Are teenagers nowadays more mature than 2000s teens? (1 Viewer)

[SnowWhite]

Am I the only one who freaks over how different popular movies/series among teens are now compared to 2 decades ago??? Something doesn't make sense about (most) teenagers nowadays being into content like Euphoria or Elite but 2000s teens were into Gilmore Girls or Mean Girls. Now that I watch 2000s movies they seem overly childish. It isnt just about including scenes with sex, drugs or violence but also how deep and philosophical they aim to make the story to appear.
Why all that?

 

[eclipsoul]

they might appear as such but honestly idk if it's a good thing because at the end of the day teenagers are still children for the most part. but also euphoria is very unrealistic, might be because i don't live in the us but there is no way a 16 year old's life is filled with drugs, having sex and partying yet still they're not kicked out of their damn school. where are their parents

 

[LeeHoseok]

they might appear as such but honestly idk if it's a good thing because at the end of the day teenagers are still children for the most part. but also euphoria is very unrealistic, might be because i don't live in the us but there is no way a 16 year old's life is filled with drugs, having sex and partying yet still they're not kicked out of their damn school. where are their parents

Whew, okay, time to be realistic as an American: that happens often. Not everyone has parents, not everyone has parents who are present, not everyone has parents who care. Depending on the school, what happens outside of school usually stays outside of it. There are also schools specifically for teenagers who are often in trouble or don't fit in at public school.

As for the subject of this post, the reality is: No, teens these days are not more mature, they just think they are. The media content isn't more mature, either. For example, when I was younger, we had Degrassi: The Next Generation, which covered a lot of mature topics very well. It's all about perspective and the shifting social norms. You can't really look at the past in the context of the present because it's always going to be drastically different (yet also the same in some ways) from generation to generation.

 

[raymondchouku]

Gilmore Girls was on a national network that had limits on what could be included on a drama. And I wouldn't really say it was a teen show given that most teens would not understand the topics being discussed even within its earlier seasons... but even if it were a teen show, there are teen shows that have been produced recently that don't focus on "deep" topics... Similarly, given that Euphoria was made by HBO shows that it is given license for more explicit content.

But we have had shows in the mid 00s that have been more socially geared such as Secret Life of American Teenager, The Fosters, TVD, and even Degrassi... Glee as well, but I didn't really watch that.

While I slightly will disagree with @eclipsoul in that I have engaged in my fair share of delinquency when I was a teen, it is true that a lot of recent teen-dramas do go over the bounds in what is reasonable to believe. Consider any of the storylines of Pretty Little Liars. None of that sh-t would happen and sometimes such shows can go overboard in terms of sex and substance use, which is why I view a lot of the shows that are marketed as teens shows as for those who are 18+ given that a 20-year-old would know that Aria's relationship with Ezra is inappropriate or that Ricky's relationship with Adrian was entirely toxic or any number of interpersonal relationship problems in teen-dramas.

they might appear as such but honestly idk if it's a good thing because at the end of the day teenagers are still children for the most part. but also euphoria is very unrealistic, might be because i don't live in the us but there is no way a 16 year old's life is filled with drugs, having sex and partying yet still they're not kicked out of their damn school. where are their parents

Honestly, it is a trend in teen books and movies for parents to be uninvolved, given how most of the time teens are involved in the most ridiculous plot lines... Look at Twilight. Bella's dad is completely uninvolved as would be necessary for most of the plot.

 

[LoveYooShaSha]

i look at it as a progression, or evolvement. nobody would watch a new show with basic plots, characters such as the Honeymooners or i love lucy nowadays, but they watch reruns(ok maybe not as much for the honeymooners but they're planning a remake/update).

just like how my grandma dint hv much (or maybe any) schooling but she was a smart woman, then my mom had more schooling/opportunities n her life was much diffrent. my generation had more education n our lives were diferent with moe education.

my point being every generation builds(develops) on the earlier progression, even on fictional tv/movies. they wont/cant be as basic/simplistic (relatively) as earlier shows , unless they want to be. Married with children was nvr shown on tv in S.E.A. (i think) but they pushed the envelop for wat could be shown on broadcast tv n i think (without hvg watched euphoria or elite (or skins <uk>) its just a progression/development from tat(or if there were earliers shows than tat). i also believe tv/movies is a microcosm/reflection of real life-or sometimes a commentary, whether intended or not. storylines may be based on real incidents/headlines/life of the writer/staff or commenting on such. i dont (often if rarely or nvr) lose it over depictions of teens(or other stuff) on tv/movies, if ever. btw iv been watching the fonz clips on youtube n i had the sudden thot tat a real life biker even in the 50s/70s would be somewat more like the characters of Sons of Anarchy (another show iv nvr watched), but as they were, or their prdecessors, 60/50 yrs earlier. no living with a wholesome 50s suburban family, the fonz woulda been more like Jax or Clay morrow, or an earlier incarnation. at the least he would joined hells angels but the show cleaned up wat a biker like the fonz mighta been, or they wouldnta had a hit show or been on the air in those days.

so modern tv doesnt bother me if they're more gritty, unwholesome compared to earlier shows. its just a swing of the pendulum maybe, n could be it'll swing bk. or maybe different shows exist alongside rn, young sheldon n the wonders yrs reboot, also doogie remake exist n YS is top rated. so idk, im just rambling on here...get off my lawn, yer darn kids.end of lecture.

 

[Deleted member 74]

oh speaking of euphoria I can't wait to watch s2 (it's my biggest guilty pleasure show and I will binge it all)
I guess it's because times have changed and certain media like these shows and social media, in general, normalizes teens growing up faster than they should be, parents aren't always involved in the lives of their kids so it's easier than people might think to fall subject to the kind of stuff that's in those shows but worse, because it's without that "deep" vibe media goes for of course, that's all just for show and in reality when that kind of thing happens it can really ruin the rest of your life and I've seen it happen to teens around me back when I was in hs

there are definitely teens both past and present who are just naturally more mature than their peers
but I think this was done back in the 2000s as well, there were plenty of media that portrayed unrealistic and problematic concepts of "teen life"

 

[eclipsoul]

Whew, okay, time to be realistic as an American: that happens often. Not everyone has parents, not everyone has parents who are present, not everyone has parents who care. Depending on the school, what happens outside of school usually stays outside of it. There are also schools specifically for teenagers who are often in trouble or don't fit in at public school.

to me euphoria seemed like pure fiction, here we had a janitor chase students for smoking outside the building once lol but i guess it's a cultural difference given it's common in america. i agree that schools shouldn't really focus on students' personal lives but it still makes me curious how do these teens spend their whole free time on drugs sex and parties YET they still have passable grades and it's not even a troubled kids school at all

 

[eclipsoul]

Honestly, it is a trend in teen books and movies for parents to be uninvolved, given how most of the time teens are involved in the most ridiculous plot lines... Look at Twilight. Bella's dad is completely uninvolved as would be necessary for most of the plot.

this is true lol i mean after all if the parents in euphoria actually cared about what their children are going through then there would be no plot most of the time. but with some teen show plotlines i wonder why don't they just base the shows in college... at this point people who are at the same age as the characters technically shouldn't be allowed to watch it because of the R rating and there is absolutely no reason why adults should watch explicitly sexual scenes with characters who are meant to be children

 

[Willow]

To me they are way less mature than my generation

 

[Mew]

Not particularly. I think is more as the worlds developed, access to things has increased be it porn, drugs, drink etc but I don't think they're necessarily more mature.
Its hard to say really considering when i was 16-18, we had a show called skins, I'm from UK) pretty much a similar show about drugs suicide, teen pregnancy etc with a cast of the same age actually..
..i suppose sensationalised and unrealistic for some, but was actually pretty similar to how life was around me and how college and sixth form (college is 16 to 18 here) was where I lived at least.
I think they tried to do a version for America. But I don't know how well it did.

 

[raymondchouku]

and there is absolutely no reason why adults should watch explicitly sexual scenes with characters who are meant to be children

Honestly, in film and television I think in terms of sex less is more. Share a kiss and cut the scene to two people lying in bed would imply that sex occurred without the need for a gratuitous sex scene. I mean some series focused on sex (e.g., Sex and the City) do this and it becomes extremely campy and tired.

 

[LeeHoseok]

to me euphoria seemed like pure fiction, here we had a janitor chase students for smoking outside the building once lol but i guess it's a cultural difference given it's common in america. i agree that schools shouldn't really focus on students' personal lives but it still makes me curious how do these teens spend their whole free time on drugs sex and parties YET they still have passable grades and it's not even a troubled kids school at all

Here's a few select stories from just one high school I went to:

• off-campus lunch was banned because people used to go smoke & do drugs on the steps of the nearby church
• We almost had the bathroom doors removed because after the off-campus ban, people just started smoking cigs/weed in the bathrooms
• Kids would sneak up to the top floor to have sex/fool around
• Someone filled a water bottle up with a litre of vodka and students were passing it around in class getting drunk
• At least one teacher was fired for an inappropriate relationship with a student
• There was a positive pregnancy test in the trash one day

 

[mysteric]

I think there's just a greater variance now
like my school is just a bunch of activist and overachiever type so there's nothing going on but there's a school like 10min away where you have a bunch of kids taking hard drugs and bathroom sex and such

 

[Yerichu]

Not really these teens these days have gone super immature & stupid
Talk about Tik Tok & How they only rely on Looks for love
And How lazy they've became in school, majority dont care & only care about partying & gossiping
They also lack the knowledge of vocabulary & knowing real-life hardships & challenges but take things as jokes & want an easier way of how to earn money

IDK thats how I see the teenagers these days

 

[Wingfrost]

I definitely don’t think so

 

[shika]

Completely disagree, nope they are not keke

 

[Haiku]

Twitter alone proves that your statement is false

 

[dark_tranquility]

My brother is 34 and he acts like he is 12.
So I wouldn't say yes exactly. :p