this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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My experience (late 90s) is entirely anecdotal and I’m really not familiar with teen culture in 2023, but I suspect we were way worse. It wasn’t just how pervasive bullying was. It was how non-conformity was treated. I knew someone who was mocked for liking anime. There were a few guys who would play MTG before school started - just off in a corner not bothering anyone. And they got mocked. And in a school of nearly 2,000 students, there wasn’t even 1 kid who was openly gay. Of course there were gay students but none of them dared to be open about it to anyone other than close friends, I can’t imagine how bad it would have been for them.
And all this time, by the 90s bullying occupied this space where it wasn’t sort of encouraged like in past generations. It was “bad” but no one felt it was something that had to be specifically addressed and rooted out.
I get the impression things are a lot better now in this area, while teens do have challenges that we didn’t have. Academic and extracurricular performance seems to cause way more stress today. And then there’s the who social media aspect.
But overall yeah, we were way worse.
Homophobia was off the charts in the 90s, and I lived those times and knew them well.
Some things did improve. Teenagers today have problems and some bullshit they will hopefully change out of, but they don't do homophobia the way 90s kids did.
Yeah, in my school kids still got viciously bullied for wearing glasses. I was bullied for 9 years straight and the teachers took part in it.
Having done the raising of one of these newer kids from baby to adult and seeing lots of kids in the process, also did substitute teaching and work with young adults now, the difference is night and day. Yes, there are still bullies, but they get a lot less room to operate. Yes there are assholes with bad politics, but they get called out on it more.
With climate change and identity politics they tend to all lean left, they just need help in reaching class consciousness. The "issues" they show are all caused by this violent system, so much selfharm and such. But that is on us, not them. I think a good material understanding would also help many feel less hopeless and start seeing a way out of this (meaning the older kids/young adults).