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Original poster

This is so fucking shit for young people

652 replies

ssd · 16/04/2021 20:32

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.

OP posts:
TheClaws · 18/04/2021 02:07

I had the BEST time between the ages of 16-21. Weekends clubbing, meeting new people, casual sex, festivals etc etc. I had an exciting job in the city, and life was just so carefree. Now what do they have? Tik tok and a park maybe?

It’s so utterly depressing for young people. I feel so sorry for them.

Never mind, before you know it they'll be up to all the casual sex, drinking and clubbing and everything will be normal again. Thanks goodness, we'll no longer need to feel sorry for the young people! It'll be just be just the old people still falling ill and dying, better they don't matter (apart from their taxes).

TheClaws · 18/04/2021 02:07

*but

cyclingmad · 18/04/2021 06:57

@Chillychangchoo

Gosh YANBU

I had the BEST time between the ages of 16-21. Weekends clubbing, meeting new people, casual sex, festivals etc etc. I had an exciting job in the city, and life was just so carefree. Now what do they have? Tik tok and a park maybe?

It’s so utterly depressing for young people. I feel so sorry for them.

That might be your idea of what having the best time is but doesn't mean everyone else does.

But let's just keep peddling that margarine to young people that thusbisbwhat you should be doing when your young because otherwise you haven't lived and how sad for you that you didn't. Just another set of expectations to make people feel like crap of they don't live up to it.

Original poster
ssd · 18/04/2021 08:37

I think theres a very small minority of posters here who clearly felt out of place as young people and had a miserable time, projecting their feelings and sneering at youngsters who are clearly missing the life they had before covid. Of course some youngsters dont drink, socialise, mix happily with their peers and generally enjoy their youth, but most do/did, and thats the ones I'm discussing.

OP posts:
AliceBlueGown · 18/04/2021 08:56

My 19 year old deferred his university place as did most of his friends.(he could see that online learning stuck in your bedroom isnt worth £9, 000) Those who went to university will complete the year. He got a job - completing online orders - he's learnt a lot of skills/people skills/problem solving that schools don't teach and he's saved money. Yes, he's missed the pub, being more independent etc and feels his life is on hold. But as a young adult he does't feel shafted or badly treated - he's getting on with it - like the rest of us. If you stop and looked at the whole picture he would consider himself fortunate. He's not lost his job with a family to feed, hes not living alone and isolated, he escaped covid. He will adjust and move on. I think that the pandemic has brought lots of things to the surface - a lot of resentments old and new which play out on this thread.

TheClaws · 18/04/2021 08:59

So you're mourning for a particular type of young person? Not all of them? That's quite specific.

TheClaws · 18/04/2021 09:00

That reply was for ssd

AliceBlueGown · 18/04/2021 09:03

@ssd - well as long as you are not discussing every young adult - I guess just the small number who measure their happiness by being able to go out every weekend and party.

FindingMeno · 18/04/2021 09:04

I get annoyed at people moaning about music coming from the park in the evenings.
What are young people supposed to do?

C8H10N4O2 · 18/04/2021 09:09

So you're mourning for a particular type of young person? Not all of them? That's quite specific

Yes apparently just the better off party animals, not the kids whose access to social activities is constrained by money, social restrictions or disability of any type.

The main victims will be the less well off in every age category. The idea that the "old have had their lives" is just utterly delightful - Logan's Run here we come.

YouJustDoYou · 18/04/2021 09:10

I had the best time - Weekends clubbing, meeting new people, casual sex, festivals etc etc

Shudder

SylvieHortensis · 18/04/2021 09:13

I think some of you are viewing your youth through rose coloured spectacles. Either that or the rest if your life has been unspeakably grim.

SylvieHortensis · 18/04/2021 09:18

ssd this isn't a personal attack, just an observation. You come across on thread after thread as a dissatisfied woman who gets little enjoyment from life in her 50s. What happened to that sociable young woman who used to go dancing and have fun? Is she still there, inside you - maybe you can bring her out again and start embracing life?

LadyCatStark · 18/04/2021 09:23

@savethegrannies

The young have been treated like second class citizens from day one of this. Its a fucking disgrace. I've fallen out with a couple of baby boomers over this I dont mind admitting. They simply do not get it, they have nice comfy pensions which won't be touched when it comes to paying for all this, and all have been just continually moaning for everybody get the sodding vaccine so they can get on with their cruises. They can say what they sodding like, they would not have been so content to ensure we all 'stayed home and protected the NHS' if it was them losing their homes and jobs and if it was them who would be paying for all this in future. The tories have looked after thier core voters, we all know it. I mean they even kept the sodding garden centres open ffs. Here's another thing: why did teachers and other front line workers not get vaccined before people in thier 60s who were retired and who were not compelled to go out to keep a roof over their head? So, so unfair.
Completely agree with this. Young people have had to be completely selfless at a time when they should be allowed to be a little bit selfish. Children and young people say under 25 can never get back the time and experiences they have missed whereas older people have had their time.
SylvieHortensis · 18/04/2021 09:24

I know he should be grateful that he's got many years ahead of him, but he won't get these young carefree years back again

Course he will- he's 17 not 77. Festivals and part time jobs and pubs will all be there for the rest of his teens, twenties and beyond!

RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 18/04/2021 09:31

Although ssd specifically mentioned nightlife im sure she also feels sorry for those youngsters who haven’t been able to mix with their peers, those who have missed landmark birthdays and social occasions, those who have missed schooling and exams

I know i do

I also feel sorry for people stuck in flats during lockdown, the elderly who haven’t been able to see family, people struggling to home school, people struggling to manage disabilities without support, and people who are struggling to access the NHS...and loads more

I can be sorry for more than one thing at a time

TheClaws · 18/04/2021 09:46

Although ssd specifically mentioned nightlife im sure she also feels sorry for those youngsters who haven’t been able to mix with their peers, those who have missed landmark birthdays and social occasions, those who have missed schooling and exams

This is what ssd said:

Of course some youngsters dont drink, socialise, mix happily with their peers and generally enjoy their youth, but most do/did, and thats the ones I'm discussing.

I reckon that's fairly clear, particularly the "mix happily with their peers and generally enjoy their youth" part. I suppose other young people who supposedly don't "mix happily" - whatever that means - are written off somehow? I don't know what it means.

Juliettbravo · 18/04/2021 09:50

They can celebrate landmark birthdays later with their friends, nobody is stopping them.
Businesses will reopen, life will get back to normal.
Maybe we need to start thinking about the preexisting 'poor', stuck in cramped accommodation, working 3 jobs to keep afloat, the abysmal benefit system, underfunding of schools, the NHS and prison service, cuts to public services that so affect the elderly, huge wealth and opportunities gap between north and south....Funny how when things start to affect the middle classes suddenly it becomes an issue.

RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 18/04/2021 09:55

@Juliettbravo

They can celebrate landmark birthdays later with their friends, nobody is stopping them. Businesses will reopen, life will get back to normal. Maybe we need to start thinking about the preexisting 'poor', stuck in cramped accommodation, working 3 jobs to keep afloat, the abysmal benefit system, underfunding of schools, the NHS and prison service, cuts to public services that so affect the elderly, huge wealth and opportunities gap between north and south....Funny how when things start to affect the middle classes suddenly it becomes an issue.
I always think people can be concerned and worried about more than one thing at a time

So to me saying ‘i am concerned about this aspect of life’ does not mean in the slightest that i am not concerned about anything else

Madhairday · 18/04/2021 10:07

@C8H10N4O2

So you're mourning for a particular type of young person? Not all of them? That's quite specific

Yes apparently just the better off party animals, not the kids whose access to social activities is constrained by money, social restrictions or disability of any type.

The main victims will be the less well off in every age category. The idea that the "old have had their lives" is just utterly delightful - Logan's Run here we come.

Yes exactly. The whole thread comes across as a judgement on those who are not like those young people who party all the time, or weren't like it when they were that age, and very much seems to view all young people's experience through this narrow lens. This results in a whole lot of hyperbole about how young people have lost everything and will never regain it, and it is a travesty, and they've sacrificed their lives.

No they haven't. I showed my young adults this thread and they just laughed and said no, that doesn't represent us or our friends, we are just getting through a pandemic that is no one's fault and not a government attempt to Spoil Our Lives forever, and we don't think older and more vulnerable people actually matter less than us, so no.

Logan's Run indeed...

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 18/04/2021 10:09

Madhairday,

This is my experience. Most of them won’t to protect their parents and grandparents.

IrmaFayLear · 18/04/2021 10:13

Oh, dear, there are some real misery guts on this thread.

Even if a young person isn’t a party animal, they are still missing out on social opportunities and finding a job, let alone starting a career. How is anyone meant to find a partner?

Anyone who can look at young people and feel ambivalence or even a mealy-mouthed glee that they have had this pandemic during what should be a golden time in their lives is a very sad and bitter individual.

Ellasmummyx1 · 18/04/2021 10:18

I think theres a very small minority of posters here who clearly felt out of place as young people and had a miserable time, projecting their feelings and sneering at youngsters who are clearly missing the life they had before covid. Of course some youngsters dont drink, socialise, mix happily with their peers and generally enjoy their youth, but most do/did, and thats the ones I'm discussing

I’ve enjoyed my youth without drinking, socialising lots and so on. That doesn’t make me ‘out of place’ or mean I’m having a ‘miserable time’

Don’t make out like that’s the only way you can enjoy your late teens or early twenties because it’s really not

needadvice54321 · 18/04/2021 10:22

@SylvieHortensis

I know he should be grateful that he's got many years ahead of him, but he won't get these young carefree years back again

Course he will- he's 17 not 77. Festivals and part time jobs and pubs will all be there for the rest of his teens, twenties and beyond!

But he won't get this last year back, there are certain things that all other 17 year olds have had the opportunity to do/have, and this year they're just told to suck it up and be grateful. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to apologise for being disappointed for him! HE wanted his prom (will never have that) HE wanted his first driving lesson on his 17th birthday (again, impossible to replicate). Of course he'll go on and have lessons, but it's not the thing he's been looking forward to doing, so I'm disappointed for him.

TBH I'm fed up with hearing people thinking they have more of an opinion of someone else's feelings. Those are his feelings. He's entitled to them.

Nappyvalley15 · 18/04/2021 10:23

It's not about the partying. It is about being locked down during a particular phase of life when you should be relatively care free and developing your independence. Having to be subject to rules that don't really benefit you as an individual for the good of society. Now the vulnerable have mostly been vaccinated we need to pay more attention to the needs of the young.