Teenagers

I am now officially in possession of a teenager. To be honest I think I have had a teenager in the house for quite a while but I was thoroughly expecting to celebrate the new year with Harry Enfield’s Kevin the Teenager sketch:



That’s not what happened and, in fairness, Harry Enfield’s humour usually works by making fun of stereotypes (for example, his “Scousers” sketch which was a parody of lazy 1980s media portrayals of Liverpudlians). There is always an element of truth in these clichés although I seem to recall my teenage years were pretty miserable largely because many of my acquaintances were irritating, pubescent arseholes (and those that weren’t I tend to still be in touch with.)

I think the media creates a rather poor image of teenagers and, if we are to believe them, they are Neanderthal cretins with a penchant for violent behaviour, petty crime and more ASBOs than exam certificates. Even the nicer portrayals would have one believe that the average adolescent is a lazy couch potato into rubbish fashion, rubbish music, binge drinking, sex, drugs and video gaming. Whilst there will always be exceptions to the rule I would say that most of our local youth are a fairly decent bunch. The odd thing is, if I was asked to describe what the typical teenager now looks like, I probably couldn’t. Maybe that says it all – rather than being the rebellious angry young people they are actually a bit dull?

There is actually good evidence that the current crop of teenagers are fairly tame compared to those of my youth. Certainly the statistics would seem to indicate that they are harder working and more law abiding than the past. I don’t think today’s teenagers have it any easier than I did. Back then, mass unemployment and the constant threat of nuclear destruction where pretty grim but access to higher education was much better funded and there was a reasonable access to housing – now it is so ridiculously overpriced that even basic accommodation is a concern and I wouldn’t blame young people if they did feel like giving up. As it is they seem to be remarkably chipper so I don’t think I’ll be that concerned about having a teenager in the house.