Everything. Every single thing they do right from the way they look to their interests and activities and just every single thing shocks me. In fact, their involvement with technology is not shocking for me at all. There are other things that shock me more than that.
Let me tell you what they are and why-:
- Looks
I am an advocate for inner beauty and all but I have to mention this point from the health perspective. I feel kids and teenagers these days age very prematurely. I see that most of them look very mature for their age. I mistake a lot of teenagers to be in their late 20s. I don’t know if it is only me who feels this way or are they actually aging very fast.
Image source: Pop Buzz. I am sure many of you may know her. She is Charlie D’amelio who is the most followed person on the app TikTok with over 75 million followers. I do find her extremely pretty and I love some of her Tiktok dances. But when I first saw her, I honestly assumed that she was around 25 or 26. I was shocked when I got to know that she is only sixteen.
Recently, a founder of a startup messaged me on LinkedIn asking me if I was interested in joining his startup. When I saw his LinkedIn profile picture, I assumed that he was at least 29 or more so I addressed him as sir in my reply and when I clicked on his profile I was shocked to find that he was only 19 or 20, as he is a second-year engineering student. I hope I didn’t make him feel insulted by calling him ‘sir’ because I haven’t received a reply from him though it has been over a week since I sent him that message.
- Life Goals
There was this eight-year-old girl who lives in my neighborhood. She told me that her goal in life was to study aeronautical engineering at Stanford. I was shocked at the levels of awareness and clarity these kids have at such a young age. When I and my friends were eight, we thought engineers were people who drive trains and repair engines. I only knew that a university called Stanford even existed when I turned 14 or 15.
My previous job was that of a teacher in an elementary school(class 1-class 5). I was handling class 3 and class 4. One of the activities we had to administer to the kids was to ask them to write their goals for the year and read it. We also had to help them set realistic goals since at that age kids still wouldn’t have learned to set goals that were achievable within a year’s time.
I read those goals and they were more unrealistic than I thought they would be. But two of them were the most shocking to me. A girl studying in class 4(she was either 9 or 10 years old) said that she wanted to lose weight so that she can look as pretty as Tara Sutaria.
Image source: Zee news. For those of you who don’t know this is Tara Sutaria. She is a Bollywood actress who appeared in films like Student of the year 2 and Marjaavan.
The girl who wrote that was of a healthy weight. I don’t know why she wanted to look like Tara Sutaria. To me, she looked like a cute little Disney princess and I even told her that which made her very happy.
There was another boy who said he wanted to go to the gym and build six-packs at the age of nine. Isn’t he underage too underage to go to the gym? I thought the minimum age to go to the gym in India was 15. I mean I know that they have kids’ gyms these days but I thought they were only to keep kids active as many of them don’t play outside these days thanks to technology.
Until the age of 13 the only goals we had and we heard of were things like:
‘I want to be a doctor’,’I want to be a pilot’,’ I want to be an air-hostess’ and ‘I want to be a teacher’.
It is necessary to have non-career related goals too but they shouldn’t unattainable or detrimental to one’s self-esteem such as wanting to look like Tara Sutaria. I wish that girl realized that Tara Sutaria has an entire village of people working on her hair, make-up, etc before each public appearance she makes. She also has dieticians and trainers giving her the right set of foods and workouts that will help her maintain her physique.
- Usage of language
I am pretty shocked at the kind of language that youngsters use these days. They swear and use cuss words freely everywhere even in situations where it is inappropriate to cuss. They do not know how to talk to people in a respectful and polite manner.
I was once traveling on a bus and in the seat adjacent to mine a twelve-year-old schoolboy was sitting next to his mother. I had my windows and curtains open on the bus because I needed fresh air. That boy was feeling uncomfortable since the sun was falling on his face directly from my window.
So this is how he asks me to close the window in a loud, rude and brash tone,’ EY ma’am close the window naaa’. I mean that’s like ordering me. It is basic manners to request people politely if you want something done from them(irrespective of the person’s age). Kids these days don’t know that.
I refused to close the window because I didn’t like the way he spoke to me. An excuse me please would have made a big difference. But what shocked me, even more, was the fact that his mother was keeping quiet and entertained his behavior. Why didn’t she teach him how to talk to people?
Then his mother requested me politely to close my window and I obliged. But it didn’t stop there, the boy kept playing with paper balls in a public bus disturbing other passengers but his mother didn’t stop him from doing so. Instead, she was defending her son against the people who kept telling him not to play saying things like ‘he is a kid, he needs to enjoy and blah blah’.
Like, teach your son some manners woman! I feel that even parents of these kids are at fault for the language they use.
- Lack of respect and absolutely no fear of authority
Lack of fear of authority is something that I somewhat admire in kids these days. When I was younger, a fear of authority was instilled in us. We were always told that we should listen to everything that people older than us told us(such as parents and teachers). We were also taught that the older a person is to us the more we need to respect them.
But kids these days have absolutely no fear of authority and they treat people the way they treat them. Even if someone even fifty years older than them does not respect their interests and opinions, they are not afraid of openly voicing their dissent and disrespect towards that person.
I have seen kids these days openly talk back to their school principals that too in a disrespectful manner. Whereas, when we were kids school principals were the symbols of terror and fear in our lives.
I mean one shouldn’t fear authority and be afraid to voice out their opinions to people older than them. As fearing authority causes more harm than good in the long run. But I don’t like the disrespectful language they use towards not just people older than them but to everyone.
- Leisure activities
This is going to sound unbelievable but it is true. So I was once looking through the Instagram account of my ex-classmate’ s younger sister’s friend. She is around 15 or 16. I saw some pictures of her on a Goa trip with some of her friends. For those who don’t know, Goa is a popular beach destination in India where people enjoy going on vacations. At first, I thought they had gone there on a school trip or something like that.
But I was proved wrong when I saw some pictures where -:
Image source: Quint. She was striking a similar pose like the image wearing a bikini. I mean in India no school ever allows kids to wear bikinis and pose like this on school trips.
Image source: Bewakoof. Another picture like this too.
Image source: India Today.
I also saw some photos and videos of her doing alcohol and drugs with her friends in Goa.
Like I was shocked.
I later got to know it was a self-planned trip with her friends and not a school trip.
Firstly, how did her parents even give her the money and allow her on that trip with her friends at the age of 15–16?
Secondly, they were clearly underage to drink and to do drugs as in Goa the minimum age to buy alcohol and drugs is 18. I am sure that they used fake IDs to buy drinks and it is not surprising that they were able to pass off as 18 or more considering that kids these days mature early appearance-wise.
I am not against people going to Goa but I think 15 is too young to go on a self-planned trip to Goa with friends and do drugs unless you are super responsible at that age which isn’t the case most times.
- Lifestyle habits
Substance addiction
Some teens these days engage in too much alcoholism, smoking, and drug abuse. They consume more quantities than what is healthy. What surprises me is not their consumption but their parents’ utter ignorance towards their unhealthy habits.
Sleeping and waking times
They have very odd sleeping and waking times. Like in the school that I was teaching in nine-year-old kids would come to class looking like half-dead zombies because they sleep post 2 am and were made to wake up by 7.30–8 max because they had to be at school by 9 am. Then they told me that they stayed up until very late at night playing video games, watching movies, or doing homework which is why they were feeling sleepy. I again don’t understand how their parents are so ignorant and negligent towards their children's’ health.
While I was nine, I had to be in bed by 10 pm at the most and my friends would all be asleep by 9.30 pm. Staying up until midnight was allowed only during Christmas and new year because we used to have Christmas parties in the apartment that we were living in.
Eating habits
It is nice to start eating healthy at a young age but they go far too overboard with some of their eating habits. I see 10–12-year-old girls following diets like GM diet, keto diet, fruit, and vegetable only diet because they want to fit into the version of ‘beautiful’ that is portrayed in the media.
Image source:Refinery29. They are getting influenced by images like this which are constructed images. It is crucial to get all the nutrients your body needs when you are still growing. Depriving yourself of those nutrients will destroy your health badly.
- Involvement in family matters
I am not sure if parents let their children into family-related matters which are usually dealt with by adults. Stuff such as land disputes.
There was an eight-year-old boy who told me that he hates his uncle because he is fighting with his father for sole ownership of the land that his late grandfather had left behind for them.
Another eight-year-old boy knew about his eighteen-year-old brother’s smoking and alcohol addiction with their parents themselves were not aware of.
I do not really have been opinion on discussing family members in the presence of young children but I think that badmouthing about family members in front of children can cause them to develop unnecessary hate and prejudice against those family members. Holding grudges against people is a block to learning to maintain healthy relationships and developing a healthy mindset. Instead, I believe they should be taught to forgive people and move on.
Lastly, I am not saying all young kids and teens are like this. I am just talking about the people that I have encountered so far and what shocked me on their behavior. Everyone’s experience is unique that is why there are so many different answers to this question Google 😂
Thanks for Reading 🙏
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