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Ask any teenager today and they'll probably say they don't really care, because it's too expensive to own and operate a car, there's no place worth going (or it

Ask any teenager today and they'll probably say they don't really care, because it's too expensive to own and operate a car, there's no place worth going (or it's too expensive unless it's fast food), and they can just stay at home with their phones instead. Teenagers today have very different values than in prior decades.

Waterluvian 4y ago
Good point. I’ll have to ask my mentees but I think you might be right. But I guess to answer the question we’d have to explore it from the frame of when it was written. So… in the late 40s did teens get access to cars? I feel like that was an American 60s-00s thing. Was it big in the UK? Now I have to research this because I’m very curious.
- UncleEntity 4y ago
  > So… in the late 40s did teens get access to cars? In the US there were millions of cars from the 20s and 30s to be had for next to nothing. Buy an old jalopy, fix it up a bit and you have yourself a hotrod to cause the old people to clutch their pearls. By the 50s this was fully established in American culture. —edit— Should say that the returning servicemen were the pioneers here, hard to go from being a fighter pilot to just being a serious citizen so they took to motorcycles and fast cars like ducks to water.
api 4y ago
I think no place worth going is the fundamental thing. Socialization can happen online to a great extent. Clubs are 21 and up. Restaurants are too expensive. Underground clubs and parties are rare to nonexistent, killed by a mix of helicopter parenting and disengagement driven by being online. Concerts are a bit of a thing but also expensive. It’s just such a different world. I was really into BBSes as a teen so I guess I was among the early adopters. I didn’t go out much until senior year of HS and college. I was weird. So wild that I would be normal today.

Waterluvian 4y ago

Good point. I’ll have to ask my mentees but I think you might be right. But I guess to answer the question we’d have to explore it from the frame of when it was written. So… in the late 40s did teens get access to cars? I feel like that was an American 60s-00s thing. Was it big in the UK? Now I have to research this because I’m very curious.

UncleEntity 4y ago
> So… in the late 40s did teens get access to cars? In the US there were millions of cars from the 20s and 30s to be had for next to nothing. Buy an old jalopy, fix it up a bit and you have yourself a hotrod to cause the old people to clutch their pearls. By the 50s this was fully established in American culture. —edit— Should say that the returning servicemen were the pioneers here, hard to go from being a fighter pilot to just being a serious citizen so they took to motorcycles and fast cars like ducks to water.

api 4y ago

I think no place worth going is the fundamental thing. Socialization can happen online to a great extent. Clubs are 21 and up. Restaurants are too expensive. Underground clubs and parties are rare to nonexistent, killed by a mix of helicopter parenting and disengagement driven by being online. Concerts are a bit of a thing but also expensive. It’s just such a different world. I was really into BBSes as a teen so I guess I was among the early adopters. I didn’t go out much until senior year of HS and college. I was weird. So wild that I would be normal today.