Why are kids today so worried about being cool that they forget to just enjoy being a kid?

Question

Ranging from ages 12-18, why do kids care so much about being cool? They're so worried about what everyone else thinks, they're smoking pot, they're partying too hard, they're getting drunk...it's almost as if they all want to act like stupid spoiled rich S**t-faced celebrities...they have so much drama in their lives and they're only kids. how come they're acting like this?

Answer 1

To fit in, peer pressure I guess. WHY you would allow yourself to feel pressure from a bunch of idiots your own age, I do not understand. Yeah, they idolize celebrites, they don't know how to have their own lives so they want someone else's.

Answer 2

so think kids should be kids? that's good because not alot of parents would agree with you,so parents push their kids into being superstars instead of letting them go to school and play and be kids.

Answer 3

i'm 14 years old

i dont care about being cool cuz thats stupid

who wants to be poplular

its all fake

dramas anoying  

Answer 4

From what i can tell, they/we want to feel accepted. You see, kids are trying to find out who they are, they do what others do to feel good about themselves when in a group of kids. Don't you want to feel accepted? These kids do and take it to an extreme. And they're going to regret it some day, but what can you do?

Answer 5

Think about it like this...

When kids are at home in the ages BEFORE 12-18, are they guided by their moral-set and values for the sake of them, or are they guided by their moral-set and values because that's what the family accepts???

Kids (and people in general) are always looking for acceptance, it's just in younger years they want it in their family and their home, but high school soon becomes a secondary home, and the search for acceptance there goes on just like it used to at home.

The huge emotional and value confusion that IS high school is the fight between acceptance inside the family home and acceptance outside of it. The family environment and the general peer group environment are hugely different, and the kid needs to be able to survive in both, because the kid has to LIVE in both.

Also, there is sometimes the thinking that, if I was accepted at home, then why not here at my school. If my family knows I'm funny, then shouldn't people here find me funny? If I can impress my family, then can't I impress my peers? And the means of finding what they always had with their family becomes a lot different when they're looking for it in the outside world. I think we can all testify a little to that, it's just some kids feel their loyalty to their family values too strongly to do things that betray them, and other kids feel more loyalty to their peer group.

One thing's for certain, any kid who was passionate about their family life and values at home isn't gonna go to school and ruin everything they've ever held dear. They'll choose friends who they're not afraid to bring home and to say this is who I am. Thankfully, that's my younger 15 year old little sister. She can be a follower at times (because that comes WITH the times - keeping up with the latest fads), but at the end of the day, her ties to the family ethos are too strong for any of that bulls*** that is around her on a regular basis at school.

I would hope all families could raise their kids to be that loyal to them when they're tested with young wastefulness.

Also, my Mother's spirituality has a lot to do with my little sister's resolve. I'm not a Christian or any sort of religious person - I'm a psychology type, but I do recognize the value that my Mother's Christianity has had in keeping my daughter out of making terrible early life choices. Religion in general can have a very positive effect on young kids who go through very testing and scary times early on in life.

Answer 6

That has always happened , not just today but its true it seems like today they don't only have to posse as super cool but they have to pose as if they where rich and famous.I do think its  stupid but all teenagers want to fit in with the in crowd .

If being poor and posing as third world country starved kid was trendy everyone will still do it, as silly as it may sound but following trends its what teenagers love best.

Answer 7

cause there's other kids who are strong and have gangs that can beat them up

Answer 8

It's sad, but most kids want to fit in, and as a result, they turn to drugs/alcohol/parties to do that.  I personally think those who try to conform are extremely boring people.  I don't understand it.  And the people that party it up, by doing drugs and drinking, one of these times they'll learn their lesson.  They will kill a close friend of theirs in a drinking and driving accident, and then regret it for the rest of their lives.  Not only legally, but emotionally/intellectually.

Personally, let everyone drink their brains/livers to death.  They are stupid enough to do so, let them suffer the consequences.  It makes me sick to see so many teenagers out there getting trashed all the time.  I think it makes them look like the biggest losers ever.  It's actually quite pathetic if you think about it.  They must turn to alcohol or drugs to feel better, when really, it's quite the opposite.

I will never understand the obsession with drinking.  Oh well.