Do you think that kids today are more mean than when you were young?
By Tristan Field
Yes, I think kids are more mean today than they were in the past.
Kids today can be mean in so many different ways than in the past and being mean is also encouraged by other kids. Now kids can use social networking, the internet, phones, email, and many other technologies to be mean. In the old days they could only really talk to each other or send notes or fight which is still common along with those other methods.
In today’s world, bullying is also demonstrated by peer pressure- to be cool and fit in with other kids. Bullying is also more common today than in the past when it was only a few kids doing it now many kids in each and every school do it not just a select few.
With social networking, the victim of bullying can be harassed anywhere not just in school. He or she can be harassed on vacation, during breaks, and even in the supposedly safe place of the home. Many more kids today are bullied today also with almost every student in every school being bullied at least once and 50 percent of kids being cyber bullied.
In conclusion, today’s kids are more mean and have more ways of conveying those mean words and feelings today, even going into the victim's own home with social networking and the computer.
By: Gary Gonzalez
I do not think that kids are inherently more mean than they were when I was young, but I do think the avenues toward mean acts are easier and more accessible than when I was younger. In my youth, the term bullying didn’t have the same stigma attached to it like it does today. Was bullying prevalent? Of course it was, but it was more subtle and less in your face, or public. The difference with today’s kids is the access to social media and the overall changes in communication. Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or just text messages from a cell phone, kids today have more opportunities to spread hateful messages and more opportunities to display being “mean”. Kids have always been kids, and with that comes poor choices and bad decisions when it comes to character choices. However, today’s youth have multiple ways to display it on a broader stage.
