Things Young People Do That I’ll Never Understand [OPINION]

I'm almost 40, so allow me to slowly climb upon the "back in my day" soapbox and tell you my old man tales of how these damn kids that won't stay off my lawn.

The collection of things I'll never understand about the youth these days is so vast that it could comprise a single line of text that would span the entire length of this great country from ocean to ocean. These things happen, and the actions and trends of each subsequent generation are usually looked upon with disgust by their elders.

Sadly, I have become one of these elders and I'm here to complain about these damn youths and the things they do that bother me. If you don't like it -- too bad. I'm older than you and I'll will likely be dead for the last 20-40 years of your life, so deal with it now and just accept that later you'll realize I only tried to make you better.

1. Watch Video Games on YouTube/Twitch instead of Playing Them

I'll never understand people that gain enjoyment from watching a video game be played and prefer that over actually playing it. Sure, it's fun sometimes... for a little while... but then you want to PLAY. If it's a video with commentary, maybe, but I straight up know younger people who watch a regular ass playthrough of a whole game on YouTube. Video games aren't designed to be watched in that way -- that's what movies are, which brings me to the next annoying thing young'uns do...

2. Watch EVERYTHING on YouTube

This is particularly an issue with really young people, as in kids. They're not really into TV or movies as much as my generation. They would rather watch a Vine compilation or a kid opening a present or, and I kid you not, a regular ass family just walking around filming themselves doing boring stuff like grocery shopping. There are YouTube channels out there like that with hundreds of millions of views because kids will watch other people do the most mundane everyday tasks if it's on YouTube. For some reason, they will watch anything on there, no matter how boring, instead of actual TV shows or movies. You know, those stories that large groups of people craft over long periods of time and have massive budgets to put forward a solid piece of media specifically designed to entertain you? Yeah, they'll take some blue-haired a-hole reading Minecraft listicles direct to camera over those things any day. It's a GD disgrace.

3. Mismatched Socks

Different lengths, different colors -- they just don't care. You look like idiots. Stop it.

4. Watch Concerts Through Their Phone

I've written about this at length before, so I'll just say this -- live in the moment, kids. That video is going to sound awful, and you're never going to watch it. Just put your screen down, view the thing in real 3d, and enjoy yourself.

5. The "One Earbud In" Thing

This might just be a personal pet peeve, but I think it looks dumb. Aside from that, if you can't put your podcast or music on hold to listen to me with both ears, I'm not going to bother speaking to you. You don't need theme music in every situation. You're not John Shaft. Stop it.

6. Texting and Driving All the Time

This isn't just young people, but it's definitely a larger problem among young people. I see idiots weaving all over the expressway because they're on their phone every single time I'm on it. I often lay on the horn because nothing pisses me off more than that. Put your phones down and pay attention before you get us all killed, dumbass.

7. Say "Yeet!"

I'm incredibly guilty of participating in embarrassing slang trends over the years, but this is a new pinnacle in stupidity. Shut up.