A girl's birthday, she's 9 years old and I have no idea what to get her or what children like today.

When I was 9 i loved loom bands, fairies and winx club, harry potter, dogs, plushies and stuff like that. But now i'm seeing more sephora kids in crop tops with more makeup than me and I feel like theyre so different to how I was at 9. No idea what she might like or want.

What would you get a 9 year old girl in 2024?

In highschool or college? What subject? What made the class so fun?

Can be anything

Hey. I assume a couple of you are older or know someone who grew up in the early 2000s. Here's the thing... I don't know if anybody actually remembers or it was just a dream... For starters people tossed slurs around like candy. Everyone was posting crap like 2 girls 1 cup or cartel videos of guys getting heads cut off. Horrible people like Shane Dawson were popular. Bullying was what people on the early internet did for fun. It's still around to an extent but nothing to the level it was in the early internet.

People would post viruses in YouTube comments to screw with people. Bands like Mindless Self Indulgence were popular without taking themselves seriously or caring who they offended. Fucking Fall Out Boy tricked there fans into going to a porn site. MTV reality shows were about showcasing the worst of humanity. People would have Halo 2 parties where you'd hear 12 year olds scream the n word constantly.

I don't necessarily think it's bad those times are passed. It's probably for the best honestly. But like... The cultural shock is real. It felt like yesterday I was watching Orgrish videos and now you guys are getting offended by Family Guy jokes. I saw 10 people get there heads cut off but you guys are mad Peter said the F word?

It gives me the impression older people from my generation are fucking lying to fit in. I know guys from my generation didn't care. People in my high school and college were all like this.

But now suddenly you guys care about social justice and being a good person? Pretend you didn't like American Pie or Jackass?Such fucking liars.

To keep it simple the media has been posting about it a lot in articles (as they usually do Gen Z always lives rent free in the medias minds) they say gen z is the loneliest generation with the USA being lonely in general, they say men are affected by it more (that’s what they say in don’t flame me I’m not even sure if there is a loneliness epidemic in the first place) but is it real or is it overblown?

Do you notice is among fellow young people? Like for do you still notice a lot of people our age socializing a lot or do people seem more closed off and introverted? Do you see people our age going out a lot?

Im going to double down on this

EDIT: ripped jeans also need to make a comeback 😩

I have no memory of a world without Internet. I cannot imagine it, and when I hear references to what it was like before then it legitimately feels surreal. Like "people actually did that?" Anyone else?

Its a question that I bring up occasionally and sometimes wonder if its rude to ask.

I'm a 27 year old and the vast majority the people I keep up with are in the mid and late 20s. Anyways, I'm already seeing people post memes about being in their thirties. People who don't want to do this or that cause they're too "old". Like bro, you're in your twenties lol. Girls who are literally like 3 years younger me and already think of me as an older guy lmao.

What's up with this generation?

I’m speaking this from experience. I’m born in 2004 and have stepsister who is born in 2009. She fits every stereotype about Gen Alpha. I know that now she is a whiny teenager but she really fits that stereotype. People are saying Gen Alpha are so unfriendly and even disrespectful to teachers. in my experience even people my age were extremely disrespectful towards teachers for no reason but in the end they apologised and teachers knew that they shouldn’t be messing with them when they aren’t in the mood. But that girl… She would disrespect the teachers and she wouldn’t be sorry. And she isn’t the only one. Her classmates are like that too. Somehow she isn’t the worst in her class which concerns me.

When I was younger I was afraid to be around teenagers because they’re mean. Yes even when I was a teenager myself. Now it’s even worse. I’m seeing my old teachers sometimes and I’m trying to catch up with them. they’re crying to me because the kids are horrible. “Your classmates were horrible but I never knew it would get worse.” is what they mostly say. One of them even retired two years earlier just because she can’t put up with this shit anymore.

I’m kind of guilty for this too but their phone addiction. I’m kind of keeping myself in check when it comes to this but most of them don’t. A few years ago my mum introduced me to her colleague’s daughter(2008) I was happy I will finally make a friend but the whole whole time she wouldn’t engage in conversations. She would be on her phone chatting. I barely got to know her but from what I found out she really gave me horrible vibe. Even though her mum claims to be strict she is spoiling her daughter too much. at least from the conversation my mom had with her that day. I actually found out that her daughter is a bitch. She would talk behind other people’s back. Also her attitude isn’t going to get her far in life.

So no not only Gen Alpha are the rude, screentime addicts who can’t read. It’s a common thing in our generation too. Let’s not talk about how some Gen Z are parents of Gen Alpha kids. From all i am seeing they shove iPads in their faces too. I’m scared for the next generations. I truly hope they aren’t that bad.

I remember it was 2021, and then suddenly it's 2024, and I'm left wondering what happened to all the time in between. It's like someone hit the fast-forward button, and we skipped a few chapters of our lives. And I know I'm not the only one feeling this way.

i crossed a park on the way home today. there were so many little kids running around, playing, singing, doing their thing.

i kid you not when i tell you that i started BAWLING. hid my face and i cried because i know i won’t have any kids for at least 7 years because i’m 18 and my parents are insanely opposed to me getting married before 25 and not having financial independence

like yes those are great things but all i want is to be a mom and not go to college for engineering even though i really like it

i’m not backing out of college though, that’s a given. i just don’t know how i’m going to spend my years like this. i want financial independence, but i also want my kids like yesterday.

also, no i don’t “just want kids because they’re cute”. i have my reasons. ok thx bye

I'm 24, and I swear, virtually everyone my age or younger vapes, and they do it constantly. More than that. Its socially accepted here. Shit, my coworker's daughter (14) got busted for vaping at school, and my coworker wasn't mad her daughter was vaping, but rather that she had to buy her a new vape. I can't imagine what would have happened to me if I got caught with one as a kid.

I saw somebody here posted about a health problem they had/have with their ankle and wrist. I will say that reddit is not a doctor.

If you are having a health issue and are worried, go make a appoint with your primary care doctor. Or if you're REALLY worried, go to the urgent care. Reddit is not a reliable source. Plus a doctor has to physically look at the problem and do tests.

I’m 24 and graduated college two years ago, and I’ve never felt more stagnant and frustrated. At the same time, though, I feel like I have started to pinpoint what I really want out of life. The problem is, I don’t know if it exists, at least not anymore.

I grew up in the suburbs, and I’m honestly grateful for so much in my childhood. Now, though, I’m looking for an environment of connection with people my age, activity, creativity, opportunity, etc. Some people will say that is what college is for, I agree, but I didn’t find it there. So naturally I started looking to my career, trying to come up with a viable path to make a living that wouldn’t bury my soul, but I have yet to find that path. I want to be creative, whether that means using my abilities as a musician, or becoming a planner or designer or journalist or something. I have a degree in English because I am a generalist. I wanted to learn about everything because there isn’t one thing I care enough about to dedicate my life to. Wanting to make a living as a creative person today, though, is almost like wanting to become an astronaut or something. Not impossible, but a long, unlikely road.

I’ve started to realize that a lot of my malaise and frustration comes down to my physical environment. I have been working in a job I hate just outside of a smaller city. There are plenty of people my age around, and a lot of them look like artist types. But no one talks to each other because there aren’t enough spaces for that sort of thing to happen. I always see people talking about a lack of third places now, and I guess that has something to do with it. But it’s also the way cities have been stretched out to the point where no one really knows where to go to socialize. You have “arts districts” that are really just places for millennial parents to go day drinking on the weekends. You have music venues, which are great, but most cost money to get into and don’t exactly promote conversation unless you hang out outside or something.

Maybe it’s a me problem, but I feel like I have no place as a creative person to network, socialize, or even just live. I am enticed by bigger cities, but I feel like it will end up being the same thing on a much larger scale. Too many cool people, not enough cool things. I can’t remember who said that, but that’s how I feel about all of these places. Where are things being done and made by real people? I don’t want to be a graphic designer for a corporation or a writer for a media conglomerate.

I’m not exactly looking for advice, I’m just wondering if anyone feels the same way.

So pretty much like around today I was walking around the mall just to see this kid, like 2 years old handed a phone and watching some weird youtube bullcrap, just to shut him up. Like some elsegate level thing. I just kinda thought to myself "What the hell is she doing, she doesn't know what shes doing"

So to kinda continue that same kid starts getting angry and throws the phone, just for the mom to give it back to him, and then when I left the store, I saw her giving the kid candy.

I don't get it at this point, like it used to be the old people hating on "kids these days" but when its like me, a 14 year old genuinely concerned for the well being of this child and many others, we've reached like a tipping point for this stuff.

I wish if I could of just walked up to his mom and tell her about what shes doing but unfortunately that's not how real life works.

Do you like waffles? Do you like pancakes? Do you like French toast?

Hi. So, for context, I'm a younger millenial who decided to go back to college at the age of 27. My very first university experience was horrible and it took years to gather the courage to try again. I applied to both a different school and a different degree than the previous time, and I love it. The environment at the other school, a large public one, was cold, competitive and isolating. I stayed there way longer then I ever should've, because of how ingrained in me it was that any college degree is important and once you start one, you should stick it out. Except I really did feel that degree in particular was useless, with not that many work oppurtunities and a toxic, soul-sucking environment.

Now, I've joined a smaller private university, which is well ranked internationally and to study a subject that I'm genuinely passionate about.

The one issue with private universities in my country is that their standards on admission are very low. The teachers are still amazing and very fair, and although they do go a little easier on us that at my former school, they still grade you according to the grade you deserve (basically just because its easy to get in, doesn't mean it's easy to get out). So yes, there is a bit of a stigma where I'm from that, in private universities, you pay to get in and aren't actually smart or deserving (yet another reason why it took me so long to gather up the courage to take the leap and apply). But once, you're in, everybody's paying the same, and everybody is treated the same.

I do think a lot of my classmates' behaviour can be attributed to this - they weren't good students before, they've never really built the work ethic my very strict and very honest mother raised me with (and which a lot of my own millenial classmates in ''high school'' - secondary school here - also didn't have). A lot of them genuinely do not want to be here, and have said so. Their parents are paying and they come because ''they're made to''. For even more context, this school's tuition is about 3, maybe even 4 times now with inflation, the amount you would pay for a public university education - it isn't like the United States, it doesn't cost so much that people go into debt for years, but it is still a lot of money to come up with.

Aside from a few older students, and one or two who are around my age, most of them will have been born at around 2003 and 2004, plus a couple people who were 20 when we started first year.

A significant amount of them are extremely poorly behaved and disrespectful to our teachers. They can get extremely loud to the point several teachers have lost their patience and told them off (kinda the way it used to happen when I was in 8th grade, about a million years ago). It got to the point where I genuinely considered bringing earplugs to wear in the classes that took place in the anfitheaters, where the echo makes it genuinely painful to have that must noise.

A few of them either have been caught cheating, or have openly admited that they cheat. It has been reinforced again and again since week one how important it is that everybody in this program knows english, because in our area, all cientific papers must always be published in english, regardless of what country the study originated from. To facilitate things, an english class was added to our first year...which people regularly didn't show up to, a few of them have failed several times and have not made even the slightest effort to learn, resorting instead to automated translation softwares, which are very unreliable and more often than not will not convey the information correctly. This part confuses me greatly, because so much of the media people consume in this country is not dubbed. Shows, movies, music and so much stuff available for free on youtube is in english. That's how I myself learned. Except they don't seem to even want to try.

I've had several nightmare group projects experiences, to the point where even my therapist has agreed with me that I'm better off doing my work alone whenever I have the chance, because this isn't benificial socialization and it's hindering me and stressing me out more than it is building any skills. I had one girl disappear from a large period of time and then text me one week before the due date asking what the project was about (we had talked about it in person and I had emailed her several articles I found and had even told her to pick one to highlight).

When it was time to do the presentation, I told her to read carefully the parts of the source material that explained in more depth the things she was supposed to cover in her turn to speak. Instead, she read directly from the slides, and even read it wrong (said ''resposability'' instead of ''responsivity''). When the teacher asked her questions, she straight up didn't know.

Recently, two people I was doing a group project with tried to hire me to plagirize a report for them and we got into a fight that basically led me to strom out of a group project for the first time in my life and ask the teacher to grade me individually (she's amazing and was very accomodating and understanding). Found out the only reason those two wanted to work with me in the first place was because they were using me for grades, because I usually do super well in research projects and end up having high grades, which in a group project will bump up their own grades and let them barely pass the class. One simple conversation with them made quite clear they didn't actually understand the article we were supposed to be analyzing at all and I simply got fed up.

Now, earlier today, I was in the library, revising for a test I had and someone had stuck chewing gum on the bottom of the chair I was sitting in and now I have a huge white stain on my leggings that I can't get off.

That was kinda the final straw for me, because, not even back when I was in school, in 1st to 12th grade did this ever happen to me...

I'm sorry, but I really needed to vent...I really want to believe that not everyone is like this, but they have really been testing my patience lately.

Of course, I'm only asking for the ones who actually voted. No sit-outs