Are Teens More Vicious These Days?

[Road Warrior]

The Weinstein Company is releasing a documentary titled Bully this weekend. This morning the director was interviewed by Elvis Duran and the Morning Zoo and he described some scenes from the movie. One of them features a transgender girl who talks about the time a few bullies ran her over with a minivan. When I heard that I was shocked. Have teens these days lost their mind? I attended high school at the start of the 21st century. It was over-crowded with over 3,000 students and located in a major U.S. city with a melting pot population. And NEVER in 4 years of high school did anyone run someone over with their car. Nor did any bully try to kill anyone. And no student ever committed suicide. So, all these stories about what teens are experiencing these days seem surreal to me. It was never this bad when I was in high school.

Any thoughts or insights into the topic?

 

[Sundancer]

It's hard to tell. None of us has lived as a teen through any other part of history. Compared to what time in history?


I'd say yes because of the lack of central discipline in society.


Bullying has alwasys been an underrated threat. The only person I hate in life is my school bully 30 years later. He acted like a jerk at my reunion too.

 

[The Morningstar]

I'd say on a whole, yes. Kids these days just seem to be a bit more desensitized to violence and less empathic.

But there is always gonna be nasty pieces of work in any era and any area.

 

[Road Warrior]

Bullying didn't seem all that excessive when I was in high school. No one died or got killed. Which is something that seems very common these days.

 

[Blue Hero]

For what its worth, I just read an article in TIME today that said 37% of teens say that they are afraid to go to school because of bullying--but added that number has remained consistant over DEACADES. That same article said only 3.7% experienced bullying out of school--debunking the myth of the rise of cyber bullying.

I honestly think it may be more about our ability to hear about all these cases with the 24 hour news cycle and filmmakers wanting to make a name for themselves by defying the MPAA which "should have made an exception" for such an "obviously worthy" cause.

Not to downplay actual bullying tragedy of course--I'm just skeptical that it's the epidemic people are saying it is.

 

[Wolfwood]

I don't think they're more vicious, I think they're more or less the same. The problem is in the fact that now they have greater access to tools that increase their bullying. Years ago, if I wanted to bully you I'd have to wait till I either saw you at school or ran into you somewhere. And then there were only a certain amount of people who could actually witness the bullying and take part in the embarrassment.

Now I can reach you at any time through the internet via your Facebook, Tumblr, Blogger or Twitter account. I can also make the shame and embarrassment much more public by posting videos or spreading the awareness.

So I don't think they're essentially more vicious, their methods are just much more sophisticated.

EDIT: However, I do believe one aware of bullying has increased and that's the demographic that gets bullied because of their sexual orientation. And this is just my opinion, I have no actual data to back this up. The problem there is that years ago, it wasn't as acceptable to come out so there weren't as many teens being harassed about their sexuality. Now that it's more encouraged and that there are more teens braving the risk of coming out, the bullies wind up with more potential targets.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

For what its worth, I just read an article in TIME today that said 37% of teens say that they are afraid to go to school because of bullying--but added that number has remained consistant over DEACADES. That same article said only 3.7% experienced bullying out of school--debunking the myth of the rise of cyber bullying.

I honestly think it may be more about our ability to hear about all these cases with the 24 hour news cycle and filmmakers wanting to make a name for themselves by defying the MPAA which "should have made an exception" for such an "obviously worthy" cause.

Not to downplay actual bullying tragedy of course--I'm just skeptical that it's the epidemic people are saying it is.

I don't think they're more vicious, I think they're more or less the same. The problem is in the fact that now they have greater access to tools that increase their bullying. Years ago, if I wanted to bully you I'd have to wait till I either saw you at school or ran into you somewhere. And then there were only a certain amount of people who could actually witness the bullying and take part in the embarrassment.

Now I can reach you at any time through the internet via your Facebook, Tumblr, Blogger or Twitter account. I can also make the shame and embarrassment much more public by posting videos or spreading the awareness.

So I don't think they're essentially more vicious, their methods are just much more sophisticated.

EDIT: However, I do believe one aware of bullying has increased and that's the demographic that gets bullied because of their sexual orientation. And this is just my opinion, I have no actual data to back this up. The problem there is that years ago, it wasn't as acceptable to come out so there weren't as many teens being harassed about their sexuality. Now that it's more encouraged and that there are more teens braving the risk of coming out, the bullies wind up with more potential targets.

I think these two things are really what's up. The media will always take up a cause and make a bigger deal out of it than it really is. The was summer of the shark, where shark attacks were sensationalized, however, there wasn't really an increase in shark attacks, it was the same number. Look at SARS, bird and swine flu, all scary pandemics that were going to wipe out the population, but in reality only killed a couple of old people or people with pre-exsisting health problems.

 

[Franklin Richards]

[YT]T6-fskZimu4[/YT]

 

[Anubis]

No more vicious than they've been since the dawn of Man.

 

[Hobgoblin]

When I was in high school, school shootings were almost predictable in the news. I forget how many there were in my four years, culminating in Columbine. I dont think there are as many shootings now as there were 15 years ago. They still happen of course but not as often.

As for cyber bullying, that is just prank phone calls 2.0. Lots of people got prank called by anonymous morons back in the day.

I dont know. Just my two cents.

 

[redhawk23]

I think its more of a matter than more focus is being put on the issue. It's actually being taken as an issue, a trend rather than isolated incidents or being ignored as such.

 

[redhawk23]

When I was in high school, school shootings were almost predictable in the news. I forget how many there were in my four years, culminating in Columbine. I dont think there are as many shootings now as there were 15 years ago. They still happen of course but not as often.

As for cyber bullying, that is just prank phone calls 2.0. Lots of people got prank called by anonymous morons back in the day.

I dont know. Just my two cents.

Bit more persistent and mean spirited than that.

What I've never understood about that though is that, you can block people online do kids just not know that?

 

[Road Warrior]

The problem there is that years ago, it wasn't as acceptable to come out so there weren't as many teens being harassed about their sexuality. Now that it's more encouraged and that there are more teens braving the risk of coming out, the bullies wind up with more potential targets.

Yeah, but to get run over by a minivan seems excessive. You'd think the younger generations would be more open to homosexuals and not try to kill them.

Then again, I think a lot of these incidents occur in White neighborhoods. I live in a big city with a wide range of different cultures and nationalities. Here, we are used to "different" people. But if you're in a small town, surrounded by conservative White folks, it's easy to get picked on being for being unique.

Hobgoblin mentioned school shootings. Notice how most of the major ones are at places like Colorado and Ohio. When was the last time a major school shooting occurred in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles?

 

[Thundercrack85]

Most humans are thoughtless idiots. Or sheep. And a few are mean. And the thoughtless idiots enable the mean kids. The parents do nothing, the teachers do nothing, and very soon you have a terrible environment.

And teenagers are humans in their dumbest stage of development.

 

[Franklin Richards]

[YT]WpHEcDSYtiA[/YT]

 

[Wolfwood]

Yeah, but to get run over by a minivan seems excessive. You'd think the younger generations would be more open to homosexuals and not try to kill them.

I think a lot more are and I think the acceptance is growing everyday. Unfortunately a lot of kids learn their ignorance and hatred through their parents. And, like you said, the type of community they grow up in helps to shape their beliefs.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

People forget that teen crime now is lower today than in previous decades.

 

[The Question]

They're not more vicious, and it's not even that they have greater tools with which to be vicious. It's that the mass media makes it much easier for us to see instances of viciousness. It's like general violent crimes. Statistically, the violent crime rate in America is significantly lower today than it was in the 50s. But people act like we live in a much more violent time because the media being as powerful and pervasive as it is makes it much easier for us to see many more of the instances of violence in our country on a much more regular basis.

Same with bullying. Teens aren't any more vicious than they used to be. In fact, even though I can't back it up with hard data, I'd argue that they're probably less vicious. People say that video games and the internet desensitizes them, but I'd argue that the ability to connect with other people over vast distances and the ability form communities, both online and in person, over shared interests (which BTW can and often do require a lot of brainpower) like video games might increase their capacity for empathy.

It's just that when they're *****, we're more like to hear about it than we were 20 years ago.

 

[Immortalfire]

I don't know about more vicious, but they are definitely more stupid.

 

[Franklin Richards]

[YT]1wCXr_6wgns[/YT]

 

[Schlosser85]

It's hard to tell.

1) We have a 24/7 media culture that reports on bullying that didn't exist before, so does it happen more or do we just hear more about it?

2) Bullies didn't use to have 24/7 access to their victims that social media like texting and Facebook provides. It can also make the bullying and humiliation more pervasive by posting embarrassing videos, leaving taunts or threats on their Facebook wall, etc.

3) One of the biggest demographics targeted by bullying are gay teens. In the '50s, barely anyone was openly gay, so they weren't as identifiable. These days it's becoming more acceptable to be openly gay, but it also gives homophobic bullies more identifiable targets.

 

[SuperFerret]

Substitute "gay" for "different" and it's the same thing. I doubt much of it is true hatred, just preying on those who are outside the norm.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Evil people generally pick easy targets. They always go after disenfranchised groups.

 

[SuperFerret]

Yeah, they do. Like children.

 

[Immortalfire]

Substitute "gay" for "different" and it's the same thing. I doubt much of it is true hatred, just preying on those who are outside the norm.

What's "the norm" these days?