Anian

Saw a reddit thread the other day asking for opinions on young people today. It was surprisingly positive throughout, everyone saying how much nicer they are than the over 40s, who are far more likely to make a scene or make a stink about something, and general intolerance of people who are different. I thought the thread would be full of people complaining about social justice warriors and such. Since reddit is mostly read by young people themselves, the results might be skewed a bit, but I'd say it seems to tally with my experiences.

So what are your personal experiences like with young people today? Only personal, not what you read about a teenager in the news or a student rally.

Nutmegger

Personal experience with my friends' children (private school and Ivy league educated) -- who I realize are somehow in their thirties now!!! -- is that they are very conscious of social justice and color blind when it comes to dating. But perhaps that's because they grew up with parents who took them to protest marches . . .

mrken30

I know a lot of younger people who seem to think that getting a driving license is not a necessity anymore and get it later in life. They are also more willing to go off on their parents dime and do more life experiences and travel more. Also more likely to do charity work.

robin1234

much nicer than the over forties .... That's definitely a young person's perspective, because as a 65 year old, I find the "over forties" overbearing, rude, patronising, obnoxious etc. When I say over forties, I mean young people in their 40s and 50s... Actual old people, 60+, are perfectly ok.

Problem with actual young people (20s & 30s) they think they know all about good coffee, beer and wine when actually they know sod all.

Beaverstate

My son didn't care one bit about getting a drivers licence, happy riding public transportation and bumming rides from friends.....until the day he got a licence and a car. His butt has never touched a public transportation seat since.

Beaverstate

I guess I'm Fringe at 58, but old for my age

SultanOfSwing

Most people under 30 annoy the shit out of me, in general. A few outliers here and there but mostly, I look around and I'm kind of glad that sea levels are going to rise in 100 years.

The whole social justice warrior crowd are utter cancer, though. Them and the bearded beer snob 'movement' need to be slapped around with a dead fish for a few days.

neill

They're just apathetical to everything, while the 'older-ish' crowd have seen their world turned upside down by technology, particularly social media.

Kids these days are growing up in a world on the one hand, of many comforts and on the other, rules that have severe consequences if broken.

AlphaTangoMike

I see a large sense of entitlement (age group 8 - 30). "It's my right" to this that and the other. B0llocks to that, go and do some hard work and earn what you want.

robin1234

My son (early 30s) got his drivers license at the usual age but has never owned a car and hardly ever drives one. He's content to cycle and use buses and trains. A lot of his peers don't even have drivers licenses.

Hiro11

My experiences are pretty positive:
1. We hire undergrad and grad student interns every summer and they never fail to impress me with their professionalism, diligent work ethic, intelligence and general competence. The woman we recently had (a rising senior at Notre Dame) was so much more together than I was at her age that I was retroactively embarrassed.
2. My 15 year old daughter's friends seem like a really nice bunch of kids.
3. Three years ago my employer agreed to pay of an MBA for me and as a result I recently graduated from an elite business school. I was about 10 years older than the average student there. The students there were truly excellent: smart, driven, morally centered and worldly.

I am fairly optimistic about the future.

Anian

The grad employees where I work are some of the harder working people in the company. For engineers, they dress remarkably tidily, much more so than anyone else there. Their biggest faults are being overly apologetic when they think they may have done something wrong. This is still the case after several years of working here, so it's not like they are still out to impress or haven't yet been ground down by the system. They are just nice people. These are professionals though, not minimum wage jobbies, so I don't have much to compare them against other than the teenagers who hang out at the local park after dark.

dc koop

My experience of young people is that they're polite. They even call me "sir" Nice but makes me feel old.

jambey2510

Surely this is all subjective and depends on the 'type' of people in that age group you meet?

I'm 25 myself, and I hate a lot of people in my age range, due to, as mentioned above, the self-entitlement, snobbish (everyones a bloody connoisseur of something these days, because they have a beard, or a 'meaningful' tattoo, or refuse to have 'cheap' versions of stuff). I find that, actually, the 40 plus category are a lot politer than those of my age range, I'm sure if it's because I actually treat everyone with respect and politeness, or whether it's just the people I meet.

Beaverstate

Though I do like a snobby beer