The New Generation of Annoying Teens

Get ready, this is going to make me sound like I'm VERY old... but I'm not so sure about the new generation of teenagers.  I'm not trying to make huge generalizations here, but there seems to be a disturbing trend among many of the older teens around here.  They are all obsessed with their phones and common courtesy is not common at all.  And the entitlement.........don't even get me started on the sense of entitlement I'm seeing.  I don't want today's post to come off as completely negative, but I am very concerned about what I'm seeing all around me.  I'm scared of it really. 


I see it daily, but last nights encounter with it really got under my skin.  We went to a park to watch a fireworks show.  We got there a little bit early and got our spot all set up.  My daughters were having a ball.  They loved being out late!  Just the idea of sitting on a blanket at a park at night was super exciting to them.  We didn't even need an impending fireworks show.  So here we are, minding our business when some older teens march on to the scene.  They just walk into our little set up and throw down their blanket.....half of their blanket was on top of ours.  No "excuse us" or "do you minds?"  They just plopped down and that was that.  Other folks around us were even making comments on how rude it seemed.

So there the older teens are.  Sprawled out, completely oblivious to anyone else around them.   They have now been detached from their phones for almost two full minutes because they were trying to find a spot to throw their blanket down, so obviously it's now phone time.  They all proceed to do a photo shoot.  They take at least forty flash pictures.  And they all contemplate which shots would serve Facebook best.  Would the Riverdale skyline be a nice profile shot or would the picture of all their feet together look best?  The conversation they were having was horrible!  Everything they said or did somehow revolved around their phones.

 The  girl who bugged me most, set her phone down for two seconds and I was overwhelmed by the urge to grab it and throw it over the ledge on which we were all sitting.  I pictured it cracking into a million pieces on the pavement far down below us.  I pictured this event ruining her life (does this sound horrible of me?).  I thought it might be good for her to have no phone to rely on for one day.  Maybe she would learn how to exist without it.  Maybe she could learn to have a conversation with human beings without it.  Perhaps she would learn the ancient skill of speaking to someone while also looking at them!  Yes that's it!  The destruction of her precious phone might teach her to interact with her friends like we did in the good old days before texting and Facebook photo shoots.  We spoke to one another without fiddling with our I-phones (who pays for these idiots to have I-phones????) 

But I didn't throw her phone.  Instead I sat and watched in horror as my two daughters observed the sad sight that was the group of idiot teen girls.  I will be horrified if my sweet girls turn into anything even remotely resembling this one day.  I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to do to prevent it, (tell them "No" once in a while) but I'll try ANYTHING!  I'm slightly pleased that my girls seemed irritated by the antics of these idiot girls.  My kids have that territorial thing going on too, just like Dave and I.  Sasha and Lyla didn't like the teens blanket being on top of our blanket.  I was thrilled to see how annoyed my kids were by this.  It was as if I've already taught them what "rude" looks like and that we should be disgusted by the sight of it.  I was so proud of my kids in that moment.

I was also given one more joyful moment last night (and it wasn't the fireworks show).  I glanced over at one of the idiot girls and noticed a spider climbing up her back.  I said NOTHING and watched it happen.  It passed through her hair and started climbing down her arm.  She was oblivious.  Apparently the spider never texted this information to her, so she was none the wiser.  It was creepy to watch a spider crawl over her skin, but I was pleased by the sight of it.  That's what you get for being a brain dead, oblivious, idiot teen girl.