OK this is my list. But first, I need to say that this isn't a condemnation of those into such thing. They just don't vibe with me.

  1. Cannot get into ASMR. I've tried. Often its women 20 years younger than me, rubbing their fingernails on hairbrushes. The intentional sounds they make with their lips and fingers are things that would make me want to change seats on a bus.
  2. Instagram. I was maybe the last person to get a smart phone. It was probably 2016. I'm just fully lazy to take photos of stuff. This is a real issue when I'm single and I need to start putting photos on dating sites, as all pics of me in my phone are me squeezing carrots in my nostrils and similarly goofy things.
  3. My students' taste in anime. I try to be all cool and show off my cool taste in anime, maybe drop a Azumanga Daioh clip. It's all ancient history for 17 year olds.
  4. Photo and videos done in portrait mode. I guess I don't watch videos on the go. See #2

Things that the kids these days do better:

  • Usually better opinions on current events than people my age
  • I wish that cosplay existed when I was a teen. The default when I was younger was drugs.

If anyone insults the kids, I will visit you at your home and do an adventure-time

  • Greenleaf [he/him]
    ·
    5 months ago

    Honestly, younger people today seem pretty alright. One thing in particular is that is seems bullying in school seems way less tolerated than it was back in the day. I mean, I'm sure lots of bullying still goes on but back in the 90s it was not only pretty brutal and pervasive, but it was generally not seen as something that required intervention and it was "just part of growing up".

    One thing I really don't get though - and maybe this is just more a local thing - but it seems like the kids are really into Sublime. I don't get it, I didn't like their music when they were first popular and while they had a hit or two, they weren't anywhere near as popular with my peers than they are today, it seems to me.

    • ButtBidet [he/him]
      ·
      5 months ago

      Funny enough, I was really into Sublime in the late 90s. I listened to it again last year and it felt so cringe, so fake, and so poser-y.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        5 months ago

        Really? Huh, I'll have to give it a re-visit, but I remember them being an absolute bop. Like that song about the 1992 LA uprising, at least, folks should listen to.

        • ButtBidet [he/him]
          ·
          5 months ago

          The song on the uprising was one of the better ones. Cringe was "Smoke Two Joints", funny as hell when I was 17, but now it falls flat.

    • NoLeftLeftWhereILive
      ·
      5 months ago

      This is true. I am doing uni now with zoomers and it feels a lot safer. I am far more at ease now even though I am ancient compared to them and have a long history of being bullied. Noticed this when I did substitute teaching as well.

      They also call you out on things like putting yourself down for your work just in case, a very gen X thing. And have also informed me that dating apps aren't really used anymore and people prefer in person connection more again, they are organizing a lot of get-togethers.

      Also drinking. I am from a generation where getting shitfaced in a concert was supposedly "fun". Or heavy drinking in general. My kid and his friends genuinely prefer going to events sober or with light drinking, same with uni stuff. I mean they still drink, but not nearly as much. And non-drinking stuff is popular too.

      Also openness to vegan food. It's a total non issue to make and eat vegan in an event. Go back ten years and even millenials I feel have far more brainwormy takes on "but muh meats!".

      Edit. Now that I got going with the praise a few more things came to mind that I admire genuinely:

      Far more principled takes on politics. Even things like boycotting I have noticed they follow through long term.

      Making value based choices and sticking to them. Like buying clothes second-hand. Far less treat brained paradoxically. Often buying one good thing that will last years.

      I know people keep saying the youngest generation is always most progressive, but I disagree. I have seen my own youth and been told about my parents hippie youth and neither ever actually engaged with anything more than being libs about the things. Or knew anything.

      The kids these days are in a fundamentally different position with all the crisis and late stage capitalism. And the internet has made them aware of things in ways no generation before has been.