struggled financially. Her mental helth is really poor just now. My 23 yr old son graduated from Cambridge last summer, having spent most of his final year back at home. No graduation ceremony after 4 yrs of study. no last celebraitons. No saying goodbye to his friends etc...He was very fortunate that he already had a job lined up, but this was in a different country. So he has moved abroad and started a new job in a new country. Where he is now entirely working from home with no way to meet other people. We cant visit him, and he cant visit us. He is coping well and realises he's lucky to have a job but it is such a sad lonely way to start out in life it makes me so sad for him.

without a doubt, this age group will be dealing with consequences of this for a long time to come.

I agree OP. Teens and young adults particularly

@Rejoiningperson

They WERE sacrificed though, have been hardest hit and I said so in my post. But they haven’t been hardest hit. This is a complete myth with no evidence at all to back this up.

Those who are poor and at the bottom end of inequalities were hardest hit. That is the only fact we have.

Yes this.

Particularly the disabled of all ages.

Possibly worse of all for young disabled. Must be horrible being othered so young, seeing and hearing people talk about the young being "sacrificed" for the vulnerable. Young vulnerable obviously don't count in these people's eyes.

Young weren't sacrificed anyway. That was the elderly and younger disabled residents of care homes.

@sashagabadon

I agree OP. Teens and young adults particularly

Definitely it's been particularly bad for CEV teens and young adults. Must be awful seeing their peers go out to pubs now, whilst they must still stick to so many precautions.

@Rejoiningperson

Ha. Ha why don’t you back up your assertions?

Why do I have to do the work for your wrong assertions? That’s just lazy!

It's you that's banging on about it, not me. I don't agree with your assertion, that's fine, we don't agree with each other, also fine.

Blether on all you like but it's just hot air and I have no time for it.