A shower thought: A lack of mix-tape and burned CDs has left younger millennials and Gen Z to be sexless generations.

Posted by IheartMsPacMan@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 313 comments

Frequently come across studies that state younger people are having less sex, using fewer drugs, and partying less than compared to us in our teens and 20s. Without any research or even an anecdote, I assert that the root cause is a lack of carefully curated music shared with a friend or love interest.

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313 Comments

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mohanraj10@reddit

I used to laugh at the idea of using an AI GF, but after trying Lurvessa I take it all back. It fills that gap for me better than any old mixtape ever could. Times have just changed.

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Nottheadviceyaafter@reddit

Kinda agree. Got two teenagers, music to them is personal not social, listern to on head phones etc. Great as a parent as i def dont want to hear my daughters current love of japensese vocaloids..... me at the same age was giving my parents hell, loud as fuck on nirvana, pearl jam, bush, everclear etc. My daughter is at the age of when i would of started to sneak out and party and drink, a party for them nowadays is a group chat........

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FungiStudent@reddit

Fuck me, that's sad.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

They do still party. My neighbour is a guy in his late 30s who's recently got married. The lady has a Kate teens daughter. They let her stay home alone and have a NYE party , the recent one just gone. Them kids were running wild , sounds like the house was getting smashed to bits. Good times !! 🤣🤣 . Cool parents to allow it. They were all deffo very very drunk too from the Drunken singing. Good for them ..... If you cant party as a teen then what the fuck are we all doing here ??? Plenty of time for clean living and early nights when you turn into an old fuck , like me now.

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FungiStudent@reddit

I try not to do too much clean livin', tho.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

This !!! I've never grown out of the loud AF music . I'm 48. Just invested in some decent BT headphones as my neighbours below and at the side of me don't appreciate my thumping dance music. ... Rock music too. .... Really good point about the "music is personal to the kids".

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Philhughes_85@reddit

I was introduced to Metal music via a mixtape in 1997 and I’ve been a metal head for nearly 20 years now.

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midlifeShorty@reddit

I was introduced to metal in 99 via mp3s and illegal file sharing in college. I wish I had better friends in high school. My husband is not a metal head, so we never exchanged mixed tapes. I burned a lot of mixed cds for friends in college/20s for car rides/road trips. Unfortunately, as an adult, I have lost touch with any metal friends. It is a not super common genre preference.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

Still is super popular here in the UK . I'm mainly a dance music junkie but I love Rammstein . Want to see them live so badly!

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CokBlockinWinger@reddit

So, it took almost a decade after you heard it for you to like it enough?

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Philhughes_85@reddit

Shit! I meant 30 years! Fuck we’re old!!

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CokBlockinWinger@reddit

We are indeed

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Adventurous_Cloud_20@reddit

Creeps up on you. It hit me with cars a few years ago, I saw an absolutely perfect 88 Chevy Silverado, my favorite body style of GM truck ever built, and it had antique plates on it.......... My soul hurt for a while on that one.

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TheVelcroStrap@reddit

They share music. They also don’t want to be like their meth addicted parents.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

But harsh on the meth part? I partied hard enough in the 90s /00s. ... Not meth though. This is UK though, I know it never took off/over here like it did in the good ol' USA . I only know about meth culture from breaking bad (which I'm rewatching currently funny enough). It's more smack n crack here.

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dunnkw@reddit

My kid turned 18 today and we got him a turntable and records (like he asked for) and he has spent half the evening playing records and telling us about all the musicians and their careers. This isn’t modern music either, it’s stuff like Maynard Ferguson.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

Cool !! Vinyl is having a huge revival

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VampireOnHoyt@reddit

1. Moby, "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters" 2. The Cure, "High" 3. Hole, "Malibu" 4. The Roots feat. Erykah Badu, "You Got Me" 5. Deftones, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" 6. The Smashing Pumpkins, "Muzzle" 7. Depeche Mode, "A Question of Lust" 8. D'Angelo, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" 9. The Pixies, "Gigantic" 10. Pearl Jam, "Oceans" 11. Jawbox, "Savory" 12. Tricky, "Aftermath" 13. Jane's Addiction, "Summertime Rolls"

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

I'm mainly a dance/rave/bounce junkie , but i do listen to little bits of other genres. ... That is an excellent playlist. I'm going to YT all these for those days when I don't want the boom boom stuff on. I will add on Two Tribes Monolith and Artemis - I like the way you kiss me

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B4SSF4C3@reddit

☝️this guy/gal fucks

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Past_Ordinary_4087@reddit

My friend once made me a mix CD and it took way too long for me to get that she wanted to be more than friends.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

Same with me (I'm a woman) when I was given a DJ tape made by one of my male peers. He had his own decks/turntables (still does ) and was a really good DJ. The choice of songs though, yeah.... A girl mate of mine pointed out that the tape dedicated to me might be a message

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cellrdoor2@reddit

I realized just now reading your comment that a friend in high school made me a mixtape with all sorts of romantic songs on it and was probably interested in me romantically! Fuck, where was my brain at that age? I wasn’t really interested in them but I kind of wish I had addressed it instead of maybe leaving them hanging.

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sarithe@reddit

Fun story about the mixtape/burned CD that my now wife ended up with; I made it for a a different girl I had a crush on, but she shot me down. I just threw the CD in my glove box and forgot about it. A couple months later I am hanging out with some friends at a hardcore show and my wife was there as mutuals with some of the same people. We all end up going to get food together after the show and she ends up riding in my car with some others. She's looking for a lighter and opens my glove box. The CD is sitting there on top of everything. She grabs it, looks at the tracklist, and starts talking to me about the bands on it. This convo leads to us exchanging numbers and eventually dating a few months later. Been together ever since.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

♥️♥️♥️This is beautiful!!!

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bassmansrc@reddit

Did that not just switch to making and sharing playlists on one of the streaming platforms? My stepdaughter is in 7th grade and makes playlists all the time. I assumed that became the norm.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

Im 48 and I love to send a curated YouTube playlist to friends/crush

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18randomcharacters@reddit

I think it has much more to do with younger men falling down the alt-right pipeline and becoming completely unappealing to their female counterparts. Many young women would rightly prefer to be single than put up with today's young men.

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Key-Shift5076@reddit

“Baby boomers did a pretty good job teaching their millennial daughters that they could be anything they wanted to be and a pretty terrible job of preparing their sons for what that would mean for them as husbands and fathers” tweet from Jocelyn J. Fitzgerald MD

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

Great quote and new to me

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

That is a problem. I have seen Gen Jones, Boomers, Gen X, and yes Millennial parents do this to their daughters coddling and spoiling them, and neglecting their sons. I have seen these parents buy and just give a daughter a new car, new house, etc. or the golden child, while the other kid(s) get constantly attacked, ignored, neglected, given nothing, etc. My parents were silent generation and grandparents from greatest generation and from the 19th Century. I was not neglected and not spoiled, coddled, etc. I was not told "You can be whatever you want you are so special and unique!" I am horrible at math and I was not going to be an accountant or study economics like my dad did and he helped me with math. I was taught to be very independent, this is something parents are not doing today or their kids just are into being helpless or don't want to do anything for themselves. I am a man and I do not want to marry anyone. Men, women, trans, and non binary people in their 20s or 30s, are no prizes. I see people from our generation and older millennials that look better, are more independent, have goals and ambitions, more mentally healthy, etc.

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Grouchy_Aardwolf9433@reddit

You sure have a lot to say to an audience of mostly bots.

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FungiStudent@reddit

Damn.

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Grouchy-Reflection97@reddit

I think it has more to do with young folks being cooped up like veal calves instead of going off on the dumb, often dangerous, 'how can I risk life and limb today?' missions of our teens and 20's. Everything seems really artificial, disposable, and staged for social media and/or selling something now, so there's not much in the way of new music that's soul level, neck hair tingling enough to bond over. Aside from Kendrick Lamar, I mostly stick to the same old stuff from my youth. In fact, the whole reason dementia wards play music from patients' teens is because that's the stuff we're most emotionally bonded to, and music bypasses all the wonky brain wiring, so memories are sparked. It's why I'm looking forward to Crip-walking around a nursing home with my zimmer frame while The Chronic plays on a loop over the tannoy system.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

Love this !! Me and my mate were having the same convo about Nursing home music in 20/30 years time..... In the UK it' will all be 90s dance/rave with some gangsta rap and indie thrown in. Sweet!!!!

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FungiStudent@reddit

There's a lot of good new music. Check out King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, for one. And at least Phish is still playing amazing, sold out shows today.

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tap2mana_03@reddit

Personally, I think our generation lost in parenting what the boomers gave us. Freedom. Plenty of reasons to blame their generation, but holy shit we all wax nostalgia on our ability to just do shit when we were growing up. Almost everyone in our generation that I know raised their kids completely opposite. Which isn’t unique to our generation so to speak, but no shit they’re not having the same experience

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chrisacip@reddit

For many of us, that freedom we sought was rebellion against unhappy home lives. I wanted to escape and couldn’t wait to drink and do drugs. I was exposed to porn too early as well, and there were no healthy sex conversations. My goal as a dad now is to create a home my kids aren’t desperate to escape and to give them REAL information.

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sarabaracuda@reddit

This was my thought as well - so many of us craved escapism. Plus, things and topics being off limits to discuss made us want to do and try even more as soon as we could. My kid is now in their early 20s and isn't interested in partying hard and drinking on the regular. Not into hangovers or the cost. Drugs? Weed is legal and widely accessible so it can be enjoyed responsibly whenever. And sex was never, ever a taboo topic, so that wasn't some forbidden thing to chase. They've been living independently for several years, finishing school, enjoying life, and our relationship is excellent. It sounds so cliche, but being raised in a happy, healthy environment with lots of communication can make a world of difference.

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NotYourSexyNurse@reddit

Yeah my Gen Z daughter didn’t have to deal with sex being taboo. She was allowed to drink at home at 16. She was allowed to smoke weed at 18. She doesn’t really party. She doesn’t leave the house. On the other hand my parents were super strict and I partied so hard. I ran away. I went wild fucking guys.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

Same ...... The sex n drugs part. Raised in Irish catholic household with an alcoholic mother . sex ed was "verboten". I was pregnant at 16

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chrisacip@reddit

Living the dream!

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

Same......

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msheehan418@reddit

This is so true. They don’t have the trauma we had so they don’t need to escape. We are giving them better homes

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n10w4@reddit

So that’s the key? Makes sense to me. Brb gonna sabotage the marriage. For my kids freedom, of course.

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Vox_Mortem@reddit

The weird thing is that a lot of the younger generations don't want the freedom. My nephew is 14, so Gen Alpha and not Z, but we used to try to get him to just go outside and find shit to do. To get on his bike and meet with friends. He wanted none of it. If we made him go outside the way our parents made us, he just sat on the porch until we let him in. My best friend's daughter is about the same age and she won't go anywhere without a parent.

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NotYourSexyNurse@reddit

My Gen alphas refuse to learn how to ride a bike, roller blade or roller skate. They love their scooters though. They rarely want to go outside. When my kids do go outside the neighbor comes out and makes her kids go inside immediately. I don’t get it.

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FunkyTomo77new@reddit

She must think your kids are a bad influence. Fuck the weird neighbour bitch.

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Vox_Mortem@reddit

You're right, the only time he does go outside is to ride his scooter. I just expected that he would be eager to get outside and explore the world without parental supervision, but not really. Now that he's in high school, maybe that will change over time.

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Day2205@reddit

Because none of their friends are outside. I wouldn’t have wanted to be outside if I hadn’t heard 11 other kids running up and down the block.

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acorpcop@reddit

This. Gen-X ( '76 & '77) with a late start. 9 & 11 y/o. My wife and I try to fling our kids out whenever the weather isn't lethal. They generally mope back saying "Nobody is out there". All the other kids are busy getting monitor tans and exercising their thumbs.

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Farm-Alternative@reddit

True, most days outside started with a lap of the block collecting all the other kids that were outside and knocking on doors asking parents if their kid was allowed to come out.

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TheDeanof316@reddit

It's like you're describing an Archie comic :)

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Joeva8me@reddit

It was like that. Art imitates life and sitting inside with your parents was torture. Anything to go outside. Right after some apples with peanut butter on them. But other than that I’m going head first into a fence before sitting inside with parents doing some boring shit.

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Toblogan@reddit

My dad gave me shit to do if he saw me. We only met up at the dinner table so he could suggest chores for tomorrow... I'm exaggerating a little, but that's how it felt.

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neanderthalman@reddit

Bingo He wants to be online because his friends are online.

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Genuine_Ingenuity@reddit

That's the answer. they want to be online because their friends or at least peers are online. NOONE rides bikes in my 'hood (ultra suberbs). Kid would die totally alone if left on the patio.

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FormidableMistress@reddit

I was one of those kids that enjoyed being alone and thought other kids were immature. I still spent hours outside playing in the woods or fishing by myself. Sometimes my little brother would come with me. Or I'd ride my bike up and down the street.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

I did this, but I also liked being with friends.

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msheehan418@reddit

You sound like my stepdaughter! She’s 17 now but it’s always been like hanging out with an adult when im with her. The other kids were always too immature for her. She’s still my best friend as weird as that sounds. I’m an outgoing introvert so her and I love to hang out. It’s so effortless. Her mom and I try to get her to make friends but she just wants to hang with us and we like her so, what do you do? I think she’ll be a very interesting adult

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newhappyrainbow@reddit

But they also don’t want to do sleep overs, or learn to drive, or date! It’s like they reject face to face contact outside of school at all costs.

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7empestSpiralout@reddit

I have teens that do all of that, and so do all of their friends.

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Ok_Yogurt_9862@reddit

They dont have to. They have close enough substitutes online.

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wiserTyou@reddit

I visit my parents regularly and there's plenty of the next generation living in the neighborhood, zero kids outside. It's honestly kinda depressing. At their age we had forts built everywhere, bike jumps, etc.

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KaleidoscopeSad4884@reddit

Truth, I wasn’t one of the out all day with friends kids, my closest friend after my bff moved was miles away, and I couldn’t safely bike to her house even if I wanted to.

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Ok-Bit-3100@reddit

They don't want to drive, either. I had my permit on my 15th birthday, license on 16th, and a job to pay for gas and car insurance so I could **go** and **do shit**. My own kid, she's 18, she only just got her license and many of her friends haven't bothered.

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OrigamiTongue@reddit

Parents enable this shit too though. My neighbor still drives her 20 year old to work. I would have none of that.

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stephsco@reddit

Do their parents drive them.around? Do they work outside the house?

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wrldruler21@reddit

I told my daughter to go take a walk in the woods with her boyfriend and they were back inside the house within like 15 minutes. I was like "Really?? You two couldn't find anything fun to do back on the trails??"

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Vox_Mortem@reddit

I mean, at least they didn't find things to do that would make you a grandpa.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

My friends, neighbors, and relatives with kids and teens are like this exactly. The older teen or adult children in their early or mid-late 20s. They do not drive, stay in their parent(s') homes to the point that you do not even know they live there as they never go out or have friends over, and they go nowhere unless they are with an adult. The younger Gen alpha kids seem to be more independent socializing with friends, peers, and classmates. I feel bad for kids and teens, and adults in their 20s today as they are under lots of pressure, constantly monitored and have extreme plastic wrap or helicopter parents, they cannot socialize, many cannot read, write, do basic life skills such as cooking and have learned helplessness, and do not even want to try new things or learn things on their own. They're also brainwashed by political propaganda from both major parties, teachers, social media, parents, professors if they even go to a university many do not even want to do this, have zero goals or ambitions, do not live in reality, etc.

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spectrumRedd@reddit

Put all the meta apps on your phone along w tick tok and snap chat and you tube. whenever u don’t use those play video games on phone or console when u not on the job and can’t to keep your job. Compare your touch grass tone after a week to your previous weeks. I predict it will lessen and so will your desire to go anywhere else but home. It may resemble your nephews screen time.

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spectrumRedd@reddit

Because that is not where his “friends” are rn. Hint. They on his flashing screens

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Alexandratta@reddit

I mean... Yeah.... But that 'Parenting' method is kind of how/why people got kids snatched up more frequently. We have survivorship bias on this.

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Melgel4444@reddit

2 different people called the police recently on a mom who let her 10 year old walk home from school a few blocks Society is insane now

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redditsuckshardnowtf@reddit

The boomers were the first helicopter parents

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tarmgabbymommy79@reddit

🤣 They helicoptered to another continent maybe. We were outside or inside on our own while our "parents" were at work, watching their stories, or at the bar.

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Accurate_Stuff9937@reddit

I always know where my kids are. My parents didn't pay attention and thats why i was drugged and raped by my neighbor at 13, I got busted for stealing, had a marijuana addiction, ditched school to the point of not graduating, and set shit on fire, was in an abusive relationship. My daughter is in med school. She actually had an involved parent.

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daniellaroses1111@reddit

Way to live through that shit, you’re amazing mama.

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lcsulla87gmail@reddit

Sounds like you did a great job

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Nightshade_Ranch@reddit

A lot of us did things with that freedom that did and do horrify parents to imagine.

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B4SSF4C3@reddit

Ding ding ding. The hyper focus on security has destroyed childhoods.

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Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

Part of it is enforced socially. There's a reason... Idaho was it? actually passed a "freedom to roam" law for kids. I'm more scared of CPS taking my kids than a stranger.

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throwawaytoday9q@reddit

I feel like society won’t allow us the chance to parent like that.

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nola_mike@reddit

Most of Gen Z are gonna have parents that range from very young Boomers to Older Millenials and the majority of them probably have parents that are Gen X.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

They also have parents from Generation Jones. My cousin is from Generation Jones and I did not really understand why she was sort of bragging about her gen z kids in their 20s and 30s are "Fully launched." Then we realized how many of their peers do not want to get or do not have university degrees, do not work or want to work, have no basic life skills, cannot save money, etc.

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HIs4HotSauce@reddit

The shift was already happening in our generation-- my mom openly admitted she started to helicopter over my brother and me strictly because of the Adam Walsh case. That case and the rise of "stranger danger" content on daytime housewife-oriented television had a huge effect. Her childhood was literally roaming the town until sundown. They were riding horses/bikes on an unfinished stretch of the interstate system (it was a long stretch of cleared dirt, road bottom) and swimming unattended to in ponds-- a pond one of her friends drowned in. A kid who probably would be alive if an adult was there to witness the event. I lived the start of it, but the younger kids now are feeling the full force.

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bassman314@reddit

Up until I moved after 3rd grade, we lived in a house owned by the seminary my dad was attending. Across the street was a hill, with most (and oldest) seminary buildings were on the top. Much of the rest was undeveloped (and still is, actually). We used to come home from school, drop our bags in the living room and then go play on the hillside until the clocktower chimed 5 bells, 6 during summer. I miss that.

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fluffyinternetcloud@reddit

Where’s that screeching song when you need it ?

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BigoleDog8706@reddit

I highly doubt the lack of music mixes is a cause to infertility.

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Procrasturbating@reddit

Might have more to do with them not having “3rd spaces “ anymore. Nowhere to get it on, or work up the hormones.

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Oraistesu@reddit

My son's school (we're lucky to live in a fairly affluent area) recently decided in their wisdom that kids aren't allowed to walk the track during football games anymore. Teens MUST be accompanied by an adult to go to a damned home game. I never gave a flying fig about my high school football team, but I went to just about every game to walk the track and BS with my friends.

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orangepaperlantern@reddit

Hanging around with friends and walking around during the football game was the BEST part of high school. And I wasn’t one of the cool kids either.

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Toblogan@reddit

I was in the stands with the rest of the band nerds, but damnit, we had the best times. Then about 15 of us would all go to my friend's house, get drunk, and bullshit till the sun came up or we passed out... Good times! Great times even...

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Sofagirrl79@reddit

Wow that's wild,the point of going to home games was that you got to hang around the campus with your friends and such,as long as you weren't drinking, smoking or being rowdy it was totally fine

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Whore-a-bullTroll@reddit

Yep, my kid's school has the same rules now- so damned lame.

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Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

Ok, there's helicopter parenting, sure. But that, **THAT** is just panopticon levels of insanity.

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highcoolteacher@reddit

It exists. It’s just digital

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susiedotwo@reddit

As someone who spends a LOT of social time online and considers my long distance and online friendships very real: digital friendship during puberty is NOT cutting it.

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Procrasturbating@reddit

Not the same at all. Hormones and pheromones are real. Often subconscious, but very real. I’ve yet to see digital pheromone transmission.

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Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

Yup. I find people attractive, but without contact, it's a **lot** harder to find someone arousing.

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Obvious-Resolve-6899@reddit

I was born in 1979, and had very overbearing parents, which is odd because they were both weed smoking type Boomers. So my kid is now 16, and I let him actually do things, and also extend him the courtesy of privacy. I think being essentially forced into home-schooling and seclusion during Covid made Gen Z a little timid, but they were exposed to a LOT of sketchy content due to being on the internet constantly. Long story short, my kid and his gf just celebrated their 1 yr anniversary. He burned her a cd of music of his generation but lots of 90s tracks. They went got all dressed up and went to the aquarium, then out for pho. My partner and I had a date night so they could have a few hours of alone time. My parents would've never granted me alone time to hang out with my friends.

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Used-Opposite-7363@reddit

Oh yes we absolutely made mixtapes for each other, in fact when I hear certain songs on the radio my brain automatically flips on the next song that was in the mixtape order. And when my freshman boyfriend cheated on me I made a mix called the Heartbreak tape. And word got around that I had this. So more people broke up with their boyfriends they would come knocking on my door and college and asked to borrow it or make a copy LOL

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creepypie31@reddit

I think all I’ve ever wanted was a burned CD of songs that reminded him of me. I would get sooo enviable of all my friends whose boyfriends made them said CDs. Never got one. lol

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Accomplished-witchMD@reddit

My partner still has a CD burner and made me a double album mix tape complete with artwork and liner notes for xmas . I love it so much I nearly cried. He gave me this in 2024. Lol. I still read his liner notes whenever I listen to it and it make me smile and giggle. Im 42.

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Winter_Preference_80@reddit

Can't speak to them having less sex... but I think there are 2 reasons for this: money, and social media. 1. Generally speaking drugs and partying cost money. A lot of these kids are making minimum wage... the same minimum wage the younger Millenials made. Everything costs more now. I was a manager at a movie theatre a while back and the kids were Millenials. Gas was close to $5/gal here at the time... My employees put so much money into gas tanks, there was a lot less disposable income to buy stuff they don't need and eat at restaurants like we did with our friends at the same age. 2. Social media has changed how we interact with our friends. Kids see their friends online now more than in person. 70s kids still played outside more, 80s kids were on the phone more, 90s kids texted, and 2000s kids are hardwired to interact with a screen. So, I don't think the music itself makes a difference... frankly, they have more vulgar music readily available at their fingertips today!

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helloitsgwrath@reddit

Uhhh, no.

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Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit

Mmm, I don't think correlation equals causation here. If it does contribute, I think it's marginally. I did exchange mix tapes with my first GF. But I think we would have boned either way.

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Sofagirrl79@reddit

Never got a mixtape from any of my ex's but still started boning at 16 lol 😆

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yodamastertampa@reddit

![gif](giphy|Jnj7ptyE7J9II) If you can't get laid listening to Purple Rain you just cant get laid.

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CallidoraBlack@reddit

You know that playlists still exist, right?

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digitalgraffiti-ca@reddit

They can send playlists on Spotify maybe?

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RetroDadOnReddit@reddit

I mean, think the fact that they're doing those three specific things less is commendable, so whatever the reason (whether it's mixtapes or not), let's keep it going! That said, playlists are basically today's mixtapes.

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stilettopanda@reddit

They make and share playlists now.

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valdus@reddit

Can confirm, the effect is multigenerational. Almost 42. Never shared or received a mix tape. Never had teen sex, never did any drugs, never went to parties.

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Lobos3@reddit

Isn't that what spotify play lists are for? I blame the constant supervision of childhood causing kids to be less daring at teens.

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Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

Telling someone they need to buy a subscription to hear your play-list for them... That's a level of arousal that I believe my girlfriend would describe as "Saharan cardboard, corrugated."

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Lobos3@reddit

Wait you didn't put commercials in you mixed tapes?

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ConfidenceFragrant80@reddit

I agree. I try to leave my kids alone sometimes. I even have to encourage them to do something they're not supposed to once in a while. Never works though.

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Zealousideal-Soil778@reddit

Me too. I have to remind my oldest not be a narc if no one if getting hurt.

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khantroll1@reddit

My nephew man. I remind this kid every time he starts to point out something, “Snitches get stitches…if they’re lucky”.

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Zealousideal-Soil778@reddit

The kids are so wholesome, at times.

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ConfidenceFragrant80@reddit

Lol yep, same

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

That's weird. Do they even ever play pranks, jokes, etc. such as on April fool's day?

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ConfidenceFragrant80@reddit

My oldest is a jokester for sure! But he's 22 and he doesn't drink, smoke, or swear. Believe me, I'm mostly grateful... But I think kids should mess around a little, too. I jokingly tell him to throw a wild house party when we go out of town. He would never.

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Lobos3@reddit

Do you think it more about the risk of getting in trouble or more about closer boundaries to push?

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ConfidenceFragrant80@reddit

Honestly hard to say. My kids do have a crippling fear of being in trouble at school etc and I have no idea why. Like, I'm the one that had the concept of Christian guilt hammered into me from an early age and I've never even pushed anything like that on them. Kids in general nowadays though.... I don't know. I actually think they're not "bored" enough to do anything crazy like we were.

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Lobos3@reddit

I never really thought about shenanigans being and act to cure boredom.

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Ineedavodka2019@reddit

same.

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Scrotchety@reddit

Remember on Roseanne when Dan had to let DJ have a sip of beer because, and I quote, "The hooker was making him nervous"

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ShillinTheVillain@reddit

"Hi Jemandifer, it's mom. I can see on Life360 that you and Xarcher are in his bedroom, and I can also see that his parents are not home. You need to come home right now."

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misterguyyy@reddit

After seeing GenX helicopter parents I’ll take the Boomer neglect any day.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

How did boomers neglect you? I am wondering this. My parents were silent generation and grandparents from greatest generation and from the 19th Century. I was not neglected and not spoiled, coddled, etc.

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FungiStudent@reddit

Yeah I wasnt "neglected". That word has a meaning. A lot of people who use that word these days are engaging in hyperbole. I was a latch-key kid and, I for sure, had a lot of freedom to go play and do stuff on my own. It led me to trying lots of stuff, probably too early, but im glad of that. I lost my virginity at 13 and started smoking weed when I was 13 as well. Im also glad of that, to be honest. I also watched my dad's sister die of bone cancer when I was around 13-14. Kids can handle trauma. It shapes people, and as long as it isn't too severe, I think it makes for better humans. I dont have kids but if I did have kids I would probably be turned into the authorities for "neglect" because I'm not down with the way kids are being raised these days. You add the AI brainrot we are starting to see amd it might actually be hopeless, lol. For christsakes, kids used to work in factories and shit. Im not advocating for the return of child labor, but c'mon with this coddling bullshit.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

I agree with you. I handled "trauma" very well I was 5 or 6 when a gay cousin near SF CA died from HIV/AIDS, my paternal grandmother from the 1910s had a bad stroke when I was 8, and I started working very young cleaning up snow, taking care of neighbors' pets, etc. I see Gen alpha kids doing this but I never saw zoomer kids or teens ever doing this.

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daniellaroses1111@reddit

My second grade teacher died of aids when I was in fifth grade. I haven’t thought about him in a long time. 💜 and I remember, at that time, being really sad, but also just remembering how amazing he was. Kids are strong and can handle hard things. It helps to have loving people around them to help them process.

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misterguyyy@reddit

Not really me but kids in my cohort. I was personally raised by an evangelical helicopter parent that pulled me out of school because of the “world” and “temptation” and my dad went into massive amounts of debt so we could be homeschooled but I was an anomaly. Seeing secular parents with the same amount of helicoptering is pretty wild.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

😳 I know people who are fundamentalist who went to a private school for this. I briefly dated a lady that went to this school but we broke up as she was too extreme, entitled, etc. She went to a university and did not fail out but was behind in a lot of basic subjects. She has kids now and they are being home schooled. The crazy part is that her old school is better at educating kids and teens now than the public school district I graduated from and worked for is.

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misterguyyy@reddit

I think they would have done a Christian private school if they could afford it for all their kids. That must have been quite an experience dating someone from that world. My best friend had to bring any guy interested in dating her to church and it was kind of funny thinking back to how horrified they were and how we didn’t think “maybe we’re the weirdos”. Like your experience, a lot of kids in my homeschool coop either took remedial classes or noped out and went into blue collar work, not even trade school just stuff like construction or yacht cleaning. There was also a state requirement that a certified teacher had to proctor standardized tests. There was one teacher who would let the parents bring them home and cheat and then sign a paper saying she proctored it, because home schooling was conditional on passing test scores.

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Lobos3@reddit

My boomer parents are great. I wouldn't say the neglected me, but also didn't feel the need to supervise my every bathroom trip. They allowed us neighborhood kids argue over the rules of the what ever we were playing. Taught us to ref ourselves. I'm sure we were watched, but not supervised. As we got older we would disappear for the day with a $10 to feed us and be back by dinner.

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ConfidenceFragrant80@reddit

Wow. That is too perfect. Killed me with Jemandifer lmao

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Global-Discussion-41@reddit

"Elevated heartrate"

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WheresTheQueeph@reddit

You can more easily make a mix now than you ever could before. Spotify and Apple Music playlists give you access to pretty much all music.

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Mysterious-Mango-752@reddit

i am firmly an elder millennial and got tired of being forced into online dating, no third spaces, and tired of having to be someone’s mom. i’m not really sure it’s the mixed tape theory, but whatever helps us sleep at night

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Themoosemingled@reddit

Finish with night swimming.

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hyzerKite@reddit

Holy shit. That was MY secret sauce, how….

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Themoosemingled@reddit

Unrequited a few times. It worked once. Still with her.

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FaquForLovingMe@reddit

![gif](giphy|9OzKXHsqvbh3G)

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Haunting-Public-23@reddit

> younger people are having less sex, using fewer drugs, and partying less than compared to us in our teens and 20s. u/IheartMsPacMan given the physical/mental/longevity health impact of it I think it's a good thing that fertility, drug abuse and sleeping very late of people under 24 is nearing zero. I've heard of many regrets of single teen parents, people on anti-psychotics and people with sleep problems regrets doingthose things. I think a root cause of the sexless generation has more to do with non-productive screen time and pornography. This isn't moral panic but cause and effect. If you can satisfy your urges by hand in the convenience of your bathroom why seek out human contact?

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khantroll1@reddit

Bro, we did none of those things. The girls just didn’t eat and the boys either smoked or played random sports or both to stay in shape. But what we DID do, that OP is right about, is that we engaged each other. We went to parties, we traded favorite mixes, we had actual established rules for dating. These younger folks…they engage digitally, they live in bubbles, have no communication skills, and oh my god do they have commitment issues. That’s what we are talking about here.

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Haunting-Public-23@reddit

Younger gen are more overweight and obese than any of us older gen. That's why I am talking about nutrition and active calories that lead to longer lifespan and healthspan.

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khantroll1@reddit

And that’s fine, but it’s a totally different conversation. My nephews and all but one of my nieces are in phenomenal shape. They play sports, and are active in other specific, structured activities. But they also all suffer from the things I listed. They don’t have social skills, they have no interest in dating, they have no interest in personal freedoms as we understand them. The only one of them that has dated did it more as an expression of shared trauma than affection. The issue isn’t “well, they’re fat, and people don’t want to bone fat people, so they don’t want to bone each other.” The issue isn’t that they don’t socialize/bond, or at least not in a way facilitates the relationships and milestones our generation considers normal.

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alles_en_niets@reddit

Well, look at the post we’re commenting on. OP is only half joking

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Melgel4444@reddit

My senior year of high school I was night swimming at a party, decided to go down the water slide, there was a wasp nest under it I disturbed and I got stung by wasps the entire way down the slide and almost passed out after landing in the water I was so drunk on Malibu rum (black so 70 proof) I didn’t even feel them 😅

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Bubble_Lights@reddit

My god my only memory of this is that I had to go pick up one of my best friends at another one of our best friend's house, because she found out that she had slept with her boyfriend. This song came on the radio on the way home and it gets to that part...you know the one: You, I thought I knew you You, I cannot judge You, I thought you knew me This one laughing quietly underneath my breath Nightswimming She was bawling in the backseat and I felt so bad! Thankfully, we were like 17 and it all smoothed over shortly after. The friend I picked up met a new guy that summer and it turned out that the cheating boyfriend was gay, and he remained a friend in the group. And we all remained best friends too. Sadly, the friend who I picked up passed away in 2020, though. But this song will ALWAYS make me think of her. ♥ you, Ry.

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Deep-Interest9947@reddit

I once ran out of a yoga class crying my eyes out when this song came on. It’s a rough one.

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theoneandonly6558@reddit

Hey, thanks for the reminder this song exists. I had one of the most stressful days possible for a human to endure, and I listened to it twice and had a nice needed cathartic cry.

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ohwowimonredditcool@reddit

i remember hearing stipe just made the lyrics up while driving around with the instrumentals.

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Longjumping-Air1489@reddit

All lyricists make up the words. /s

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n0exit@reddit

That makes sense. It's a great driving around at night song.

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pina_koala@reddit

There was a music thread here a few days ago and I went down the REM rabbit hole. To record Automatic For The People (taken from an Athens diner slogan) the three musicians would hole up and Bill Berry would find something besides the drums to play, then they would make the music and send it to Michael for the lyrics. Which is a pretty cool trust exercise! Miss those guys.

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peloquindmidian@reddit

Interesting. Almost like an audio version of Exquisite Corpse.

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Obvious-Hunt19@reddit

I haven’t thought about Andrei Codrescu in at least 25 years

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ohwowimonredditcool@reddit

they had an incredible run. most bands burn out after one album (and some of my favorite bands only have one album!) . for them to release “so many bangers” as they say, just shows they took their art seriously. one of a kind.

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narcowake@reddit

That’s still a banger song, reminds me of the end of summer

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evilpanda8419@reddit

This person used to make mixed cds.

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princessvespa17@reddit

Ummm dude I share more music than ever with my friends and husband. I have dozens of playlists carefully curated by me and a friend for whenever we ride in the car together or whatever. Hell, we had a Spotify jam that we played at the last board game night, literally everyone in the room got to add whatever they wanted.

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BinocularDisparity@reddit

Creating a Spotify playlist isn’t hard tho

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_shaftpunk@reddit

The decline in Spirograph usage directly correlates to the rise in youth gang activity. Think about it!

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GimmeUrBrunchMoney@reddit

Wrong. I assuredly get laid because I used to play with Lite Brite and a first-gen Game Boy

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orangepaperlantern@reddit

I will…

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tarmgabbymommy79@reddit

I wish I could remember that site that shows ridiculous correlations like this. Like the rise in yogurt consumption happened alongside the rise in sunflower purchases, or some such nonsense. It was a great site.

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bshr49@reddit

We got our kids a Spirograph when they were younger and they're not in any gangs. You're 100% correct.

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nvr2manydogs@reddit

Gosh, I loved Spirograph!

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Timely-Ability-6521@reddit

I see your mix tape/cd and raise to playlist. Create a mix playlist for your person. You can have as many as u want and they don't get destroyed or lost.

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EightFive8ty5@reddit

Also self esteem decline, as getting custom mixes from friends and partners made us feel special AF. I still make mixes for others but now they are on Spotify. If you haven’t collaborated a playlist you are missing out on good bonding with your loved ones. It’s time for a resurgence of this lost art.

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danksince98@reddit

hotels arent cheap

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TheBrownCouchOfJoy@reddit

I don’t think it has anything to do with music. My son has most of his human interaction with his computer or phone as an intermediary. So do his friends. On the one hand, he’s not making me worry. On the other hand, I kinda wish he would.

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Themoosemingled@reddit

I still have the tape I made my now wife in 1995. First half astral weeks.

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iaurp@reddit

Second half? Also Astral Weeks.

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f4ttyKathy@reddit

I just remembered the pressure of NAMING the mix tape. Is it "For Sam [date]" or some chic title or?? Same with the artwork I meticulously produced on my Gateway PC.

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Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

🐄

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FungiStudent@reddit

Good taste!!

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Wasted_Hamster@reddit

The kids have unrestricted to porn. Idk if lack of mixtapes is the problem lol

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problyurdad_@reddit

Bro it’s way easier now to sit on your bed and make a Spotify or Apple Music playlist and text it over.

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Trinikas@reddit

Ever heard of a "playlist?"

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Epicardiectomist@reddit

an anecdote to boost your point: my wife and I met in 2005 when we both got hired doing the same job, and shared a tiny cubicle for 5 years. What intrigued me was when I got up one day, and I could hear her listening to *Undertow* by Tool. oh me oh my. A few years later, after a love interest was clearly brewing, we hooked up after a rager at my house and *October Rust* by Type O Negative played in the background. To this day, 14 years of marriage and 2 kids later, "Love You to Death" is a between-us song. Despite the glaring differences in our overall music interests, we still have a shared love of Tool, and went to A Perfect Circle, Primus, and Puscifer on a date last year. I support your theory.

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Basic-Pair8908@reddit

Saying friends are always online, my geeky bunch of friends would drag our pcs to a friends house and do massive LAN events.

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Dickrubin14094@reddit

Of course they aren’t making mix tapes and mix CDs, they don’t have ways to play those. They’re making personalized playlists now

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jackfaire@reddit

Not a single mix-tape or CD I made got me sex. Parties I went to never led to anything but me going home alone.

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Living_Razzmatazz_93@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/q3osmtcdkacg1.jpeg?width=446&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b763b6aaa8349fc158ce2d5955c2c5bb29bfe3a9

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Other-Squirrel-2038@reddit

There's Spotify Playlist which do the same thing

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yomamasonions@reddit

Not this 91 millennial

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polygonalopportunist@reddit

I’m watching Dazed and Confused as we speak…came out in 93. Great movie. But I think we sorta wanted the teen era our parents had. Freedom, keggers, free love. And we glorified and chased it in our own ways. I don’t think our kids have these over arching themes from our glory years like we did of our folks.

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badmammajamma521@reddit

They make playlists now.

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RetroBerner@reddit

What? Nah, it's the Internet

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BlacksmithThink9494@reddit

I think it's because of a mix of more nefarious things theyve seen. The popularity of suicide attempts or self harm by younger classmates, watching their parents get messed up - alcoholism and failed relationships, and watching friends die from overdoses of easily accessible drugs. I dont think they're sexless either. I think they're disillusioned with the state of dating these days. And we used to put up with a lot of unacceptable and very demeaning behaviors by partners. I have personally removed myself from the dating scene as well because of how awful hookup culture became. I'd rather not touch another person again than endure abuse.

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FungiStudent@reddit

Thats awful sad.

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BlacksmithThink9494@reddit

It's actually horrible. I feel for the kids growing up in that but hopefully our turn toward acceptance of getting therapy will help create healing.

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FungiStudent@reddit

I fear we are way beyond what therapy can address.

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BlacksmithThink9494@reddit

Therapy can address it all if you do the work to get better. If you refuse to do the work and pass it off as unhelpful of course nothing will change.

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Possible-Tangelo9344@reddit

I had mix tapes and burned CDs and also led a pretty sexless existence until I got married... I mean I still do, but I'm married at least.

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VincentMac1984@reddit

I think boredom plays a part ;-) Social media, handheld computers (phones), influencers, gaming, etc. kids are constantly entertained at all times these days. For us, the idle hands were the devils tools…. We were pretty handsy ;-)

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Allureme@reddit

Or the fact they’re inside behind a computer

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CaterpillarIcy1056@reddit

Wow. A boy actually tried to tell me he was no longer interested by casually saying a song was on a mix CD he had made for another girl. I didn’t pick up on it. I mean, he had made me one, so… To be fair, he drunkenly told me later that he always falls in love in twos and chooses the wrong one. Then he threw up. The Gen Z don’t know what they are missing!

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R0botDreamz@reddit

My theory: unrestricted access to a TON of porn has made them less willing to seek out partners for sex. They didnt have to be lucky and find a stash of porn mags in someone's trash or in the woods like us. Also, social media gives them the dopamine fix they need.

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1ndomitablespirit@reddit

I think it’s more that most watched nothing but “age appropriate” programming well into their teens. Their lack of regular exposure to adult themes turned them into boring goodie goodies. Then, as they became young adults, they’re exposed to reality and get extra anxious because they never gradually developed the coping mechanisms like we did. We pretend it was trauma, but our exposure to mature entertainment when we were young helped us to arguably be the sanest generation. Though, that’s graded in a curve. We thought we were protecting them, but we were protecting ourselves from having difficult and uncomfortable conversations. Of course I’m generalizing, but for the most part we raised a bunch of goddamn squares.

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Key-Shift5076@reddit

..not sure you’ve had the same experience with the Gen Zers that I helped raise: they definitely saw adult themes earlier than I ever did because of the internet.

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1ndomitablespirit@reddit

Yes, but without context. Seeing extreme gore or pornography isn't going to gradually do anything. It's reality slapping a kid in the face. Seeing fake gore, violence or simulated sex in movies allow for a slower transition into the realities of life. Movies we watched with our parents, or stayed up late to watch HBO, were still limited by a standard. Some things got close to the line, but most stuff made sure not to cross it. Movies allow us to experience thoughts and ideas we wouldn't normally encounter AND provides a story that puts everything into context. When Gen-Z sees stuff on the internet, they're processing it alone. Which is scary. When we watched stuff with our parents that disturbed us, they (ideally) provided comfort and wisdom that we may not have understood in the moment, but stuck with us.

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Ecstatic_Judgment941@reddit

I was still in high school when Sex and the City came debuted. Watching it obviously allowed me to project myself into the future as a cool adult living in the city and having sex. Also, Kim Catrall wrote a sex-positive how-to book that was at my public library.

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RogerDodger457@reddit

There’s a lot of wisdom in this comment.

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wiserTyou@reddit

Gen Z and their lack of shenanigans.

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TheDeanof316@reddit

Yeah, curating and burning a CD, then writing all the song titles on the cover, maybe a little illustration...it was definitely more thoughtful, appreciated and romantic then 'sharing a Spotify playlist' etc 💔

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leaf_on_my_package@reddit

We had so much more time to kill than modern kids do. Think about the number of time sinking distractions there are now. If the older generations had been more distracted, they would have done less of the drinking, drugging, and doing it.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

I noticed kids, teens, and yes even young adults today are completely micro managed today. I can understand the very young kids like babies and toddlers being this way, but I was taught to be independent, learned to read, write, cook, do basic math, household chores and maintenance, etc. I grew up with the internet but I never lived on it or was on it 24/7 the way some friends were. I also wasn't allowed to play videogames or computer games, or watch TV for as long as or whenever I wanted, or daily all day and night the way friends were. Not all my friends were raised this way. I have friends that did not know how to cook, clean, do laundry, etc. until they moved out in their late 20s.

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imhungry4321@reddit

"Frequently come across studies that state younger people are having less sex" They also don't like ankle socks. Coincidence?!? hahaha

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Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

Wait... the Victorians were _right_!?!?

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NotYourSexyNurse@reddit

They also wear socks with sandals

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gooch_norris_@reddit

That’s not what you’re supposed to do with those studies!

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S_A_R_K@reddit

Tbf, if you're gonna have sex with a sock, ankle socks are a poor choice

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imhungry4321@reddit

Haha Exactly. Their crew socks serve a dual purpose.

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Atom1419@reddit

My wife made my first mixed cd when we were in high school. She was the first person i knew with a cd burner. That was 27 years ago.

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dukefett@reddit

I met my wife in 2017 so no lol, I wouldn’t have shared a mix cd of heavy metal with anyone I dated either

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lifeat24fps@reddit

Poor kids have every moment of their lives practically broadcast like they're on the Truman Show. I'd hate to be a teenager right now.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

Same. I have friends, certain cousins, and classmates that their super young kids are more active on both facebook and instagram than I am. Also the teens are very active on social media and the schools both K-12 and universities/colleges expect them to be.

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Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

I have more sex with my girlfriend now, than I ever had with my ex-wife. My ex and I discussed and shared more music than I have yet with my girlfriend. For further consideration, my girlfriend and I live 4000km apart and only get to be together a few weeks a year. The rest is over video. But even discounting sexting and video play, we do more per year than my ex-wife and I did when we were less than .0001% of the distance apart. So... I'm highly skeptical of the assertion. ---- And I know you're not intending this, so please don't take this as a personal attack, but it's kind of devaluing their struggle eh? Like, the world is literally on fire, our leaders have stopped trying to prevent genocide, and our kids get the joys of asbestos, lead, **and** microplastics, and with the superpowers going full colonialism again the world is full of utterly wasteful war and death. All so they can earn slave wages to live in perpetual debt. And their only out is our magic colour boxes that let us to imagine we're connected to others, while they simultaneously keep us apart and funnel ever more despair at us to keep us clicking. So no, I really don't buy that music has anything to do with youth feeling no urge to have sex.

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cellshock7@reddit

This isn't the biggest reason but it's likely in the top 10.

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napalmthechild@reddit

Instead they got an impersonal “my new Spotify playlist is out” which I will definitely not check out.

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rjcpl@reddit

My wife got one of my mixtapes before I even met her through a friend of a friend of a friend.

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f4ttyKathy@reddit

This is epic

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TrustAffectionate966@reddit

I found that mix tapes and mix CDs were chick repellents 💀☠️

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Slappyvega@reddit

If a single mixtape had led to sex of any kind…I’d probably be in the music industry.

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Zestyclose_Arm_416@reddit

I have a teenager. She and her crushes/partners share playlists and send each other songs all the time. The mix tape didn't go anywhere, really.

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roberrrrrrt@reddit

No I didn’t. And these kids have tik tok to share not only songs but dances with their crushes

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n0exit@reddit

I don't think I ever made a mixtape. I don't think a mixtape was ever given to me. Certainly didn't affect my sex life.

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Willing_Actuary_4198@reddit

Pretty sure it's the tracking apps on every phone and the very real possibility of having all your drunken mistakes posted to the Internet for the world to see but sure.... Mixtapes

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S_A_R_K@reddit

It's all been down hill since caller id Mom: Did Brian's parents change their last name to Payphone or are you lying to me? Me: <CLICK> guys, give me another beer. Quick! I'm gonna be grounded for a while

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Willing_Actuary_4198@reddit

Better than that collect call from jail lol

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FungiStudent@reddit

They still do those, lol.

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RogerDodger457@reddit

I agree with this. We used to tell our parents we were going over someone’s house and then all meet in the woods or some other outside place and hang out and drink. That led to fooling around with your crushes and so on. Now we parents know exactly where are kids are if they have a smartphone - so to me, smartphones did them in.

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evilpanda8419@reddit

You sound like you could use a personalized mixed cd.

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HorseWorking@reddit

The parents fucked these kids up. Seems like they don’t really know how to do much of anything.

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KaXiaM@reddit

GenX and Xennials are their parents, so the call is coming from inside the house.

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HorseWorking@reddit

I know. It’s embarrassing.

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williafx@reddit

I think it's because they all have digital, physically separated lives, so they don't get exposed to the hormonally driven hedonism that we all did that led us to wild out, and fuck, and try new things. They don't know how to socialize in person effectively due to only being social digitally.

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AshDogBucket@reddit

... and I think the root cause is access to more information. They aren't taking the risks we did bc they know better.

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AshDogBucket@reddit

I disagree. We now can do custom music like never before - you can share a Playlist instantly with anyone anywhere in the world with internet access.

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Ignorance_15_Bliss@reddit

Mom and dad are in their lives tooooooo much. Did we ever have a line of cars down the roads leading to the school of our parents at 245 in the afternoon to be picked up. Fuck no. Live in the neighboring town. Miss the bus. Ha. Walk and probably hitch hike. Saturdays mom would kick you out. Like get lost. Don’t even knock for water. Use the hose. Don’t wanna see you from any windows view.

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KoRaZee@reddit

Incels are a bigger problem than we like to admit but not having a mix tape isn’t the reason. Spotify works well

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jimmyjames78@reddit

My current significant other, my wife, and I didn’t meet until 2008, so no. But I did share CDs with her, but no mix CDs that I can remember. Just a little too late. But plenty with prior significant (and not so significant) others, and I discovered a lot of music that way. Steely Dan, Bloodhound Hang, Van Morrison I had never heard, Peter Gabriel, NOFX, etc.

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PercentageRoutine310@reddit

Sade stopped making music and R. Kelly is in prison. Skinamax softcore porn died out. Internet killed the urges of everything fun and wanting to go out.

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redditsuckshardnowtf@reddit

I never had any of that shit.

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skullkick@reddit

Pretty sure internet porn is the major culprit here. But I like the way you’re thinking.

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fairlyaveragetrader@reddit

I think it's a little more than that. So we're all aware of all the people that were born in the seventies and eighties, they grew up in rampant sexuality. Everyone either had sex or knew someone that did by the time they were 14. A lot of people have unfortunate sexual abuse stories, extremely common. So when these people grew up, the people that grew up during the Britney Spears days, they grew up watching 25-year-olds dating girls at their high School, the people that had the touchy uncle It's not really surprising they are a lot more socially and sexually conservative than their upbringing. So blaming the younger generation because of music I think the older generation has much larger of an impact. Look at the change and everything from the music you talk about to the TV shows to the movies to social media opinion to how their parents are. completely different story. It's all of that that has created more, far more socially conservative generation

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BaronSwordagon@reddit

Made my wife three mix cds while we were dating. She still listens to them sometimes

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Pitiful_Ad2397@reddit

Spotify mixes exist.

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vs-1680@reddit

They are growing up in an absolute dystopia full of reasonable depression and anxiety. They have no hope for a better tomorrow and feel betrayed. Millennials do too. Maybe the next generation will reach the point of violent hedonistic nihilism with an greater loss of hope. It's going to take generations for the nation to recover from this.

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Adventurous_Pin_344@reddit

Surprisingly no, because we have been together since the mixtape era. Our tastes are a tad different, although similar enough that we have been to many many shows together (Kurt Vile, Run the Jewels, Nas, Morrissey, The National, Band of Horses, Built to Spill, Stereolab... The list goes on.)

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Atillion@reddit

Maybe living a life behind the anonymity of screens has dramatically affected interpersonal and social skills.

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RalphMacchio404@reddit

What an odd take.

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devoncat04@reddit

Haha, I don’t know about the theory but I did make at least a few of these that I put so very much thought into. Some were for my friends, so there was no “how do I best express my subtle romantic message through song choice” issue. But I spent a good deal of time going through my music trying to pick the songs I thought they probably hadn’t heard but that I thought they would like based on their taste, and following various rules of sequencing that lived (and continue to live!) in my head. There’s also something to the actual “mix *tape*” approach that just beats any other format. My all-time favorite is one I received from my ex-girlfriend after we had already broken up but were still friends. She was a stickler for the cassette format, even though this was 2004 so many of these songs were MP3s downloaded to a computer, burned to CDs, and then copied on to cassette! By that point my only working cassette player was in the car, but I played that one until the tape gave out.

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Hailmaker13@reddit

I think it's the decline of Cool Water cologne usage.

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spectrumRedd@reddit

Only mix tapes for my friends. I bet if u Put all the meta apps on your phone along w tick tok and snap chat and you tube. whenever u don’t use those play video games on phone or console when u not on the job and can’t to keep your job. Compare your touch grass time after a week to your previous weeks. I predict it will lessen and so will your desire to go anywhere else but home.

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scormegatron@reddit

I did used to make mix-tapes and burn CDs for her. Nowadays, I share a playlist. Times change, the game remains the same.

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The1Zenith@reddit

I will agree with this with no seriousness whatsoever. ![gif](giphy|111ebonMs90YLu)

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croissant_and_cafe@reddit

My daughter is 11 and makes playlists on Spotify for her different moods. She has some pretty dope stuff in there

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Key-Shift5076@reddit

This reminds me of the article in the early 1900s decrying the youth becoming crossword crazed and how it was contributing to the moral decay of the nation. The advent of telephones was also given the same treatment. The kids are all right. Less teen pregnancy and STDs and unwanted babies sounds like winning to me. They’ll figure it out.

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HIs4HotSauce@reddit

That's part of it-- other part is younger generations aren't drinking alcohol as much. Alcohol lowers inhibitions and "sedates" (for lack of a better word) the part of the brain that analyzes risk vs reward.

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NBKiller69@reddit

Never did the mix-tape thing, but also sharing music I'm into in general was never really a thing with me.

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TijayesPJs443@reddit

Bring back DJ Kay Slay the Drama King !

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Traditional_Entry183@reddit

Is this why I never got any as a young person?

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oh_wll_whtvr_nvrmnd@reddit

Doctor, we need 50cc of Portishead Dummy and another 50cc of Massive Attack Mezzanine, stat!!!

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Zealousideal-Soil778@reddit

I find no fault in your logic.

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throwawayhbgtop81@reddit

*gavels* I accept this as science /peerreview (yes I know this isn't how peer review works 😋)

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Risikio@reddit

I love how there is a literal Broadway song dedicated to the idea of making someone a mix tape. It's the first one on my mix tape so they get the message fast.

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bassman314@reddit

Do they not put together playlists on <insert streaming service du jour> anymore?

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No_Gap_2700@reddit

We share a playlist that we were both supposed to contribute to. Sadly, I'm the only one that adds to it and she never listens to it unless I play it. I disagree with reasoning behind less sex and partying with the younger generation. Social media ruined their ability to effectively communicate with each other in order to build any type of a bond. Relationships of any form are just like everything else now, short-lived and disposable. Ghosting is essentially the same thing as discarding no longer needed items.

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Thamnophis660@reddit

I mean it's probably a side effect, but they could always share a Spotify playlist or something. I think excessive social media creating unrealistic expectations plus helicopter parenting plus purity culture coming back have all compounded younger people behaving this way.

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reillan@reddit

I have never had a mix tape lead to sexy times. Then again, perhaps my mix tapes shouldn't all be Weird Al songs.

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Forking_Shirtballs@reddit

Nah, weed and porn

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KaXiaM@reddit

And SSRIs.

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Such_Victory4589@reddit

I blame the parents... wait... hang on... isn't that us.... GET OFF MY LAWN!

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MolassesConstant2256@reddit

We had the best get it on hook up music though.

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fromthedarqwaves@reddit

I’ve only ever received one. I was 20. I still listen to those songs. At least the ones that I can remember were on it.

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PhysicsAndFinance85@reddit

It wouldn't surprise me if they were too dumb to create playlists

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MirthRock@reddit

We were the last fun generation. At least in my head.

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CoralQuilts@reddit

We may have been cringe but we were free

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Designer_Emu_6518@reddit

Def the lack of partying and outside fun.

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Sal_Paradise81@reddit

Or, maybe it’s cause they’ve been handed one existential crisis after another since they were born and have no capacity for joy as a result. 🤷

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DefiniteDooDoo@reddit

I don’t think it’s the lack of mixtapes and CDs themselves but rather the effort, slowness, and friction implied by those gifts, combined with the casualness, impermanence, and separation created by social media. You used to have to sit and grind out both the track selection and production of these gifts. It made you careful and gave them meaning. This is minimized in a playlist hosted somewhere that has no physical form. It took time to physically exchange the gift and they couldn’t always listen to it right away. It could sit in their car, remind them of you, and build anticipation. An instantly transmitted playlist is just bits of data that you didn’t even have to meet in person to give. It’s more convenient but the medium lacks sentiment and doesn’t create moments.

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YorkiesandSneakers@reddit

Fentanyl has made it so you can’t party anymore. There’s no radio. This is good because you find your own niche through streaming services, but not having top 40 radio and sitcoms means no mass shared cultural experiences.

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Blackberry518@reddit

OMG I laughed out loud when I read this! My college boyfriend and I definitely had a special playlist of songs we had downloaded off Nabster (Napster?)

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KellyAnn3106@reddit

I made a Spotify playlist the other night and it reminded me of making those old mixtapes. Of course, the playlist was the soundtrack I want played at my funeral. Hopefully it won't be needed for a while but we've reached that age where we are starting to lose friends, spouses, etc.

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jasonrubik@reddit

In college, my "mix tape" was Emotion 98.3 in Vice City

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ultradav24@reddit

Making “mixtapes” - aka playlists now - is easier than it has ever been today

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Frumplust@reddit

Digging the Greats on YouTube has an awesome series about mix tapes. I think it would resonate with this audience.

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shadylady_beepboop@reddit

I weep for the children of today. We failed them

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SlackerDS5@reddit

No. Has nothing to do with mixtapes. Relationships are hard with the way society is. Shit is expensive, and everything is on fire. Who has time to f*ck?

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Optimistiqueone@reddit

I would say the root cause is social media. I told some Gen Z that they can't have any fun bc they all snitches. Soon as someone starts having fun, someone else will pull out a camera and start recording. It will be all over social media before you even get back home.

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Norgler@reddit

I think it has more to do with us not having the mass surveillance of social media. We used to be able to do stupid shit when we were kids and not everyone instantly knew about it. That said people are sharing music easier than ever now..

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guyako@reddit

Oh I think the younger generations having less sex is *directly* tied to them drinking less. Alcohol has been a social lubricant for thousands of years. No lube? No sex.

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BrucetheFerrisWheel@reddit

How are they the sexless generations with all the half naked insta's and fully naked OF's the young are up to? Seems odd.

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acatwithnoname@reddit

...exactly, they are living online. They aren't getting any IRL. They just wank it to their AI chatbot "girlfriend".

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Potatoe_Potahto@reddit

I'd say living with their parents well into their 20s has left younger millennials and Gen Z to be sexless generations.

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worksnake@reddit

I think you read a lot of internet headlines and spend a lot of time thinking of things in terms of reddit posts.

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darker_alleys@reddit

Making a mix-tape for someone was like the 90’s version of writing someone a love letter. At least for me it’s a love language and I still put High Fidelity level thought into the making of my playlists for someone.

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Bubble_Lights@reddit

I really can't remember. But like others have said: Playlists are the same thing. It's just technological advancement.

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Howy_the_Howizer@reddit

Got to go into Discord and watch parties.

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ohwowimonredditcool@reddit

this is so crazy i have no choice but to go along with it. did you guys use nero burning software when making courtship discs? i loved the crossfading feature, allowing to blend tracks together seamlessly. i am still married to same girl i made a mix for in like 04. lotta r kelly haha but dont worry i mixed the streets and aphex twin into it as well. (i swear it worked)

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HorseWorking@reddit

Remix to ignition, hot and fresh out the kitchen

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K2sX@reddit

Nero! Oh that's an old memory.

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RoxyLA95@reddit

My 15 year old son and his friends make mix tapes.

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chronicnerv@reddit

We swapped medication and evidence for vibes and hashtags. like screaming at a headache instead of taking aspirin. and while we were busy validating feelings we forgot the hospital beds. now the locks are off the wards.

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