I have to largely agree with those who complain of the article’s Golden Ageist position.

There is no empirical evidence in the piece. And this is obvious given that any evidence could only be subjective and interpretative based on behaviour between humans.

There is a great deal of objective[0] evidence that the general well-being of humans across the globe has improved. Women’s rights, famine, absolute poverty, gay rights, etc., etc., have all improved objectively in the period the article portrays. Even in the US, the focus of the article, this is generally true.

Could I ask a question? If we were to accept the article’s position as true, how many would trade the subjective deterioration of customs such as politeness and adherence to rules for the objective improvement in those things I list above?

[0]Some objective stats: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190111-seven-reasons-wh...

The author focuses on how youth culture in the educational environment transformed society as a whole later on. A similar view could be taken of the effects of social media conventions.

For example, I've more recently been frustrated with lack of communication in business dealings, only to discover that I was "ghosted" by younger employees. I would then have to escalate communication to a senior manager for what should have been a trivial matter. I've read that this is becoming a widespread problem as Gen Z enters the workforce.

An eye opening rationale for something that's clearly been happening my entire life (50+ years): people are more selfish, less educated, less responsible, and less kind than ever before.

"in the 1960s when the youth cohort of that era expressed their adolescent rambunctiousness and exuberance with particular abandon and swerved even more strongly from ‘we’ to ‘I’ thinking: do your own thing, live and let live, anything goes."

I don't see it that way (Reagan probably did). The post-WW2 era was notable for its conformity. There were lots and lots of rules, and formulas, and laws, about how you had to live your life ... from the nuclear family right down to how to comb your hair.

Some individuals came together right now to overthrow many of those strictures, create music festivals and much less uptight music, explore communes, create food coops, explore religions outside the 'acceptable' ones, protest the war and the draft, read alternative histories (not taught in school after saying the pledge of allegiance), create Earth Day and a Whole Earth Catalog. In short, to create a counterculture - one with quite adult concerns.

There were a lot less people in the world back then. Trying to blame today's behavior on the 10 or 20% of 60s kids among 'those hippies' (the heavily-distorting 1991 TV series 'Making Sense of the Sixties', for example) has never worked. Many mainstream adults (Howe's 'we') were constrained to conformist role-playing back then. But look at the music, films, TV and bestsellers they picked, once off-stage. IMO US people today are less 'adolescent' than in the 1960s.

Prof. Howe's hidebound paean to life with the blinders on is little more than a dip in nostalgia for those without the stomach to look forward instead.

"...we now have a society where the vast majority possess knowledge and skills necessary for success in various dimensions of their lives, including work, community engagement, democratic participation and more."

Not sure what society the author lives in but I'd love to visit a place where "the vast majority possess knowledge and skills be essay for success."

A large part of the author's thesis is that greater individualism led to more progressive social values. A possible counterexample to consider would be Norway and Sweden, where there is greater pressure toward social conformity than in the USA, but whose societies have long been seen as more progressive.

I'm old enough to have seen this happen in real time and continue to be puzzled and amused by it.

I think the author is trying way too had to make this trend sound more important than it is, and I think the connection to the election of Donald Trump is a real stretch.

But a few areas where we can clearly see how US society as become more child-like (not childish) over the past 50 years. (and BTW, I'm not saying any of this is bad)

1) Starbucks - at some point our morning cup of coffee has turned into a milkshake.

2) Sports memorabilia - signed balls and playing cards used to be kid stuff.

3) The Punisher & Police - adults trying to show how tough they are by displaying their favorite comic book character

4) The end of suit and tie business culture - no comment needed, and thank God for this one!

Note: I've left out video gaming off the list. It seems like a good fit at first, but the medium just too new. We can't say it's something people people used to stop doing once they grew up. The fisrt generation of gamers never really stopped

An interesting article with well cited sources. The Boomer-laid-the-foundations take is of particular note. Unfortunately the ending wanes as I would have preferred not to read another take on the "Trump is the alpha individualist" trope.

What ruling class wouldn't want a population of children? Much easier to manage.

I'll save a lot of you a click and a long-ass read here: This entire essay is 1 part "The Good Old Days"...

> In this same period, young people grew increasingly tolerant of social misdemeanours such as habitually failing to keep promises, using profane language, and keeping extra change mistakenly given by a store clerk – minor incivilities by today’s standards, but harbingers of a changing social landscape where the transgression of established norms was starting to become more common and accepted.

...1 part plugging his own book...

> Paul Howe is professor of political science at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Canada. He is the author of Teen Spirit: How Adolescence Transformed the Adult World (2020).

...1 part social/political commentary (Not going to quote the massive section about Trump), and 1 part whining about "kids these days don't want to be cogs in the machine" (Multiple sections about putting "I" before "We".)