Have older people always moaned about the "youth of today"? Are young people getting steadily worse or do we just get less tolerant with age?

Complaints about "the youth of today" date back at least to Imperial Rome, and probably a lot further. Every generation has to re-learn the lessons that their parents. Sometimes they learn them differently, which is how civilisations change. So there is nothing new about this complaint.

Having said that, the pace of change is constantly accelerating. So, while every generation has always been differnt from its predecessor and prompted the complaints you describe, the difference between the generations is probably greater now than it never has been - and hence the opportunity to complain about the youth of today.

Ask Plato.

Society as a whole is decaying and falling into ruin.

A little bit of both. People become less tolerant as they age. All civilizations decay over time. There ya go.

!think as you get older you do get more irritable and you remember hearing about "kids today" when you were kids and think "well we weren't this bad!" about the kids of today when you probably were.

However, as a kid of today I would back up the degredation of society and say things are getting worse. In the Wedding singer the old lady said, "when I was your age I slept with 3 people. That's like a hundred by todays standards." This is true. Sex is paraded around, violence is accepted more.
It's like the second coming must be somewhere near.

Yes, people are getting steadily worse, because we invest less and less in education, and more and more in selling toys and gizmos manufactured in low-cost countries.

This is particularly true in America, where we've decided to allow the private sector to grow without bounds, while keeping the public sector restrained under the mantra "low taxes; small government." The result? Marketing departments of large corporations (including the media) have more impact on the development of our children than primary or secondary school (and parents are pretty much out of the loop).

Yet, because of our "keep your filthy socialist hands off my business!" policies, we are not allowed to question the values that underpin the marketing programs that are aimed at childrens. The shareholder is king, and profits are the justification.

It's easy to say that this is pure capitalism at work, therefore ultimately efficient, and therefore sacred. But at some point we should question whether all this market efficiency is making the world a better place. I (an MBA) am starting to think that it's not, and that some rethinking is in order.

Yes, young lady and it's particularly your lot that gets us all wound up!

Seriously. older ones have been whining about this for thousands of years.
Hear is a link to some quotes (and perhaps misquotes) of complaints about youths.

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=398104

The young people that I work with are pretty cool. The times that we live in can certainly be challenging, but the human spirit stays strong.

It's about change. The younger generation is different and often different is difficult to understand. I wouldn't say that the generation is getting worse. They may be losing appropriate verbal communication and the sort due to technological advances. This may be okay for them eventhough it wouldn't have been okay for us. We'll have to let them live through their lives to determine how these changes will truly affect them.

honestly i can tell you whats wrong LOW EXCPECTIONS thats what it is.
we kids now days are only concerned about what is expected of them, since having a 90-100 on a test or a subject is'nt an expectation set by our parents and teachers at a young age, we are less prone to do well in school. if you want jobs well we work for our stuff when we want to currently wat i want is to have a major in computerized design so i can make things on a CNC Millings machine. make sure you ad expectations into account when you think about this stuff.

I'm 21 and yes we young people are downright obnoxious however how did we become that way....? Well a very large combinations of factors i believe.

But it can be narrowed down quite easily with one word Cycle.( i don't feel like typing a small novel about my probably accurate yet unscientific opinion)

It is what it is i feel like all i can do is be respectful to older people treat them kindly they can be as mean to me as they want. It's not about that to me it's about the fact that they deserve respect any person who has lived on this earth this annoying beautiful earth knows how hard it is i just feel like old people need a rest maybe give em a break life is hard.

Yes. People have always griped about the younger generation. And yes they usually were right to gripe.
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However, the majority of kids today. Are in my opinion good. But the bad ones are worse than ever before and the few bad apples are giving the majority a bad name.

Both I think. As I get older, I'm saying the same thing. "Damn kids!"
I think we get less tolerant, but also, I believe that the kids are getting worse.

Great question. I think its a bit of both.

I think there is real decline in society.

I'm afraid the answer is both. We do definitely get less tolerant with age, and that is a good thing. We just don't have the wisdom to stay out of trouble when we are kids and as we age, we learn better from experience. The school of hard knocks tends to give indelible lessons. Most people learn from those lessons. Most people would never want to repeat them. Most older people would like to save young people from getting into the same messes. When you look back at what you did as a kid, you tend to shudder. Unfortunately, most young people don't want to hear it and are thus doomed to make the same mistakes and suffer the same pain.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that morals are sliding from one generation to the next. To start off with, for three or four generations now kids have been going off to public secular schools. This is discussed as though it is the way we have always done things, but the secular consolidated school system is only about 4 generations old, less in some parts of the country. It has been a very unsuccessful experiment and we keep doing it as though it must be done, but it doesn't have to be.

If you read the surviving documents of the founders of public education, Horace Mann and John Dewey, you'll find that their express purpose in founding public education was not to teach children to read and write and do math. Literacy was already pretty high in this country. Their purpose was to "replace Christianity with the 'religion' of secular humanism." Public education is more about indoctrination and less about education. We have sown the wind and we are reaping the storm. Make no mistake, this is not about banning prayer in school. This is about the systematic dismantling of any faith the child comes to school with. Public schools believe parents are the problem and that they can do a much better job of raising the child, whom they believe belongs to the state. Think about what a chilling belief that is. And I know that this isn't just the belief of the founders. I've taught in public schools and I've heard my colleagues voice those beliefs.

Added to the problems presented by public education, there are the problems created by popular culture. If you don't believe that kids do what they see, you might as well shut the schools down right now. There is no way to educate a child who doesn't do what he sees. The pervasive culture of violence, gratuitous sex and murder that exists on TV, movies, video games and music is soul destroying. A kid that has been very well trained at home may be able to resist it, but probably only because the kind of parents who train a child well at home are also usually the kind of parents who strictly limit access to that garbage. Kids who are allowed a steady diet of it are at best, going to have some pretty skewed views about relationships and at worst, likely to end up like Harris and Klebold.

Yes, there has always been evil and sin. There have always been kids who are attracted to evil and sin. Yes, even the good kids sin. And yes, there are still basically good kids today. But in my lifetime, I've seen more and more kids fall into evil and destroy their lives. And I've seen the bad kids go further than the bad kids ever would when I was a kid. When I was in elementary, the bad kids made noise in the halls, bullied kids on the playground and on the walk to and from school and might at worst, swear at a teacher. Now the bad kids pee in the corner of the classroom, smear unmentionable things on walls, destroy property, bully to the point of harming classmates, throw chairs, and on and on. When I was in Junior High, the bad kid's smoked in the bathroom. When I taught middle school, the doors had been taken off the boys bathroom because they'd caught kids in there having sex and while I was there, they took the doors off the girl's bathroom because two girls were caught in there having sex. We had a kid carving accurate pictures of male genitalia on every available surface. One of my students brought crushed prescription pills to school and tried to sell them. No one pressed charges because they weren't narcotics. Two more of my students set a fire in the building. And this was when I was teaching in the regular middle school classroom. Now, I attended Jr. High in the "bad" part of town. I taught in one of the best schools in this state. And when I was in high school, the bad kids brought pot to school. Now the middle school kids are beyond that.

Less tolerant. No matter the age, there are people who are good and bad. Adults just learn to hide it better. Teens act out more because it's the rebellious faze. But people go on to be adults who lie, steal and cheat, they just learn to conceal it and put on the act of being a decent human. I actually think the youth of today are going to be a better generation. I'm 27, and I see teens all the time who are adament on being environmentally friendly and finding alternative methods of conserving energy. This generation has taken it upon themselves to be responsible and make the changes. I also see all the time youth who are very respectful of the elderly, as they should be. Our younger generation was raised with google, the internet and a wealth of knowledge and resources at their fingertips. Our youth are more resourceful, more technologically advanced, more environmentally friendly and overall brighter then generations of past. While they may act out and rebell in their "youth" it's only natural, it's simple immaturity. This next generation is going to grow up to make a difference. EVOLUTION!

in Genesis, there is a verse: And Methuselah moaned loudly that the young people of a mere 400 years didst make a loud noise and didst party late into the night

Speaking for myself, an old person, I have more problems with the adults of today than the youngsters. I only speak for myself. Happy Wednesday! :)

Yes I am pretty sure that each generation does the same thing.

I think Hitler once made the same complaint.

All of the above.

Kids today are worse then ever, because there parents are as bad!!! No more dodge ball, fat cheerleaders, no cheer youth sports, and other activities that tell them no one is a loser, when that is far from the truth!!!!

People are getting lazier and dumber and they expect the old people to bare the load for them...

Things have been going downhill much faster since they cancelled The Waltons.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't trying to kill you. The older generation have always complained about the young folk but I think this time they may be right. The less intelligent and civilized have been having the most children and the results are obvious. Kids today are dumber and meaner. Sorry to be so harsh but look around. Pick up a schoolbook from years ago and ask yourself if today's students could handle it. What about all the kids that aspire to become professional criminals (if they don't make it as a rap star)? This is the price the older generation has to pay for believing that it is irresponsible to have a lot of children (we have to save the planet, you know).

I think it's just that, as we mature and get older, we become less tolerant of immaturity. So, we see young people as boneheads and are very critical of their mistakes. We often forget the idiot things we did in OUR youth.

The past generation has been worried for the fate of the world since the first cave dude had a kid, and they will until the last generation says "well crap we royally screwed up"

Yes people become more intolerant with age and yes older people have been saying this since Plato's time. However, I'm sad to say,the youth are worse today. If I compare myself and my siblings with the kids of today (young people where I work and even my own kids) we were much more able to look after ourselves than they are. I know too many young people in their twenties who have the self-destructive habits, dependant mentality and cluelessness of children. When will they grow up? Well-meaning parents (myself included), probably have a lot to do with it. On the bright side, maybe the cycle will hit a rock bottom and the next generation will be better. :0)

I think both. Older people can be less tolerant. However, I can see changes in young people, too.

For instance, my oldest brother is 49. When he was in high school, he had to work, save for and buy his own vehicle. I am 35, and my classmates and I considered ourselves lucky to drive our parents' cars to school. There were some kids that had their own beater cars. One boy worked for his parents company and was really lucky because he could buy his own truck with the money he'd earned. Now kids think they are entitled to their own new car, paid for by their parents.

As parents do more for their kids and expect less in return, the kids are getting lazier, more demanding, less respectful and push limits farther looking to find them. There have always been some kids like this, and not all are now, but it is more common.

I think is just the fear of fading away and the possibility of younger people taking over, making decisions, and the fact that the bad is getting worst and the good is getting better...too extreme for my taste.