Prejudice Against Teens

Please view my introduction


People much older than I am tend to believe that people belonging to my age group are lazy, irresponsible, immature, disrespectful, make irrational decisions, (etc.)  This stereotype, in my opinion, is due to the fact that drugs and alcohol are extremely popular with teenagers.  Older folks would dislike it if we said all old people are grumpy; therefore, they should not stereotype us teenagers.  Older people also want us to be as wise or as calm as them, forgetting that our minds our still mentally developing. For example, I am pretty sure that everyone has played Knock-Knock-Runaway or had a snowball fight at least once in their lives, but if an older person saw us doing this they would instantaneously holler at us.  I certainly recognize this form of prejudice every day in our society and it needs to be put to an end.

Another thing that annoys me about older folks is that they always complain about us spending too much time playing video games.  I completely understand that they are concerned for our exercise but give us a break!   People much older than I am, in my opinion, envy the technology our generation offers and that is why they ridicule it whenever they get the chance.  People of the older generations tend to forget what they were like as adolescents and want us to be as calm or mature as them.  Older people believe that they deserve the utmost respect in society just because of their age and that is not the case; I am not saying you should disrespect them but they take their privileges to the extreme.  For example, a teen was sitting on a crowded bus when older folks had to stand.  Eventually the older people began yelling and telling him to stand up, without knowing that he was disabled and could only stand for a short period of time.  These kinds of incidents need to be put to an end!

I witness this type of prejudice on an everyday basis and it needs to stop before it gets out of control.  Older folks shouldn't label a whole age group based on some incidents that occurred. Overall, this is a very serious issue in America and needs to be taken into consideration before it truly affects somebody’s life.
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