Social Question

MilkyWay's avatar

What annoys you most about teenagers?

Asked by MilkyWay (13745points) June 26th, 2011

Yeah, it’s another one of those questions. I don’t even remember which one of them was the first.
So, let’s talk about teenagers here. What do you find most annoying about them?

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67 Answers

King_Pariah's avatar

Until they’re 18 here in Cali, the no touchy or looky rule is in effect. lol

Judi's avatar

I actually LOVE teenagers, as long as they’re someone else’s.

Joker94's avatar

Are we allowed to answer if we ourselves are teenagers? If that’s the case, then it’d be the blatant lack of respect. I’m all for acting how you want, but there are somethings you shouldn’t do in public out of respect for other people. For example, swearing where there’s a lot of kids.

MilkyWay's avatar

@Joker94 Of course you can :)
And I so know what you mean about the swearing in front of kids. 0_0 big no-no.

Lightlyseared's avatar

Their belief that deoderant only works if they use the whole can.

Mikewlf337's avatar

The think they know everything. Sorry to all the teenagers who read this but it is true that they think they know everything. I did when I was a teenager. They are too committed to popular trends and what is popular as far a music and clothes goes. They also tend to pic on other teenagers who are not into the same things they are. They also like to start cruel and harmful rumors.

MilkyWay's avatar

@Mikewlf337 LOL, fair point. But hey, adults start cruel and harmful rumours too ;)
@Lightlyseared Soo true…
@King_Pariah Come over to England :P
@Judi LOL!

rock4ever's avatar

Most are guilty of being addicted to drama! I’m no exception :)

woodcutter's avatar

Their naivety.

King_Pariah's avatar

@jailbait but no California sun… :(

Bellatrix's avatar

Well I don’t want to generalise so I will talk about MY teenager.

It annoys me that he doesn’t seem to care that he has no job and he is not studying. I don’t mind what he does, I just want him to do something. I didn’t realise a ‘gap’ year meant a year of playing Xbox and watching Foxtel…. perhaps it was just me who had the whole concept wrong!

It annoys me that he takes my stuff and uses it. Like the sub-woofer he took from my sound system and attached to his hi-fi in his room. Or the waste bin from my bathroom that is now in his bedroom (although I am glad he is using a waste bin. Not that I can actually see evidence of that action when I open his door and look at his floor robe). The last choocie biccie that I had been saving for just when I needed a chocolate biscuit. He seems to think we have some sort of communal ownership program in place. Again, probably just a difference in perception.

He annoys me when he leaves Weetbix and milk on the kitchen bench. Weetbix and milk could probably be used as a very effective building material in extreme conditions. Bloody hard to shift when dry.

I could go on but really I love him and I know this is just a phase and he will pass through this and will become a productive member of society. He just has to get out of bed first… :-D

As to teenagers generally, we were all teenagers once and we probably drove our parents mad too… we all turned out okay… didn’t we?

woodcutter's avatar

To expand on @Lightlyseared ‘s comment about too much deodorant. Would we really be choking on the smell of “Axe” if not for them?

Sunny2's avatar

I think teenagers are great! They wear clothes that I wouldn’t, but they wouldn’t wear mine. They can be particularly annoying in large unruly groups (remember?); I try to steer clear. Their language is sometimes nasty, but we have people on Fluther who use the word ‘fuck’ in its various forms more often than ‘the.’ In general, I find teens kind, amusing, sensitive and talented. . . . .and moody, inconsistent and selfish. . . .Bless ‘em.

Jude's avatar

They need to get off my lawn.

Neizvestnaya's avatar

Poor basic social manners. I don’t expect much but I appreciate an answer and eye contact when I address them directly.

bob_'s avatar

Melodrama.

Michael_Huntington's avatar

Disrespect, but that can come from a lot of people, even the elderly.
I really hate it when they put on their headphones too loud on the bus and train (Everyone under 18 does this, or at least anyone who has the mentality of a preteen). I don’t give a shit if they go deaf, but that shit is obnoxious. Every goddamn morning I have to put up with this. FFFUUUUCCCKKKK

Kardamom's avatar

That they don’t seem to have any idea about or any interest in knowing about senior citizens, and tend to treat them as if they are disposable or invisible.

That female teenagers, still, in this day and age, are still so concerned about having a guy like them, that they will do almost anything to get a boy’s attention, including having un-protected sex, sleeping around, not employing even a modicum of modesty, or letting their boyfriends cheat on them, or yell at them or even hit them. Then, when things go wrong, they say that they deserved to be treated poorly because they believe that they are worthless.

When they use text speak, jargon and slang, rather than learning to speak proper English. If young people don’t use and learn proper English, they can’t expect that miraculously, on their 18th birthday that they will suddenly be fluent in English. They won’t, and they will still sound like children, because of this problem. They want to be treated as adults, but they don’t know how to speak or write like an adult.

This is why I love @jailbait so much, because she writes like an adult, but still has the perspective of a young person.

bob_'s avatar

I’m not a fan of young people complaining about ageism after taking every opportunity to mention just how young and smart and precocious they are.

sliceswiththings's avatar

I love teenagers too. They have been my camp counselors and cousins, and more recently are customers in the restaurant where I waitress. They have such great humor.

What annoys me is when they smoke cigarettes! Come on!

Bellatrix's avatar

I just want to add, that I meet some amazing teenagers too who don’t fit any of the stereotypes. Perhaps we could also spend a moment thinking about some of the things our young people (and women and men in the other threads) do that don’t annoy us?

For instance:-

Young people who have organised whole conferences for Amnesty International so young people can attend to discuss human rights issues. I have attended such conferences and I was so amazed by these young people.

Young people who are brilliant musicians or students and who rather than lying in bed are getting straight As and working very hard to achieve their goals. I see young people like this every day.

Young people who are out there working to improve their communities. Again, I have met many such young people who are part of our Indigenous communities here. Kids who know that their ability to play sport, to swim, to play an instrument, to participate in politics makes them important role models.

Young people who take over the care of their families when their main parent is sick. Seen a few of these over the years too.

I actually think for every negative, there is a positive. I look at my own son and while he does annoy me at times, he also amazes me with the insight he has into topics we discuss and his world view.

bkcunningham's avatar

The teenagers I was most recently around, like living in my house for nearly three weeks around, were great. The only drama was over homework they had to do to keep caught up while they were on this big adventure/spring break/Amtrak excursion/everything you’d ever want to do in Florida trip.

Really, my sister-in-law; their mother, instigated most of the “Have you done your homework yet!” trouble. I helped settle the 14 year old twins down and helped them get through the homework.

Other than that little hiccup, they were a delight. I liked their joking, their smiles, their wit, their movies, music, snarkiness, clothes (for the msot part) and enjoyed them more than they annoyed me.

Paul's avatar

Seems like you Flutherites have mixed views on us teens, but if I had to pick one gripe with my peers it is their inability to string a sentence together without several grammatical errors. (Not the group of people I tend to ‘roll’ with by the way, I would say that it’s true, you do tend to be friends with people whos qualities/niggles are similar to your own!)

Kayak8's avatar

I do just fine with most teenagers. I don’t do quite as well with folks of any age who think wearing their pants with the waistband at mid-thigh is fashionable. It really hit me when I went to the car wash. I told the kid to forget wiping out the inside of my truck. He looked at me very funny and I said I really don’t need your ass in just your drawers on my interior—so forget the interior and forget the tip.

DominicX's avatar

Kids these days…listen to the rap music, which gives them the brain damage with the hippin’ and the hoppin’ and the bippin’ and the boppin’...

I’m 19, so I suppose technically I am still a “teenager”, but what annoys me about high school age people the most is the tendency to be short-sighted. It seems that many teenagers see every bad thing that happens to them as “the end of the world” (so this would tie in with drama, for the people who said that). Hence why there are so many teen suicides. It would also explain why teenagers drive more recklessly, drink, do drugs, etc. because they see themselves as invincible and are living entirely in the moment. There’s nothing wrong with being a little impulsive or spontaneous, but the “it couldn’t happen to me” line of thinking can also be dangerous.

Michael_Huntington's avatar

People like @DominicX give me hope about young people even though I’m younger than him. I don’t know where I’m going with this…

Berserker's avatar

I don’t deal with teenagers much, so I really don’t know. I just see them all the time. I’m guessing teens are more or less the same way that they were when I was one, except with different styles and flares.

Mostly, I don’t really like their fashion sense. The mainstream and most popular ones, anyways. Thing is, when I was a teen, that annoyed me just as much. I dressed either like a homeless person or a vampire, and was annoyed that I had to presumably dress like the majority. (as suggested by older folk as much as teens) Let it be said though, dressing different doesn’t make the person any different. Goth teens in my day were as dramatic as I remember the popular girls in school to be. I guess it’s probably like that today with a lot of teens? As I say, I don’t interact with them much. Not a bad bunch I’d say, aside from some few horrendous fashion tastes. XD
Dudes down here always wear these hats that are too big for them, it looks ridiculous. Everytime I see a teen with a hat like that, I always feel like going up to him and smacking it off his head lol. In my day, the style was to bend the hat palette so that it almost became a bloody cylinder.

Teenagers are way more than just fashion though. I can only go on what I observe today. :/

RealEyesRealizeRealLies's avatar

I’m annoyed by people who get annoyed with teenagers… They’re teenagers for goodness sakes. A quick life review or browse through the old yearbook autographs will confirm that every one of us were just like them or worse.

I was probably the most fucked up teen of all. And look at me now!

wait.. uhmmmm… nevermind

TexasDude's avatar

Self-obsession and an inability to see the forest for the trees.

redfeather's avatar

I hate that high pitched cackling laughter the girls do to get the attention of the guys.

KateTheGreat's avatar

I absolutely hate how some just don’t care about their future or want to succeed. I also hate how disrespectful they can be to their elders, especially senior citizens.

It’s pretty sad.

athenasgriffin's avatar

I hate how unwittingly cruel teenagers can be. To themselves, to their peers, to their families.

However, I do realize that everyone has to go through that stage to learn to think before they act.

mazingerz88's avatar

They’re Clueless, wants Sixteen Candles for their bdays, attend Breakfast Clubs, transforms into Teen Wolves sometimes, hunts for the Last American Virgin, loves to eat Porky’s, meets during Twilight, think they’re Pretty in Pink, supports Ferris Bueller’s days off, swims in Dawson’s Creek, lives in Beverly Hills 90210, assumes life is Some Kind of Wonderful, keeps having sex during Friday the 13th, suffers from Nightmares on Elm Street…there’s more, so much more. Oh yeah, they get their daily news from the Gossip Girls network, The Social Network and from that white owl called Hedwig!

rooeytoo's avatar

I don’t think the kids are as bad as the parents who raise them to be that way! They are the ones who should have more sense.

Besides that, all of the above! :-)

redfeather's avatar

@mazingerz88 and now adays, most are 16 and pregnant, and almost all are Pretty Little Liars.

RealEyesRealizeRealLies's avatar

Eeghaads this is a dour bunch with over generalization issues… Let’s recall that any problems we have with teens is directly proportionate the the current state of affairs we adults have put the world into. A little self reflection would do us all well. They grow up in the world we’ve made for them. It’s not their fault that fathers leave and mothers let television raise them.

The world we’ve made for them is putting more pressures upon teenagers than at any other time in history. If you don’t like how they’re turning out, then cast the blame where it belongs.

Michael_Huntington's avatar

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Dem Teenagers took our jerbs!~

RealEyesRealizeRealLies's avatar

Ok I retract… not all comments are so dour. And the OP did specifically ask for dislikes.

ddude1116's avatar

I’ve always been annoyed by their closed-mindedness and lack of appreciation. Yes, I realize that isn’t specific to teenagers, but in combination with their general lack of respect, it’s annoying. I’m a teenager, too, and am probably guilty of it to some degree, but still we should strive to find new things that aren’t specifically new.

keobooks's avatar

I’ve worked with teens for years and I have tons and tons of things I find quirky about them. I don’t really get annoyed by them for the most part. If they annoyed me, I wouldn’t work with them.

But there is one thing many adults don’t know. Every teen I’ve met seems to have within them the brain power to be a cut-rate sleazy defense attorney. A small part of my old job was enforcing a set of rules and regulations in the building where I worked. Almost every day, I’d get someone trying to weasel their way around or out of the rules. Here is an example:

I caught a kid eating Ramen Noodle cup in the lounge area. I told him that he couldn’t eat that in the library, because we only allowed packaged snacks and finger foods to be eaten where books are.

A few minutes later I go check on him, and he has the Ramen Noodle cup, and he is still eating them. I tell him to ditch the noodles or leave the library. He says “LOOK!” and then he crams his fist down into the cup, grabs a handful of noodles and very messily slurps them down. He says “These noodles are in a package. And I AM eating them with my fingers, so you HAVE to let me stay in the library… because of what YOU said..“I booted him out anyway, and he looked as if I stomped on his basic civil liberties. I thought he might call human rights watch out on our facility.

I’ve learned from the past not to get into nit-picking on the rules because they can always find a loophole and always find some weird way to stay within what they consider the boundaries of the rules while still doing exactly what the rules were trying to prevent in the first place. Most kids aren’t as extreme as this example, but on some level, almost all teens I’ve met at some point try to jockey the rules around. There’s always “Technically…” “well according to the rules…” “But I AM…” It’s funny because this out-of-the box thinking is really cool when it’s behind something creative and productive, but it’s just annoying when someone is willing to stuff a handful of slimy noodles in their mouth just to prove a point.

RealEyesRealizeRealLies's avatar

If they live long enough, they’ll eventually understand what all these rules are for.

keobooks's avatar

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies yes. For now, the rules are just arbitrary things that grownups set up for no good reason against teens and it’s a game. If you are clever, you can “win” the game and do whatever you want. Grownups get tripped up by their own rules.

Sometimes I got tempted to walk into the library barefoot with shoes on my hands and topless with a shirt tied around my leg and say—look I AM wearing shoes and a shirt! What do you MEAN that it totally grosses you out to see me naked? I’m not naked, look at my shirt!

Of course, I would have been fired and arrested.. but maybe a little bit of a point would be learned a little bit earlier for some than others.

bkcunningham's avatar

@mazingerz88, don’t forget that dang dirty dancing the kids do!

wundayatta's avatar

My teenager is always in her room with the door closed. She is connecting with her friends over the internet. I don’t get to see her all day, and she emerges from her den to have dinner and disappears again. It’s annoying and a bit worrisome. But she does well at school, so there’s nothing to complain about there.

DeanV's avatar

Inflated sense of self. Thinking everyone is interested in your conversations, thinking your friends want to hear how drunk you got… etc.

I’m a bit guilty of this myself.

RealEyesRealizeRealLies's avatar

Mine is exactly the same @wundayatta. Perhaps different because I’ve a son. Perhaps not. The bother got the best of me. Struggling to find a way to become a more interesting part of his life, I’ve intentionally developed a few odd behaviors, simply for the purpose of giving him new things to talk about with his friends. He can’t help but talk about it with his friends.

He now must suffer my singing throughout the house. I find the popular music for teens, then make a parody out of the chorus. Knowing absolutely nothing about pop music, I go to teenmusic.com for inspiration. Relying on the Weird Al formula, I count on mishap parody to get his attention. So the group Neo Trees becomes the Neolithic Bees, and their song Your Surrender becomes Your Soup Blender.

Hearing me screech the tune from the other room, he’ll often come out and ask what the hell I’m doing. “I heard a great new song on the radio… Your Soup Blender by the Neolithic Bees” You might imagine the odd looks I get when he sees me dancing around in a ridiculous hat. You might imagine the joy he gets by texting his friends what a lunatic his father is, and how I’ve gone nuts.

A few Justin Bieber parodies (whom he hates), and a few attempts at playing gangsta making fun of Eminem, and before you know it, he’s talking about his crazy father all the time. The best part is when he tells me what his friends respond, which gets them talking about their parents too.

Playing the fool has never been so much fun. I’ve even purchased a few pimp hats to casually walk around the house with, just to see the look on his face. He’s looking for stimulating and controversial subjects to discuss with his friends. I do my part to be a part of that. Imagine the shock picking him up from school wearing a purple velvet fedora jamming out with the windows down and Lil Wayne turned up loud. Maybe not the best to lay that on a daughter, I don’t know.

All I can say is that he hasn’t returned the “I love you” since he was in grade school. But this past year has changed his attitude towards me. For when the fools hat comes off, our times of real talk are more meaningful. And now when I say goodbye with “I love you”, I get one back.

MRSHINYSHOES's avatar

When they think that “everyone is looking at them” and because of that, they put on “airs” and try to act like they’re significant in the environment, when in fact they’re just gawky, loud-mouthed, stupid, and obnoxious.

woodcutter's avatar

@MRSHINYSHOES You described just about ½ the people everywhere.

Hibernate's avatar

That they are surrounded by drama all day long.

That they believe we weren’t like them and we do not understand [ at least a bit ] what they are going thru.

That most of them just try to impress others and forget to behave like themselves.

Plucky's avatar

I don’t think all teens are the same. However, I do not appreciate teens who are disrespectful towards their elders, lazy, publicly loud, self-centered and think they know everything about life. I have spent a lot of time around teenagers. I see several sides. Some are negative ..others are positive.

ucme's avatar

They just won’t stand still long enough to hit the centre of my crosshairs. Always on the go those little buggers ;¬}

incendiary_dan's avatar

I have two jobs. One involves teaching teens, which I like because the ones I teach aren’t douchbags. The other job sometimes involves getting teens arrested because they were stupid enough to break into a hospital building. Teens that make me actually do my job are annoying.

redfeather's avatar

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies my dad used to do that to me, but only when he’d drop me off for school. He’d say bye in the car then roll down the windows and blast rap and dance really hard and yell, “I LOVE YOU!” out the window at me.

RealEyesRealizeRealLies's avatar

And what @redfeather, is the fate of your relationship with your father today?

redfeather's avatar

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Man, I love that guy :) all my friends are jealous of the picture he took with Lil Wayne at the airport lol

OpryLeigh's avatar

I find some teens incredibly obnoxious which really irritates me.

Also, loud mouthed teens that think everyone is impressed by how drunk they got last night and replace every other word with “fuck”. Don’t get me wrong, I swear a lot myself but not to the point that it loses all meaning. If they used swear words creatively I would be impressed but just hearing you say “I was fucked last night, it was fucking awesome, I can’t wait to fucking do it again, it’s so fucking hardcore, I couldn’t even fucking stand up” (yes, I heard something similar recently) makes me think you have the mental capacity of an aomeba!

Finally, I was behind a teen climbing some stairs the other day and, no word of a li4e, his whole arse was hanging out of his jeans. I know fashion comes and goes but this is one I can’t get. I Really wanted to grab his jeans by the waist band and yank them up for him. Can you get arrested for that?

Response moderated (Writing Standards)
Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

Here is what I do not like about teenagers:

• They do not know how to talk on a cell phone UNLESS THEY ARE NEARLY SCREAMING.
• They want to play the jungle jump music so loud their body trim is shaking on their car.
• They want to act all snobbish because they are in a fly ride; that their parents bought not them.
• They assume because I am Black that I am some gangster because they keep calling me “O G”, and they don’t mean ”old guy”.
• They don’t have sense enough to throw the empty container or wrapper away in the trash can 15ft away from them, they just leave it or toss it on the ground.
• They will rarely get up for an old lady on public transportation,—old men on canes or the handicap unless told.
• They act like the money they spent they worked hard for and not their parents who gave it to them.
• Too many cuss worse than sailors do.
• Too many of the guys walk around with their breeches have off or all the way off their butt.
• The gals walk around with jeans so low their thing is showing.
• They believe my street is some drag strip; trying to see if they can lay down a bead of rubber the length of it.
• They expect you to walk around them if the sidewalk is not wide enough for you to pass them walking three abreast.
• They whine and complain their parents haven’t bought them the latest gadget that all their friends have.

I better stop or I will have a book going.

Plucky's avatar

@Hypocrisy_Central What the heck is jungle jump music?

Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

Jungle Jump Music = rap crap, and I use the term “music” loosely

jonsblond's avatar

Something happened today that made me think of this question. I was driving on a two-lane country highway to get to the nearest town to go shopping. A teenager passed me in a no-passing zone (my 62 in a 55 wasn’t fast enough for him, oh well) and almost ran the car off the road that was heading towards us in the other lane. I could see the driver of the car that almost got hit and he was shaken up. So was I. I was so pissed. I had my daughter with me. This teenager risked the lives of me, my daughter, himself and his passenger and the 4 passengers of the car he almost hit. For what?

Anyway. I thought of how reckless teens can be when they are in a hurry and thought of this Q.

On my way home from this shopping trip, again on the same highway, an elderly man (maybe 70 or 80) was riding my ass, would slow down, ride my ass again, then slow down. He finally sped past me. At least he did it with no cars in the other lane, and in a passing zone. perfectly legal. I guess I need to go bitch on the Q about old people now and how impatient they are too. lol

bob_'s avatar

@jonsblond Or kill two birds with one stone here XD

jonsblond's avatar

@bob_ That’s something a teenager would do. No thanks.~

Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

@jonsblond Get a bumper sticker made in small print that says “If you can read this you are close enough to rearend me, I am breaking, best have your lawyer on speed dial”

lonelydragon's avatar

That many of them are intolerant of peers who are different from them in any way. Though, to be fair, plenty of adults are like this too, so they probably learned it from their (grand)parents.

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