It’s all about perception… age groups may not be as different as one may think 

By Raechel Lites

It’s no secret today’s teenagers are considered the worst to come: the laziest, the rudest and the ones with their sights set solely on me, myself, and I. Each generation has its ups and downs, but it’s all in a matter of perception.

“We’re more liberal,” junior Sophie Hayes said.

Hayes believes today’s teens have more of a backbone and are willing to put their foot down on what they believe is wrong.

“We question things more now,” Hayes said. “Back in the day everyone was taught to be respectful, and taught that you had to be respectful to your elders no matter what they said or were doing. Now if they’re saying something I don’t agree with, I’m going to disagree with them whether or not it’s respectful.”

English teacher Mr. Nathan McGarvey, class of 1998, feels as though some things have not changed.

“I think it’s the same [attitude],” Mr. McGarvey said. “Times change but I don’t think teenagers do. We did the same. We still questioned what people had us do and why we had to do it.”

Teen communication skills have decreased due to telecommunications, but if the same technology was available to the older generations, Hayes believes they would behave the same.

“It’s not true that our communication skills have gone down the drain,” Hayes said. “We’re just conditioned for what we know. Had they had the same technology and things we have now then they would have been the same.”

McGarvey recalled the times communication was less advanced.

“We had to pass notes, we couldn’t send each other text messages,” said McGarvey. “I think with that has come a whole other huge sense of responsibility. You’re putting yourselves out there; some people realize that and some don’t.”

According to McGarvey, his generation would drive to rid stress, which is what a lot of teens do today, but they had a little bit of an advantage.

“We drove to deal with stress, we just drove around,” Mr. McGarvey said. “I think more than that we wanted to get out and we wanted get away from everything. We could just go and get in our cars and drive the whole night on $5, and you all can’t do that. You all have never lived in a generation where they had to have police at the Green Tree Mall because they were trying to cut down on cruising.”

According to McGarvey when kids in his generation applied to college, just about everyone was accepted , but he says today’s expectations for academics have risen.