10 reasons why children today have it much tougher than 90s kids
Laura Abernethy 2020
Won’t someone please think of the children?! You might not think it to look at them, buried in their smartphones and blasting their music out from the back of the bus, but kids today have it tough. Yes, they have a wealth of technology to draw upon to help them through their everyday existences, but it belies the fact that growing up in the 21st century is a daunting proposition. The 90s, however, as a lot of you will know, were different. It was a purer, more innocent time.
- PRESSURE
Why do you think The Hunger Games was such a successful book/movie franchise? Because every child today could identify with it. They live through The Hunger Games every day. It is a kid eat kid world out there now. From the moment they wake up, today’s children are in a competition with millions of others to be the best. When I woke up in the 1990s, I rolled out of bed, trundled into the living room and put on Pugwall.
- SCHOOL
Back in the 90s, we all got worked up when we were landed with unexpected Key Stage 3 tests at school. Except what we actually did was run around the grass pitches at break-time chasing after a football/a boy/a girl/a Tamagotchi. The only thing we revised were our fashion choices. Today’s pupils undergo more testing than laboratory mice. And, of course, they must deal with the ultimate test: putting their phone down for more than two seconds.
- THE OUTDOORS
In the 90s, there was this magical, happy land where children could retreat to get away from it all. It was a bit like Labyrinth, minus goblins and David Bowie – unless you lived on the same street as David Bowie, that is. Or goblins. And the only thing you had to do to unlock the gateway to this wonderful world was open your front door. But today’s teched-up kids don’t have time for the outdoors – or simply aren’t permitted to venture into it.
- CHILDHOOD
In the 90s, kids were actually kids. They did stupid kid stuff like climbing trees and singing the theme from Round The Twist. It’s inaccurate to call today’s youngsters ‘children’, because they appear to be skipping out the whole childhood gig altogether. If you haven’t launched your own start-up app by the time you’re ten, you really are a failure.
- TELEVISION
The 90s TV kid had a sense of progression. He or she started out with Rugrats, then dabbled with a dollop of Doug or Hey Arnold! and then moved on to Clarissa Explains It All before Sabrina, The Teenage Witch. But if today’s kids don’t come into school with last night’s Game of Thrones memorised, they’re banished to the other side of the playground.
- PARENTS
In the 1990s, your mum and dad didn’t realise you had done your GCSEs until you presented them with your results. Today’s mums and dads are on another level, taking the same approach to the education of their little ‘uns as Simon Cowell adopts for his X Factor mentorees. There are no pushy parents any more… just parents.
- SPORT
In the 90s, we went to the local youth club when we were bored and played football, pool, snooker, table tennis, badminton and whatever else was going. Such tinkering is forbidden today. Kids are given one sport to concentrate on – and if they haven’t excelled by the time they’re six years old, there’s no way they are going to be an Olympic champion. The sporting scrapheap awaits.
- SOCIAL MEDIA
We used to have Facebook in the 90s, only we called it ‘Is Martin coming out to play?’, because this early social network revolved solely around knocking on Martin’s – or Johnny’s, or Jennifer’s, or whoever’s – front door and asking his mum if he was around. Today’s kids have too much choice. Whose door do you knock when you have 400 Facebook friends?
- RELATIONSHIPS
In the 90s, if you fancied someone you walked up to them (at a school disco, in the playground, in the park during a bout of underage drinking), told them as much, then waited to see what happened. They either rejected you, in which case you just went back to your life, albeit a little moodier, or they revealed they fancied you too, in which case life just got a whole lot sweeter. All of this courtship was done and dusted in about 12 seconds. The modern world of teenage dating, however, is blighted by thousands of texts, weeks of Snapchatting and libraries full of Facebooking – and that’s before the object of your affection even reveals if they reciprocate your feelings.
- THE INTERNET
It’s the elephant in the modern teenager’s room. However deprived 90s kids may seem to their latter-day counterparts,
at least when things got tough they could wrap themselves in the warm blanket of anonymity. Today’s youngsters aren’t so lucky. Instead of having a full-length mirror in their bedroom, they have the internet, that ruthless beacon of shining light that exposes all their perceived faults and failings. There is no hiding place for teens today – everything they say or do is broadcast to the world. At least when you had embarrassing mishaps as a 90s kid, your mistakes were your own.
Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2016/09/23/10-reasons-why-children-today-have-it-much-tougher-than-90s-kids-6146967/?ito=cbshare
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