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Comment by rectang | Hacker News Reader

There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and the next generation is going to hell in a handbasket.

Every generation believes that the next generation is doomed. Every generation is wrong.

Yes, this idea is old enough that Socrates was known to complain about the next generation. However I find it far too dismissive to invoke this to downplay the damage that persistent internet use may be doing to youth. It is not about morals or character, it's about access to previously unprecedented levels of novel entertainment often being a surrogate for time spent on relationships.

Every generation is wrong.

Except the elders in the late Roman empire who complained about how citizens would rather cut off their thumbs than fight in the Roman army. Their decadence did actually doom them.

In general in history, decline and an increase in decadence is the norm, reductions in decadence are the exception. So many elders are in fact correct when they complain about the next generation. But the decline can often continue slowly for many generations before an outside tribe is strong enough to come in and conquer the decadent people.

There are no outside tribes today. Unless somehow space aliens show up.

Except whatever generation preceded the black plague. They were right.

The prediction they made wasn't "the next generation will be wiped out", it's always "the next generation is lazier, more narcissistic, less moral than us... and this will lead to them being 'worse' than us somehow".

I don't think that regular sterilisation was a moral choice of the prior generation...

I didn't say they were right for the right reasons

Or is it hell in a handset ?!

This article spends more time discussing observable differences with the next generation and less on deeming them doomed. The majority of articles out there fit your statement, but I think this one is worth the read.

Yes, people have a tendency to think like that, but this in itself provides no evidence about what'll actually happen with future generations.

I am not arguing that I think there's a problem with this generation. Given my current state of knowledge in this topic, I'm agnostic about it.

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