Today's Teenagers

[Zebedee]

Its a shame, the 'good' teenagers never make it more often to the news than the 'badies'

That's simply because "bad news sells". The majority of people who go around doing the right thing consistently day after day, don't get on anyone's radar. They're not noticed because they are acting within a society's expectations of what is "normal".

It's only the people who step outside that perception of normality who get noticed. Now that could be teenage louts, it could be people who've robbed the nearest bottle shop, it could be hoons doing burnouts ... or it could be the soldier who was awarded a VC, the ambulance service phone operator who gave a distraught mother CPR instructions over the phone, or a young person who's gotten the highest TEE score in the state and who's destined for great things.

It's all a matter of perception. People see what they want to see, and then try and apply that standard to the (mostly) invisible majority.

[Magnus]

Most of the teenagers I come into contact with are nothing less than respectful, decent and honest.
Occasionaly I'll meet some who are petulant, arrogant or have what older people see as an attitude problem, but this has been the case for generations.

Usually these kids are simply enjoying themselves and are oblivious to the distres they cause others.
The line is crossed when there is acual damage or threats to other people or their property,
this does occur, but it's debatable whether this is more prevelant now than it was in the past or if it is just more visible due to the influence of the media.

We used to get up to all sorts of mischief as kids, and I remember oldies then tut-tutting and asking "what is the world coming to"

I really don't see that a lot has changed other than the teenagers today are perhaps more vocal, more mobile and perhaps a bit more sophisticated in some ways.

[nra555]

WF, You say we're all idiots/morons, but wern't we all told not to be racist/stereotypical when we were growing up?
theres millions of people in perth, just because you come across a couple of hundred that are loosers, doesn't mean we all are.

[written_ficton]

The ones I come across are moron's / idiots.....

Though I'm sure there are some sweet ones outh their

[Zebedee]

The ones I come across are moron's / idiots.....

You obviously hang out with the wrong crowd

[Tyranus]

He is near Bassendean if I remember correctly...that'd explain a fair bit...

[written_ficton]

He is near Bassendean if I remember correctly...that'd explain a fair bit...

I am no where near Bassendean!

[Bonez]

There's plenty of teenagers with no respect. Just take a look around. I'm not labelling all teenagers this way, but take a walk around Midland Gate shopping centre on a Thursday night and you'll probably want to get back in your car as quick as you can and go home (if you make it back to the car without being spat on or bashed).

[Zebedee]

There's plenty of teenagers with no respect.

And for every one you notice who looks or acts "dodgy", how many more do you not see, because they blend into the crowd, or they aren't out causing trouble in the first place?

According to this site, there are somewhere in the order of 300,000 young people (defined as ages 6-16) in WA. In this page (from the same site), it mentions that the incidence of offending by young people is around 5,841 per 100,000 population (or 5.841%).

So if there's nearly six per cent doing the wrong thing, what about the ninety-four percent who are causing nobody any trouble or harm? If you were a newspaper editor, which headline would you choose- "Police arrest 17,500 kids in WA" or "282,000 kids doing nothing wrong"?

[robbage]

I throw this cat amongst your pigeons

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/ed ... s-ago.html

Maybe all the smarter ones emigrated to Au.

[dlcat1]

I throw this cat amongst your pigeons

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/ed ... s-ago.html

Maybe all the smarter ones emigrated to Au.

Why thankyou Robbage,

This pigeon enjoyed it (licks lips and burps)