“kids these days are always on their phones, kids these days never go outside” ok how about kids these days have less freedom of movement & access to public spaces than any previous generation, forcing them indoors, forcing them to rely on electronics, when many would prefer to be outdoors hanging out with friends
this isn’t about the pandemic btw, this trend has been going on for like. 20 years now. it started with millennials and gen Z only has it worse
kids these days:
less unstructured time than ever, constant ‘extracurricular’ obligations cutting into time spent socializing, exploring, relaxing.
more supervised than ever, not allowed to take public transport or spend time alone in public spaces (previously the norm for teens and pre-teens, until media sensationalism made hypervigilance the norm). not allowed to be around peers except when adults are available to supervise/drive.
(despite the fact their parents are working more than ever? bc our whole culture around employment is abusive and exploitive. fewer and fewer families can afford to have parents at home, even as kids are allowed to do less and less without adults around.)
capitalism run amuck + defunding of parks, libraries, etc means it costs money just to exist in public, which is fucking nuts. (it also costs money just to get to public spaces. our world is less walkable than ever and public transport programs are constantly sabatoged. no wonder that some kids are desperate to get their driver’s permit–at extra expense and risk.)
and when kids do try to spend time away from home, they gets accused of loitering???
you’ve built an environment composed of nothing but soulless strip malls and chain coffeeshops, and decreed that kids who spend time there are a “nuisance.” literally where the FUCK else are they supposed to exist? at the libraries you closed on weekends? at the parks & sports fields you stopped funding, the woods you tore down, the backyards that get smaller with every development? at the movie theaters & arcades & restaurants they can’t afford? on the streets they cannot drive on, on the sidewalks that lead nowhere, and where you have banned bicycling & skateboarding & rollerblading & existing for any length of time?
kids these days want to spend time outside, time in public, time hanging out with friends in person. kids these days do not want to constantly rely on the internet as their main source of socialization & leisure. but you have stolen all their options.
you have locked entire generations indoors and thrown away the keys, and you have the audacity to complain that the prisoners spend too much time in their cells.
Plus I think it’s the updated version of “they always have their nose in a book” or “they are always hogging the phone talking with their friends”
