I’m officially outdated. I’ve been on earth long enough to see the fashion trends of my junior high days resurface, and that proves it - I’m old news. I could be Benson Boone or Robert Irwin’s mother. I walk around judging the youngins and thinking they’re ridiculous. I want to comb their hair and pull up their pants! I want to tell them that they didn’t discover Green Day or the scrunchie, and those shoes they're wearing? Yeah. We already did that.
I try to behave, though, and remember that the generation before me had similar qualms as they experienced my upbringing, and so it has gone for all of time. I'm sure as far back as the cavemen, the former generation thought, "What is wrong with kids these days? Why are they wearing their pelts like that and using all of those stupid, made up words?"
Respect for other generations aside, here are a few things I really don't understand about the current one:
Posting things to have them disappear
They have all sorts of everchanging rules for how they use social media, but one thing that has been consistent for a while is that if they post something, they use stories, and the posts disappear in 24 hours. It's not cool to post on the grid where it stays put. As a memory collector, this troubles me. Your memory and what you wrote just disappears! To me it's like writing a journal entry and throwing it away.
(There are some things that are great to post in stories and have disappear, but your prom photo? Your graduation? Your mission call?)
Their hate for email
This is a new observation I've made since Nicky left on his mission. They detest email! For some reason they can send DMs just fine, but email grates them. This shocks me because I thought technology was their thing, and I thought that email was normal for them due to the way they utilize computers for their schoolwork, but that is not so! When Nicky was getting his mission papers ready, he needed to send an email, and he didn't know how! He could check his email and reply to an email, but he didn't know how to start an email from scratch. He had to ask me how to do it! I was shocked!
Now that email is the only way he can communicate with friends, I'm seeing how much they really hate using email. Almost every time he gets an email from a friend, there is some kind of comment in it about how much they don't like email. "Sorry I haven't emailed you for so long, I just really hate email," and the like. And a lot of them email him voice notes because they don't like to write.
Wearing zit patches in public
I'm all for a zit patch in the privacy of your own home if it helps, but why are you wearing them to work? And in your school photos? You're pretty much giving me a map of where all your zits are when I probably wouldn't notice them otherwise.
(And the stars? Seriously? But also, you know we can see the flesh colored ones, right?)
They won’t use a locker
I don't know how common this is, but my kids refuse to use lockers. Then they are burdened on days when they have extra stuff to carry. Lockers were our pride and joy when I was in high school! It's basically like having a school bedroom! And sure, they don't have to carry around as many books as we did, but they could keep some pretty amazing stuff in a locker if they would use one! How about some snacks? How about an extra hoodie in case you get cold one day? Do you realize you don't have to carry your lunch around with you all day?
I can't tell you how many times my high schoolers have had a problem that could have been resolved by using a locker! But they refuse.
The boys’ hair
I can't even talk about what's going on with boys' hair these days.
But I have to be honest, teenage boy hair trends have always been bad.
Not wanting to drive
This one blows my mind the most. They don't want to drive! They don't want to get their drivers licenses. So many of them delay for years.
When I was in high school, there was a kid who didn't get his drivers license until his senior year, and we all thought that was so weird. Now it's perfectly common for kids to graduate and still not have their license. Nicky was good to go and had no issues with driving, but I have pretty much had to force it on Daisy. If it were her choice, she wouldn't drive at all right now. It's so strange to me because "back in my day" we were so excited to drive.
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I thought I'd never be like this - so old, out of touch, and perturbed by modernity. Yet, here I am! In truth, I still feel young until I see a teenager look at me like I'm a hundred years old. Then I remember that, to them, if we are over the age of 28, we are as good as a hundred.
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