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Comment by wutbrodo | Hacker News Reader

> the realities of student loans, an out of reach housing market, devalued college degrees, the gig economy, promises of no retirement, etc.

Have you ever met a teenager? Almost literally zero percent of them think (or need to think) about this stuff, with the possible exception of some of the very oldest teenagers (ie, people in their first or second year of college who are starting to think about the details of the start of their careers).

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When I was a teenager I didn’t think further than 5 years ahead. I did however write goth poetry, become Wiccan (and thus got all mopey about being at a Catholic school), get upset how unfair it was that UK law looked down on my sexuality (it had not yet equalised the gay and straight ages of consent), and frustrated how ridiculous it was for the Prime Minister to veto every EU thing he could in protest against the BSE-related ban on British beef. Ended up writing loads of letters to newspapers about politics of the day before internet comments were a big thing, then going to university really worried if my student loan would cover everything.

Yeah, I feel like there's some projection going on with GP and those issues. Teenagers don't stress about mortgages or retirement.

Teenagers might not think in these terms, but their parents do. Aside from parents directly projecting their vision on children, kids can read anxiety or stress from their parents and be ‘contamined’ by these feelings.

Right, absolutely. That's a different claim from the GP comment, and a reasonable one. The authors noted that the symptoms were independent of economic indicators. Now obviously this study is an initial result, and thus fairly preliminary (if you believe any effect in social science after a single study, you haven't been paying attention). But it's not like this is a rebuttal of the study's claims.

You must have known a mindless set of teenagers. When I was a teenager people actively talked about their resentment that arts and humanities were not going to get them a well paying job and society was biased in favor of people like me who found math and science easy. And this would have been tenth grade, if not earlier.

Edit: for historical context, this was nearly two decades ago and nobody had either a mobile phone or a Facebook account

Teenagers I do know personally talk about being worried about jobs, housing, debt and general economical problems. I never start those discussions, they do.

I worried about these things as a teen over 30 years ago. No social media then. Teens worry. It's part of the awakening of adult patterns of thought.

That sounds like a branch of the problem being discussed here. If you’re 16 and worried about housing options, something is wrong imo.

Well, yea. The housing market is super fucked up, that’s what’s wrong.

I guess but why would teenagers of all people care about this? You don't need a house. Many of the kids I knew growing up lived in apartments.

If they lived in a house they could inherit it from their parents. Why is the housing market something children worry about?

> You don't need a house. Many of the kids I knew growing up lived in apartments.

Apartments are part of the housing market

> If they lived in a house they could inherit it from their parents.

Teenagers probably want to move out of their parents home (be it a house or apartment).

> Why is the housing market something children worry about?

See above : teenagers often want and look forward to independence, and housing is 100% central to that goal. Their future horizon may be a little shallower than that of the average adult, but they do have a horizon - i.e short term goals that they want to achieve.

At least for me, that meant figuring out how I was going to actually live on my own come 18. You can bet I was worried about housing prices (even if my immediate goal was to rent).

> If they lived in a house they could inherit it from their parents.

Heh "hi mom, dad, FYI I'm planning to live with you and my two siblings until I'm around 50 and then you can die and it'll just be us three kids here".

Also, by "house" I meant "dwelling/residence".

Teenagers are worried about where they're going to live, and staying with their parents well into adulthood is usually not a desired option.

I strongly disagree. If you are 16 and it seems like you won't be able to get living and there is stigma attached to living with parents, worrying about it is sign that you think about world around you. That is healthy.

16 years old are not necessary movie dumbos. It is time when people form opinions and think a lot. The result does not have to be hapiness, if indeed expectations on you and your possibilities don't match.

Although they used teenager. I think most of those things probably more accurately describe a young adult

Their parents would have been very stressed and the kids would have unconsciously picked up on it.

> Have you ever met a teenager?

Yes. And we've all been teenagers.

>Almost literally zero percent of them think (or need to think) about this stuff, with the possible exception of some of the very oldest teenagers (ie, people in their first or second year of college who are starting to think about the details of the start of their careers).

What? EVERY teenager thinks about it. Not only that, their parents financial situations and the prospects of the future most definitely influences their outlook.

What teenager doesn't talk about or think of their future? The entirety of high school is pretty much about preparing for college, finding a job, etc.

Yes, preparing for _college_ and _finding a job_. The details of how you're going to pay your day to day are far hazier, as are things like "the gig economy" and retirement.

If you were worrying about your future mortgage when you're a teenager, I can assure you you were in the minuscule minority.

> What teenager doesn't talk about or think of their future?

I don't want to get into why, but I didn't. If someone doesn't really think they have a future, what's there to think about?

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