If you could choose would you have preferred to be a Teenager today

I agree AS, I was allowed an amazing amount of freedom to roam around my neighborhood without concern, visit friends and hang out in the park or comic shop. But we don't know what it is like to be a teen today, since we are not teens now and are only going by our own past experience in the 50s or 60s and don't have the experience of being a teen now.

We really don't have enough information and seeing kids using i-phones doesn't tell us much. The question is dubious IMO, and any answer we get about this just shows how little we know about today's teens.
 

Cookie said:
I agree AS, I was allowed an amazing amount of freedom to roam around my neighborhood without concern, visit friends and hang out in the park or comic shop. But we don't know what it is like to be a teen today, since we are not teens now and are only going by our own past experience in the 50s or 60s and don't have the experience of being a teen now.

We really don't have enough information and seeing kids using i-phones doesn't tell us much. The question is dubious IMO, and any answer we get about this just shows how little we know about today's teens.
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You have a point cookie but a lot of people on here ( not me) have teen grandchildren and they get to see their lifestyle first hand!!
 
Agree Holly, grandparents can see, but they cannot BE or know how the kids are feeling in today's world, which is more complex and different than the 50s and 60s, but not worse, just different. It's all based on assumptions, presumptions and guessing by an older generation that interprets negatively what young people are doing. Old people seem to have always put down young people's lifestyles and glorified the fantasy of 'the good old days' -- nothing new about that. It's hard to be objective. But maybe there's some research on the subject somewhere.
 

I enjoyed being a teen in the early '70's because I was free to be myself and follow whatever star I wished. We still settled fights with fists, it was still fairly safe to engage in discovering the opposite sex and the library was my main source of inspiration. We still had PE and shop in school.

I would think I would like being a teen now mainly because of computers and video games - nothing else. Now you go to jail for defending yourself in a fist-fight, sex can be deadly and libraries are now dollar stores or condos.
 
It's tough being a teen and always has been. They are neither fish nor fowl; part way being a child and an adult;
under lot of peer pressure and don't know which way to turn. Today's social media may help....or hinder?

I would not want to go through it again...zits and all. :p
 
I'm the same as you Phil, I was a teen in the 70's, and it was like a completely different world to today. Todays drug and drink culture among the young terrifies the wits out of me..not that there wasn't both of those illicit substances around in the 70's of course, but you get my drift I'm sure..
 
I was a teen in the 70's (and early 80's) and I had a pretty decent time, although today, with all the cool technology (xbox's, computers, cell phones, etc) it would definitely be a little more fun. But then if I had sat around on my butt on a computer all day instead of having an actual social life, I might be a completely different person. Not that that would be a BAD thing, hahaha.

Honestly, if I could choose any age to be and stay at the rest of my life, I'd pick about 35.
 
During my high school days (60s) drugs and drinking were very prevalent, more so among adults than teens, but there were plenty of fatal car crashes and overdoses occurring. The music culture of the 50s, 60s and 70s and 80s and even to the present day is wrapped around booze, drugs and sex.

All the present day teens I know and see seem to be academically gifted and busy with social lives and school, part time jobs, enjoying family vacations and friends and sports activities. The technology they use are just tools and helpful in their goals. I see teens on the buses looking quite happy and wholesome, so I don't know where this trashing of present day teens is coming from. Maybe its worse in the UK and US and related to poverty. Perhaps some examples and statistics might be helpful. Granted teens are known to be outrageously rebellious and if they weren't I'd worry about their passivity.

Maybe some people are even envious of the better lives present day teens have (better clothes, money, entertainment, fun, nicer parents, access to information highway, education and even smarter than some of us ever were. They have so much more than we ever did. The typical things we hear about the good old days are things like how someone had to walk miles and miles to school in a snowstorm, wearing hand me downs clothes, bad food, having to work at a job to help support the family of 10 kids, not enough money to buy luxuries, etc. etc. as if that somehow makes one a better person. Present day teens don't have these problems, unless they live in a third world country.

I can't agree that we had it better or were happier and less screwed up than the teens of today. They struggle to get through life just like the teens of the past and like we did and do.
 
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Not in a million years would I like to be a teenager now. Growing up in the fifties was a blast. We were outside most of the time, not buried on a cell phone. No police in my school, ride bikes to school and they were still there after school. Go to evening movies with the guys without fear of getting mugged. Buying a quart of beer and splitting it four ways. Band, football and cheerleaders. I loved it all.
 
I would not want to be a teenager now. I certainly was not afraid in my teens (50s and early 60s). I had fun. Nowdays, I WOULD be afraid -- shootings in schools, school bullying, gangs, drugs, etc. I agree with Pappy, above. We were able to have a lot more freedom in those days. The high school I attended then was a good place, fun times, no violence, and I got a good education. Now, it is a pit of gangs and violence.
 
I wouldn't want to be a teenager, period. Never had the mind set for it. I can actually remember thinking at the time, "some day I'll make a great grandfather", which, as it turned out, I did.
 
At 13 (1957) I met the girl of my dreams..We went "steady" until 18 (see my Avatar) (1962) then got engaged. Married at 19 (1963) and this Sept will will celebrate 52 married years.

I really believe that I would do it all over again!!
 
Underock1 said:
I wouldn't want to be a teenager, period. Never had the mind set for it. I can actually remember thinking at the time, "some day I'll make a great grandfather", which, as it turned out, I did.
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Me neither... I mean, having the health and the energy was great... but I wouldn't want to go through all that angst again.
 
Ken N Tx said:
At 13 (1957) I met the girl of my dreams..We went "steady" until 18 (see my Avatar) (1962) then got engaged. Married at 19 (1963) and this Sept will will celebrate 52 married years.

I really believe that I would do it all over again!!
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Congratulations to you and your dream girl, Ken! I met my "One and Only Forever Girl" when she was just sixteen. Married her a week after her eighteenth birthday. Lost her this past March, a month after our 58th anniversary. Its against the conventional wisdom, but if you are lucky enough to find the right one before "playing the field", and marry young, I think it has special rewards. You grow together, and share so much more of life. We had the normal ups and downs of any relationship, but even at the worst of times, never doubted each other for a moment. Had our kids early too, and that worked out great as well. You're still young enough to roll around on the floor with your grandkids. Its not for everybody, but I'm glad it was for us. I hope you two have many more happy years together.
. :thumbsup1:
 
Underock1 said:
Congratulations to you and your dream girl, Ken! I met my "One and Only Forever Girl" when she was just sixteen. Married her a week after her eighteenth birthday. Lost her this past March, a month after our 58th anniversary. Its against the conventional wisdom, but if you are lucky enough to find the right one before "playing the field", and marry young, I think it has special rewards. You grow together, and share so much more of life. We had the normal ups and downs of any relationship, but even at the worst of times, never doubted each other for a moment. Had our kids early too, and that worked out great as well. You're still young enough to roll around on the floor with your grandkids. Its not for everybody, but I'm glad it was for us. I hope you two have many more happy years together.
. :thumbsup1:
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xthanku.gif.pagespeed.ic.fo2P_DR87a.png...and I agree...
 
Short answer, no way. Today, I'm on a Maurice Chevalier kick.
Here's his, tad-off-tad-on-topic, answer to this thread, "I'm glad I'm Not Young Anymore":
 
One thing about being a teenager today, is that they are young.... so who wouldn't prefer to be 13-19 in 2015 with a whole future ahead, rather than the age they are now, late 50s to 90s? I would go through it again, and as its 2015, things would be very different and probably a whole lot better.
 
Cookie said:
One thing about being a teenager today, is that they are young.... so who wouldn't prefer to be 13-19 in 2015 with a whole future ahead, rather than the age they are now, late 50s to 90s? I would go through it again, and as its 2015, things would be very different and probably a whole lot better.
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By the time they grow up they'll have to be 75 before they can retire.
 
A good question. While I certainly enjoy the tools at my disposal in today's world (I'm always connected and reading), I cannot say I'd want to be a teenager today compared to when I grew up (late 60s into early 70s). I think it was a simpler time and as others have said, you got outside more, had less to worry about in terms of school shootings, bullying, etc. Yes there were drugs and other influences, but it was a great time to grow up. My main worry in my later high school years was the draft, but it ended a year or so before I graduated. In today's hyper competitve world, I think there are so many pressures teens face that we never had to deal with.
 
Suppose that's in the UK. Canada, I'm not so sure. In any case, many people opt for early retirement. The measly old age pension? Who cares?
 
Well, I never had a plan. Just meandered through life, mostly taking the path of least resistance, and someone always showed up at the right time to push me in the right direction. Lots of kids now have a plan for their whole lives by the time they are teenagers. I wonder what would happen if you didn't have a plan now?

If you could get by without one, I'd probably go for it.
free-jumping-smileys-431.gif
 
I became a teen just before WWII ended. The music was so different during those times; like Teresa Brewer singing Music, Music, Music. The Hit Parade, with Snooky Lansen, was a leading radio show with its top ten songs of the week. And movie stars were worshipped like deities. I am glad that I lived during those magic years.
 
Cookie said:
During my high school days (60s) drugs and drinking were very prevalent, more so among adults than teens, but there were plenty of fatal car crashes and overdoses occurring. The music culture of the 50s, 60s and 70s and 80s and even to the present day is wrapped around booze, drugs and sex.

All the present day teens I know and see seem to be academically gifted and busy with social lives and school, part time jobs, enjoying family vacations and friends and sports activities. The technology they use are just tools and helpful in their goals. I see teens on the buses looking quite happy and wholesome, so I don't know where this trashing of present day teens is coming from. Maybe its worse in the UK and US and related to poverty. Perhaps some examples and statistics might be helpful. Granted teens are known to be outrageously rebellious and if they weren't I'd worry about their passivity.

Maybe some people are even envious of the better lives present day teens have (better clothes, money, entertainment, fun, nicer parents, access to information highway, education and even smarter than some of us ever were. They have so much more than we ever did. The typical things we hear about the good old days are things like how someone had to walk miles and miles to school in a snowstorm, wearing hand me downs clothes, bad food, having to work at a job to help support the family of 10 kids, not enough money to buy luxuries, etc. etc. as if that somehow makes one a better person. Present day teens don't have these problems, unless they live in a third world country.

I can't agree that we had it better or were happier and less screwed up than the teens of today. They struggle to get through life just like the teens of the past and like we did and do.
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Excellent post, completely agree.
 
John C, you are spot on, the music and movies were magical in our day. Even the younger generation agrees with that regarding our music. Many are still giving concerts to sold out crowds.
 

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