Is it or is it not harder to be a teenager today then before? NO WAY! In our grandparents and parents time they would have been scared of being shot at war, their parents and school. And I, well I’m scared of flying insects, missing the new One Direction music video and my sister, who I haven’t been able to sell off on trade me yet.
Have your parents ever said the classic, “Back in my day?” Well I know mine have. So here’s one of behalf of all adults. “Back in my day, when we were naughty at school or didn’t do our homework, which we had twice the amount of; we got the ruler on the knuckles and then came home to a whipping on the back side or the cane from our parents. And you, you kids get a pain-free essay or a simple detention. If you come home and we find out, which we probably won’t because you kids are good at hiding things from your parents, all you get is a stern telling off.
Let’s go back a bit further to our grandparents. Most of our grandparents were teenagers during WWII. Did you know at our age, the girls had to do the household chores and look after their siblings? The boys had to fight for the army and sometimes forced to watch rebel forces get executed. 80% of them vomited and many would cry themselves to sleep. While we, we are at school, enjoying life and getting a high level of education.
Ok, so wait up, I just need to check my Facebook news feed, send my best friend a few snapchats, and post a picture on Instagram with the caption #yoloswag. Then I’ll start my research project by sitting on my laptop for the rest of the night. Because obviously, using the library and encyclopaedias are a thing for the past generation.
School and socialisation for us is easy. We have BYOD, internet, mainly google and occasionally the library and people of experience. If we want to talk to or contact a friend, we don’t even have to leave the comfort of our own home. On the other hand, our parents only had