TEENAGE KICKINGS
IT’S an age-old problem and every generation thinks theirs is the worst ever. Comments such as “no respect for their elders,” and it “wouldn’t have happened in my day” ring in ears.
Newsflash! It did happen in your day and the “good old days” is just rose-tinted musings of nostalgic days gone by – conveniently forgetting the bad bits. Are the young people of today really “the worst ever?”
Problems with anti-social behaviour from teenagers and young people have dominated my social networks this week and my colleagues at Dundee Live highlighted warnings from Police Scotland about the crackdown on youths gathering in parts of the city.
The top story was a police officer needing hospital treatment after being attacked by a 12-year-old “thug” in Crieff of all places.
It was indeed a shocking incident – officers had attended after reports of anti-social behaviour near to a sheltered housing complex and one was allegedly hurt enough to require hospital treatment.
Tayside Police revealed they will be having extra patrols on the streets following reports of youths gathering in large crowds and causing havoc for some locals.
I get it’s very intimidating when you’re faced with a group of youths, maybe under the influence of drugs and alcohol, acting like feral idiots and it’s even worse when, in isolated incidents, weapons are used, and vandalism, threats and violence occur.
A quick glance at social media comments showed older generations believe the problem is getting worse and a myriad of reasons were put forward as they debated the issue.
Kids having kids themselves, single parents, drug addicts, not being allowed to smack children, free bus passes, lack of police presence and on and on it went, with others going as far as to say adult vengeance is coming. I almost spat out my coffee in amusement. How very mature a response to the problem of youth.
Irony was lost on some who admitted they were wild in their youth but of course they weren’t as bad as youngsters today.
Teens are an easy target and simply tarring them all with the same brush is dangerous.
The reality is, in Scotland, youth violence has reduced significantly. Of course there are exceptions – violent crimes involving teens are dealt with as adults and that’s absolutely correct from where I’m sitting.
I wouldn’t want to be a teenager now. We live in a connected visible world where almost every move you make is recorded for all to see. When kids in the pre-internet age made mistakes their audience was limited, now it’s across social media instantly for thousands to view.
The peer pressure to “perform” for clicks and likes is enormous. We’ve all seen videos of children being bullied and in the background youngsters are cheering and laughing.
This isn’t new and exclusive to today. My generation and beyond carried out the same deeds – we just didn’t have access to mobile phones.
I remember at age 14 gathering in the street with my friends and getting hammered for the first time on bottles of Bacardi Breezers we managed to convince an adult to buy. Back then it was considered a rite of passage into adulthood – today the baying mobs want kids thrown into jail.
We’ve all done stupid things and for some people that may have verged on antisocial or criminal behaviour but that’s what makes us human. We grow and we learn from our mistakes.
Every generation thinks their young people are the worst. And if you don’t believe me I’ll leave you with this quote which is attributed to Socrates from some 3000 years ago.
“Children; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. They no longer rise when elders enter the room, they contradict their parents and tyrannise their teachers. Children are now tyrants.”
The young people of today get a lot of flak – but they are no worse than previous generations