As I walked in to mentor a choir rehearsal that had third through fifth graders, I looked around only to notice that at least half of the singers there had a Stanley or an Owala water bottle. Some of them even wore crop tops and carried Lululemon belt bags with them as they walked around. I had never been more astonished to realize that I was once one of them, but I had a completely different life.
Growing up, I wanted the “Make-Your-Own DIY” water bottles. I had an unlimited amount of sequin shirts in my closet and the largest collection of extravagant purses anyone could have asked for. I never thought about following the trends at the time or buying the products that other people owned, and I am not the only one. Sophomore Kat Fernando, another mentor from the same choir, feels the same way.
“I don’t remember acting like that when I was their age, and it makes me sad, because they want to just grow up so fast,” Fernando said. “They don’t want to enjoy their childhood, when all I want to do is just go back to the age that they are now.”
Coming from a teen, I was definitely shocked seeing the differences in my generation and theirs. Our generation wasn’t pressured to follow any trends, allowing us to not worry about what brand of clothing or item we wore. There’s a clear difference between both generations.
Kids nowadays listen to the current and most trending artists. Their conversations are normally either about pop culture or gossip that is more mature than what you would expect kids to talk about. At rehearsals, I hear kids talk about the latest drama in their school, and I’m astonished by the seriousness of some conversations.
When I was in elementary school, our conversations were anything but serious, revolving around someone stealing a pencil or copying another person’s work. It never reached the same level of maturity that kids have now.
“They’re talking about makeup. They’re talking about Stanley’s. They’re on Tiktok,” Fernando said. “All I talked about when I was their age was puppies and unicorns.”
Despite the fact that elementary schoolers find these trends to be the new normal, I, along with other teens, feel that younger kids are not enjoying their youth the way we used to. Social media is one of the main reasons for why kids are acting this way.
Social media apps like TikTok and Snapchat introduce new trends to users. Many kids have social media apps installed on their phones, and as a result, they act a lot more mature. They tend to find interest in things that teens are currently interested in. Today’s kids care so much about the way people think of them if they don’t follow certain trends; they feel the effects of peer pressure often. After observing these trends, teens regularly think about wanting to go back to their youth, missing how carefree people used to be.
“All I want to do is go back to the age that they are now, because everything was so easy then, we didn’t have to worry about anything,” Fernando said.
As kids grow older, life starts to become more serious and there are a lot more problems to face. As a mentor, I see many kids who are already acting like teenagers, not knowing the challenges that actually come with being one: the stress, the workload, and the pressure is a downside of being a teen. What kids don’t realize is that they are taking their youth for granted.
Children are not enjoying their youth the way current teens used to. Kids of this generation are growing up too fast, and it is ruining their ability to have a fun and innocent childhood.
“Don’t grow up. Enjoy your youth,” Fernando said.
