I would never want to be a teenager now. Like having casual sex can give lifelong diseases, the right wing bearing down on everyone’s freedoms (except theirs ofc), hitchhiking is a death trap, etc etc.
If I was growing up now I probably wouldn’t make it to 20.
I have a USA-centric view, and I’m not sure how old you are, but you don’t have to go back very far to have those same risk (or worse!) for different reasons.
Like having casual sex can give lifelong diseases
Social acceptance for seeking treatment is much better now than 20 or 30 years ago. Moreover, HIV was death sentence back then, not so much anymore with modern medicine. Even contraception was harder to get ahold of as a teen 30 years ago. Now if any teen needs contraception or birth control, there are many legal and legitimate ways for them to get it easily.
the right wing bearing down on everyone’s freedoms (except theirs ofc),
I love how far we’ve come in the areas social justice (and we have more do to here). 30 to 50 years being gay would render you a social outcast as a teen. Telling others you were an atheist may have got you disciplinary actions from your school. If we’re looking back 50 years, we’d be right on the edge of the end of the draft to be shipped off to the Vietnam war which happened to many 18 and 19 year olds. This says nothing about the negative experiences of people of color have received at the hands of law enforcement, justice system, an unequal treatment from the education system.
I would never want to be a teenager now.
I fully agree with you here. The biggest risk is for their childhood mistakes to follow them for the rest of their lives. After us old folks that didn’t grow up with forgettable childhoods die off, society will evolve to forgive youthful mistakes as it will be 100% of the population that has documented past mistakes they’re not proud of, but this current transition time will be painful for the younger generations.
The biggest risk is for their childhood mistakes to follow them for the rest of their lives.
Every time I read about protests at colleges, this is all I can think of. College should be a place to find your voice, stretch your boundaries, and make mistakes without the permanent consequences.
I saw it coming decades ago when every campus security or public safety department wanted to become campus police so they can escalate to criminal charges and guns. Now I see colleges ruining their kids lives for trying to make the world a better place, at least one article about getting a kid deported, even when they haven’t hurt anyone. I’m all for consequences, but schools shouldn’t generally be making them permanent. What happened to the world?
There have been STDs probably as long as there’s been sex. But now we might just be able to cure HIV. And we’ve been able to cure the other ones with antibiotics for a long time. And condoms are cheap, available, and socially encouraged.
Interestingly, young people are actually having less casual sex anyway.
A cure that can be used at scale is I know what you’re talking about. I’m hopeful we’ll have that soon for the world. Meanwhile we have pretty darn good medicine these days to prevent HIV transmission as well as treat those with HIV to live a full life.
I would never want to be a teenager now. Like having casual sex can give lifelong diseases, the right wing bearing down on everyone’s freedoms (except theirs ofc), hitchhiking is a death trap, etc etc.
If I was growing up now I probably wouldn’t make it to 20.
I have a USA-centric view, and I’m not sure how old you are, but you don’t have to go back very far to have those same risk (or worse!) for different reasons.
Social acceptance for seeking treatment is much better now than 20 or 30 years ago. Moreover, HIV was death sentence back then, not so much anymore with modern medicine. Even contraception was harder to get ahold of as a teen 30 years ago. Now if any teen needs contraception or birth control, there are many legal and legitimate ways for them to get it easily.
I love how far we’ve come in the areas social justice (and we have more do to here). 30 to 50 years being gay would render you a social outcast as a teen. Telling others you were an atheist may have got you disciplinary actions from your school. If we’re looking back 50 years, we’d be right on the edge of the end of the draft to be shipped off to the Vietnam war which happened to many 18 and 19 year olds. This says nothing about the negative experiences of people of color have received at the hands of law enforcement, justice system, an unequal treatment from the education system.
I fully agree with you here. The biggest risk is for their childhood mistakes to follow them for the rest of their lives. After us old folks that didn’t grow up with forgettable childhoods die off, society will evolve to forgive youthful mistakes as it will be 100% of the population that has documented past mistakes they’re not proud of, but this current transition time will be painful for the younger generations.
Every time I read about protests at colleges, this is all I can think of. College should be a place to find your voice, stretch your boundaries, and make mistakes without the permanent consequences.
I saw it coming decades ago when every campus security or public safety department wanted to become campus police so they can escalate to criminal charges and guns. Now I see colleges ruining their kids lives for trying to make the world a better place, at least one article about getting a kid deported, even when they haven’t hurt anyone. I’m all for consequences, but schools shouldn’t generally be making them permanent. What happened to the world?
There have been STDs probably as long as there’s been sex. But now we might just be able to cure HIV. And we’ve been able to cure the other ones with antibiotics for a long time. And condoms are cheap, available, and socially encouraged.
Interestingly, young people are actually having less casual sex anyway.
First, I agree with the spirit of what you’re referring to. However, I want to point out we have a fully working cure HIV, its just not reasonable to use on most people. 7 people have been fully cured of HIV with this treatment..
A cure that can be used at scale is I know what you’re talking about. I’m hopeful we’ll have that soon for the world. Meanwhile we have pretty darn good medicine these days to prevent HIV transmission as well as treat those with HIV to live a full life.