A lot of the things have changed over the past few decades, but the thing that changed the most are the youth. Kids now are so much different and are growing up so differently from kids years ago. From what we wear to how we communicate to what entertains us, everything is completely different and adults are having a hard time adjusting. Adults are at war with kids for the things that are popular that adults simply don’t understand. So, let’s compare the differences between youth years ago and youth now.

One strikingly different element about the youth now and in the past is how we communicate. In the past if a kid wanted to speak to their friend, they would go to the landline that was attached to the wall by a wire and they’d dial their friend’s phone number and speak to them over the telephone. Now, if a kid wants to communicate with a friend there are many different options. One option, my favorite, is we can text them on our smart phones. We don’t even need to memorize their phone number because it’s saved in our contacts. So, we just have to click the contact and text and the message is sent almost instantly. We can also call or even Facetime. We can also communicate through social media like Snapchat or Facebook.

Another exceedingly big difference between youth before and youth now is entertainment. For one, concerts. When kids went to concerts before there were no cell phones so you kind of just had to live in the moment. Now, months after the concert you can still watch the video that you took and relive the excitement. When there was a slow song and they needed a light to swing back and forth to set the mood, they didn’t use flashlights on their phones. No, they took out a lighter and lit it and swung that back and forth. I know, bizarre. Also, years ago if kids wanted to have a movie night, they couldn’t go on Netflix or On Demand from the comfort of their own home and watch it instantly. They had to buy it or go to a video store and borrow it like a library book.

Style is a huge argument between adults and the millennials. Some things that we wear, adults simply don’t understand. The jeans kids wore before were baggy, and they wore baggy clothes in general. Now, we squeeze into our clothes and try to make it as tight as we possibly can.  Even boys now are wearing tighter clothes. We wear rips, and not only in our jeans, but our shirts and sweaters and anything else. To adults, this just looks like trash we found in a dumpster somewhere, but to us, it’s style. Also, before, girls wore one-piece bathing suits in the summer. Now, we wear extremely skimpy bikinis and it’s pretty rare to find teen girls wearing a one-piece bathing suit. Guys wore tight swimwear that were somewhat fitted and kind of embarrassing. Now, most teen boys wear loose swim trunks which, I think we can all agree, is much better.

Although adults don’t get our style or our culture now, they shouldn’t be so quick to judge. They had weird styles that they were totally into as well. They wore backwards jeans, and jeans that were multiple sizes too big, and bell bottoms, which are making a comeback, but still not my personal favorite. I think what adults need to understand is style changes. It’s inevitable. They should learn to accept our style and maybe even learn to appreciate it. As for us kids, we shouldn’t be too upset when the adults in our lives complain about our style. It’s normal. Years later, when we have kids of our own ,we’ll be just as judgmental and we won’t understand their style one bit. So, let’s just learn to embrace each generation’s culture and try to understand what it’s like to be a kid.