Teens in media: 1990s vs now
Posted by letsgococonut@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 87 comments
I watched Scream 7 last night (a phrase that would thrill 1996 me), and something that struck me was how teens are portrayed.
In the 1990s, teenagers were usually shown as clearly “kid-like,” with their independence limited to school, parties, and occasional rebellion. Teens’ lives were severely limited: you’d be lucky to have a car. School was basically your life. It felt more grounded.
In more recent stuff, teens are often framed as basically adults: comfortable in adult spaces, performing confidence, and acting socially indistinguishable from older people. School is a distant consideration to relationships, work, and (usually) having some type of fame.
Know what I mean?
smokemirrorsunicorns@reddit
i think you might not realize that most actors were in general 5-10 years older than their screen ages lol ;) that was very much a 90s thing.
jackfaire@reddit
It was shown back then too. Clueless absolutely felt like how you describe Scream 7.
What's funny is how little has actually changed. You can find all perspectives then and now. I'm watching "Eerie Indiana, The other dimension" and there's an episode in 1998 where it's talked about how kids have no attention span no less than three times in an episode.
letsgococonut@reddit (OP)
Eerie Indiana had a spin-off??
jackfaire@reddit
Yeah I didn't find it until years later. I've been meaning to watch it. I just got around to a rewatch of the original and then started the new one. Only 2 episodes left.
The idea behind the spinoff is that it's another dimension where Eerie was boringly normal until someone from the original Eerie crossed over bringing weirdness with him.
ssaall58214@reddit
Are you f** kidding me. It's the complete Opposite. You obviously never saw kids from 93. 25-year-olds now are regarded as young easily groomed. Whereas as a teenager I didn't know anybody that had a leash on them.
sweetassassin@reddit
Not even taking any of the comments, my mind immediately went to Gabriella Carteris, 35, playing a senior at West Beverly.
Into-the-stream@reddit
That may be how each is portrayed in media, but in real life it was the opposite. As a teen I was pretty independent. Took the city bus everywhere, stayed out every weekend, had a huge social life and was never home.
My kids are teens and are always home chatting with friends online. They need a ride everywhere, never stay out past like 9 (even my 17 year old). They are good kids, whereas I was always up to shenanigans, but studies show teens and young adults just don’t go out the same as we did. Some blame Covid, some blame social media and the internet.
LonelyAsLostKeys@reddit
I think this gets to a key point, which I see a lot as a high school teacher. Kids are far less practically independent (need constant coaching, mostly stay inside, etc) but have a far greater sense of social, cultural and intellectual independence..or at least an illusion thereof.
Before the internet was what it is now, most kids’ intellectual and moral lives were very heavily mediated by familial and communal influence. The kids pushed back a bit via music or whatever, but - aside from a select few kids who really fell into countercultures in a way that would then be considered strange and subversive - most weren’t able to totally intellectually detach from their inherited environment to cultivate a completely independent sense of the world.
Today, with the internet functioning as it does, kids in their preteens or earlier are able to choose and submerge themselves in communities and identities that are completely detached from those around them. And a lot of that lack of practical independence (staying at home online, etc) is tied to the fact that, counterintuitively, doing so is what allows them to invest more completely in independent identities.
So even though I’d argue that, in a lot of cases, you’re exactly right, the teens to whom you would be marketing films like this in 2026 perceive themselves as dramatically independent and probably want to see that reflected (in both inaccurate and accurate ways) on screen.
metajames@reddit
This is so thoughtful. Thank you.
OreoSoupIsBest@reddit
This is exactly right! I have a 17 (almost 18) year old and she is far, far less independent than I was at her age. By the time I was her age, I was working two jobs, going to school and was out and about every single night. Basically, I was only home to sleep and shower.
My daughter goes to school/social activities, but would rather be home otherwise. I do find it interesting that she believes that she is much more independent than she actually is.
I don't fault these kids for this, they are growing up in a much different world than we did.
Peanut083@reddit
My 17 year old is way more of a home body than I was at that age. By 17 I had my provisional driver’s licence, although I didn’t get my own car until I was 18. However, with negotiation with my mum (and coughing up for an occasional tank of fuel), I was able to borrow her car to go socialise with my friends. I also had an after school/weekend job. I feel like I was still home a somewhat decent amount, especially before I got my own car, but I definitely appreciated having the freedom to go catch up with my friends more or less whenever I wanted to.
My son on the other hand isn’t interested in getting his provisional driver’s licence. He has his learner’s permit, but getting him behind the wheel to get the required hours up is like pulling teeth. He also doesn’t have a job. He just wants to sit on his laptop and play online games or watch YouTube videos. He has one friend (who is actually a school friend of my younger son’s) who he has spent hours watching play some game via a stream and chatting to on Discord. I personally can’t think of anything more boring than spending an entire weekend day watching someone else play a game, but he seems to think it’s the best thing since the invention of sliced bread. My son does occasionally come out to have a chat with either myself or my husband and to interact with our dogs. He likes watching various comedy shows with my husband, and he’ll come to talk with me about games he’s playing or to show me videos that he’s watched and thinks I will find funny (do yourself a favour and look up Neil the Seal on YouTube).
My 15 year old is different, though. He can’t wait to turn 16 in October so he can get his learner’s permit. He’s already told me that he wants to be the one to drive us to and from the parkrun event that we go to on Saturdays (we live about a 20 minute drive from our closest event venue). He’s also told me that he will be harrassing me of an afternoon when he gets home from school to take him driving. He’s also a lot more social than my older son. Thanks to having a place in a support and inclusion class, he’s been placed at a school that is out of zone for us, so he doesn’t live near any of his school friends. However, he talks with them a lot on Discord. Some of them also live a lot closer to the parkrun we go to, and he’s started to convince them to come along on Saturday mornings and walk with him. I know he’s going to want to go for his provisional driver’s licence on his 17th birthday, and once he can legally drive by himself, I’m probably barely going to see him at home. Especially if he gets around to getting a job and saves up to buy his own car.
ferret96@reddit
Respectfully, I would suggest that there might be inherent bias in defining "independent" solely based on the physical aspect of being out of the house more. That is part of it, but I would guess that the younger generation might be more independent in some abstract ways like in their identity and social aspects, but less physically independent.
Relevant_Mouse_4860@reddit
Ironically, when I have tried to give my child more freedom like I had with being out and about independently, people have been horrified even though we took a number of steps to ensure they would be safe.
likesblackcoffeebest@reddit
Yeah I'm also a parent of teens and this is accurate. It's been weird raising kids over the past couple decades (my kids range in age from 15-23) because society expects them to be constantly watched.
Someone called the cops on me when my oldest was 8 because she was riding her bike up and down the sidewalk in front of my house (on a dead end street where we knew most of the neighbors). Luckily the cops thought it was a joke and nothing came of it, but that definitely set the tone for what I could expect.
The only kid of mine who hasn't had the authorities called on them for doing normal kid/teen stuff is my middle one who stays inside and plays video games, or occasionally gets brunch with her friends. My youngest is the subject of at least one nextdoor post a month because people can't imagine why a group of teen boys (my son and his friends) would just be biking around the neighborhood doing random stuff. Every crime within a mile gets blamed on them. (Thankfully the police are also not buying it in this case.)
optimaloutcome@reddit
I get shit from other parents a lot because I don't track my kid's location. I don't want to know where she is at all times of the day. I want her to have freedom and independence.
boston_homo@reddit
I was thinking about this time my parents went away for a week and left me home alone when I was 14. Didn’t seem strange at the time.
Sufficient_Turn_9209@reddit
Yup. My parents went on a handful of week long business trips starting when I was 13. The first one they had my best friend and her high school aged sister stay with me. In the aftermath they discovered it was much better to not allow company at all the next time. Just emergency contacts and let the neighbors know... that I shouldn't have anyone coming and going. 😆 My son? We left for the weekend when he was 16 and he called every few hours asking "what do I do" questions about various things. In his case it was 100% better to have his best friend stay and his mom was down the road.
Ticky79@reddit
Omg, we left our son for several days when he was 18. He didn’t want to come on holiday with us. He didn’t leave his room, I don’t know if he even cooked, just drank letters of milk, ate nuts and other snacks! But called several times asking about things. It was almost like he needed to hear our voices…
Ticky79@reddit
My mum did this several times when she had to go on work trips OS. Single mother, no family around. Older siblings just stepped up. We watched Rescue 911 didn’t we and know all the secrets.
Ticky79@reddit
OMG, that’s insane. Imagine if they walked home from school!
likesblackcoffeebest@reddit
They have mostly done that as well, but we live super near their elementary school so they weren't really that noticeable walking just around the corner in a giant mob of kids and parents.
Although there was one weird thing about that when my middle kid (now 17) was in 5th grade. She wanted to have friends over after school one day and I was like, sure, I'll come home early that day and y'all just walk here per usual. Everything was going great until one of the parents found out I didn't walk with the kids. They were 11-12 years old and the walk was literally about 100m. Give me a fucking break, you know??
The worst part was when I posted about this on socials like "wow these other parents are definitely channeling their inner helicopter" way, most of the comments I got from friends were about how I shouldn't let my kids walk to and from school.
The thing is I'm a single mom with an engineering career. I couldn't be a helicopter parent if I wanted to. There aren't enough of me nor enough hours in the day. So we live in a safe neighborhood and I raise them like it's 1999 minus the corporal punishment.
username11585@reddit
Jonathan Haidt write all about this in The Anxious Generation. How one of piece of the pie is people have to stop punishing parents for trying to raise those kids independently.
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
I was going to say the exact same thing. Teens in the 80s were essentially the youngest adults. In the 90s, it was a transition period between youth and adulthood, but with some limitations. Now, they're 100% looked at as children, the way that we were in grade school.
Ticky79@reddit
Was the X gen parents who messed up raising Millennials?
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
Well, who the parents are depends on the individual of course. But I dont think a huge number of Xers are parents to Millenials. They'd have been very young parents in that case. I think mostly is second wave Boomers born in the early 60s.
Ticky79@reddit
Yes, right, children of the hip parents who wanted to have lots of fun and to break the rules. Makes sense they wanted to be ‘cool’ parents.
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
I'm not sure about any of that or really what you're asking about. I'm sorry.
night-swimming704@reddit
This was my thought as well.
Also possible that the directors/producers/writers are all our age now and portraying their experiences growing up in today’s media.
jacksonmills@reddit
Or, directors our age are portraying what they - or their kids-think teenagers should be.
It could be all of that honestly
DJanomaly@reddit
Then there’s the show Euphoria where the showrunner creates what my nightmare version of what teenagers are doing is.
CheesyRomantic@reddit
Oh my goodness... same here. And I have only watched 1 full episode of the show. I just know the show from reels. Lol
trademarktower@reddit
Well having a movie where the kids are in their rooms online gaming and chatting with friends is pretty boring too. Movies aren't real life.
RodinKnox@reddit
But what if it turns out that when they die in the game, they die in real life 😱
werewolfinahat@reddit
I guess they got to Stay Alive.
villianrules@reddit
Disney screwed that film
TheSteelFactory@reddit
"But dad/mom, you are a bad example for us .."
Probably my kids too 😂
ThisIsMyFatLogicAlt@reddit
Makes sense. It's the fantasy for teens now, this dream of independence.
Basic_User_Name3000@reddit
So true! I have a college kid who didn’t even go to a bar for his 21st birthday. WTF? My other teen is playing game while also watching American Dad. Not everyone even has a drivers license. I think knowing that everything you do can be traced or documented is a bigger deal. I have almost zero evidence of my teens and twenties. And my poor parents just assumed I was staying at a friend’s house watching TV and in college was just at the library.
mcfetrja@reddit
I blame us, GenX, and the Boomers. Just ask; we had all the fun that could possibly be had. And Millennials feasted the leftover scraps. /s
Young_Former@reddit
I don’t think this is sarcastic but the truth!
recursiverabbits@reddit
Absolutely.
Growing up in a town with no reliable public transit, I had a beater from the minute I could legally drive, worked 20-25 hours a week during the school year, and full time in the summers. Went out and partied with friends on the weekend and drove to neighboring cities to go to shows. Occasionally performed at private events on the weekends for extra cash.
Now that I have little kids, and with inflation being what it is, I spend a LOT more time at home.
tres-vip@reddit
Yeah, my thought is that we had way more freedom and independence (especially if you were a latchkey kid such as myself), had more vibrant social lives, and were expected to grow up faster. Kids these days are much surveilled lol, tend to stick close to home, and socialize digitally. They are not even excited to get a car to drive their way to freedom, lol. I remember we were ECSTATIC whenever a friend got a car and suddenly, we could go anywhere we wanted (within reason). They don't even date or have boyfriends/girlfriends as much as we used to in high school (remember when someone asked you to go "steady", lol)
AdComprehensive7939@reddit
Idk the 90210 kids had some livin. Daria? I think it depends on the show. My So Called Life ≠ Seventh Heaven.
doktorhladnjak@reddit
There are seven Screams now?
Hopeful_Pianist_6634@reddit
This is the real question 😂
letsgococonut@reddit (OP)
There’s even two just named “Scream” (1 and 5).
spinners_888@reddit
There was great teen drama and even comedy in the 90s. Very well written depicting teens as adults, young adults come of age in various facets whereas in film it's singular.
My So Called Life
Blossom
Party of Five
Dawson's Creek
Sad-Praline1929@reddit
I watched Adventures in Babysitting with my kids this weekend. It was one of my favorites back in the day. The teenagers in that movie are definitely acting like adults. What stood out to me is how natural everyone looked. No plastic surgery or lip filler to be seen.
Complex_Mention_8495@reddit
I feel you. This is exactly the reason why I do not like most of today's movies. The roles are often cast with actors that feel too young.
My favorite example ist Alien Romulus compared to the very first Alien movie. All actors back then felt really convincing to me, while in the new movie everybody was just out of their teenage years.
mist_kaefer@reddit
I couldn’t wait to get my driver’s license when I turned 16.
My kids are dragging their feet on it and in the meantime use me as a free taxi.
LLPhotog@reddit
The free taxi is why they’re dragging their feet. I think the desperation to get a license came from previous parents not giving rides everywhere. It’s a supply and demand issue.
I say this as someone who was a nanny and the teens took their time getting a license. And why wouldn’t they? They had free transportation on demand. If you had a personal driver, why would you ever drive again except for the novelty of the experience?
Kittypie75@reddit
Tell them they have until whatever date.to get their license and you are no longer their car service.
macklin_sob@reddit
Same here. Saved me on insurance though.
GreenZebra23@reddit
I have a work friend in her early 20s and her mom still drives her everywhere. She had a bad experience learning to drive and she's still scared of it. She's scared of everything. Which feels weird to say, because in some other ways she's one of the most fearless people I know
59apache01@reddit
A lot of the portrayal today is done through the eyes of producers and writers who are Gen X, Millenial, or some Boomers who are still working in the field.
Case in point - look at Bob's Burgers. Minus the cell phones, the kids in that show have a very Gen X/early Millenial flavored childhood all the way down to the parents' '76 Plymouth Volare station wagon. If kids that age are watching the show, they must think it's set in the '80s.
alieninhumanskin10@reddit
Lol that is hilarious and I never thought of it that way. I feel like this was to show that the kids live in a very small/tight knit town that somehow still allows mixed use commercial/residential without zoning restrictions. And the car kinda is supposed to show that money is tight.
Pitiful_Ad2397@reddit
So, a beach town?
alieninhumanskin10@reddit
I kinda live near those but down here we have strict zoning on mix use. Maybe up north ( they are from Jersey right?)things are different but I haven't been there
GreenZebra23@reddit
Bob's Burgers in general is so Xennial coded. "Hey daytime whiskey, want to meet my CD collection?"
OskeyBug@reddit
This was how they did it in the 90s scream movies too. No parents in any of them.
Skulls_of_Ink@reddit
I would argue writers/producers/directors in big budget films are both out of touch, and just bad these days in general.
They have destroyed most franchises I grew up loving trying to mesh some side agenda, or being politically correct, or just pushing bad ideas through in general.
What is normal in Hollywood or NYC is not what is normal for most people, but they just can't see it.
(Good) Storytelling is becoming an even more rare skill than it ever has before.
ericwbolin@reddit
Gonna push back on some of that. The writers and directors, anyway. Bigger issue of movies is the same as the bigger issue of other facets of life. So, so many great movies come out every year that just don't ever make it front of peoples' eyeballs because of silo'd culture. The majority of movies that most people see are the tentpoles.
If you think the big-budget movies now have an agenda, wait until you discover literally every other decade in history. That's pretty much the point of all art. Besides, making a new movie in the franchise of an old one ruins the old one how? They're different movies.
Aggravating-Alarm-16@reddit
As much as I love diversity and new ideas in film , I think there is too much media today.
ericwbolin@reddit
Such as?
Aggravating-Alarm-16@reddit
In general
Theres
Apple tv Hulu Peacock Paramount Freeavee Prime Disney+ Mgm+ HBO max
I'm sure there are more that people can keep up with
ericwbolin@reddit
Ah. Gotcha. Too many mediums. I'll buy that, for sure. I don't have any of those, but, yeah, most people do.
Sumeriandawn@reddit
You would only think that if you had a limited palette.
letsgococonut@reddit (OP)
Media has always reflected cultural values of their time. What changes is which values feel noticeable or contested to different viewers. If a 40-something viewer is feeling that things have gone too PC, there’s a good chance they’re reacting more to shifting cultural visibility.
yourlittlebirdie@reddit
And in some cases, like Euphoria, you have adults living out some really creepy fantasies about high schoolers through their productions.
optimaloutcome@reddit
I think we overcorrected as parents in response to our childhoods. I see a lot of comments in this sub (and this post) about how we were just left alone to roam, be out, come back when the street lights came on. When I talk to other parents in my sphere (my kid is about to be 16), they all track their kids locations constantly, they're afraid to let their kids try things, do things, go places, be independent.
In two years she's a legal adult who can sign a contract, vote, go to war, etc. I always say to my daughter that this is when she is supposed to make mistakes. The risk is low - she has no kids, no bills, no major responsibility. So we give freedom but set guardrails. She dips her toes in to the water, tries it out, we adapt. If we don't give them the chance to experience, fail, and learn, now, they're going to be forced to learn later when the stakes and penalties are much higher.
Dramatic_Gazelle81@reddit
Oh my goodness yes to allllll of this! I have a 14 year old who is in 8th grade, and I'm not micromanaging her or her school work, because the stakes are low and I need her to learn intrinsic motivation and value, BUT when she doesn't follow through on something it feels like the teachers/school/"the fucking mom should manage everything vultures" come for me!
I tell them I'm trying to teach her to learn from her own experience when it won't permanently damage her life, but you would think I'm the worst mom in the world. I'm also a therapist so it's this double whammy of the pitchfork brigade.
She's doing quite well in school, but when kids aren't perfect I feel like we're villainized. I guess I just need some badass glitter horns to go with my villain image. And maybe a hand gesture...
*edit because ADHD brain always misses a word.
*edit to add: Also 1981.
Charrbard@reddit
Big part of this is the quality in writing has dropped tremendously just given the sheer volume of stuff being produced. So you have media coming out where characters, no matter the location or the setting, talk and act like they're 20 somethings from present day LA or NY. These types of writers can only process stuff through their own personal lens. Its just all they've ever been asked to do.
We, for sure, had poor quality stuff back in the day, but the ratio wasn't quite as one-sided as now.
absentlyric@reddit
Its ironic, back then we were treated like kids right up to 18, then expected to be out on our own day 1 after our 18th bday.
Kids today want to be treated like adults and taken seriously as adults, while they live at home until their 40s.
Diligent_Accident775@reddit
Teens in 90s movies looked like adults.
Teens in 20s movies look like kids
GreenZebra23@reddit
Counterpoint: you got middle-aged
Diligent_Accident775@reddit
No way! Except for the gray beard, eye wrinkles, and bald head I look 19!
Separate_Counter9427@reddit
Kind of opposite of how real situation is between our generations, at least in my opinion, or more accurately in my perception.
With that being stated, our generation in the 90s films/TV were written by Baby Boomers, and today's kids portrayals are written by people who were raised in the 80s/90s.
So there's that.....
Sensitive_Pianist777@reddit
The biggest difference is post internet world, teens are off limits showcasing any sort of sexuality as anything under 18 is deemed highly inappropriate. Even 18 now is seen as too young.
Back then, teens from 14 onwards were basically basically treated as almost adults.
Aprils-Fool@reddit
I think this varied by area. Where I lived as a teen in the 90s, a great many of us did have cars.
cerialthriller@reddit
I think it’s always off by a generation, since people writing 90s teens were 70s/80s teens. I was a 90s teen and remembered all the time thinking while watching movies that the characters were being stupid for prioritizing certain things over others when that was not at all typical in my experiences. Like the “losing virginity at prom” trope, like nobody was waiting for prom, everybody was just banging all year
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
Kids and teens in general are portrayed very intelligently and subversively then, and more sl now. Movies are fantasies, right?
OccamsYoyo@reddit
I’m 52 and the very idea of calling an authority figure “sir” or “ma’am” when I was a teenager would have made me physically ill.
graveybrains@reddit
Obviously you've never seen Buffy
letsgococonut@reddit (OP)
Buffy was one the examples I was thinking of! It’s pretty grounded, all things considered. The Bronze is a (mostly) youth club (which is a thing in some regions). It’s a big deal when Xander gets a car. Their base of operations is the school library, and they only have access because of Giles. Their lives are embedded in school.
QuietMuse-@reddit
Totally get that today’s teens are basically living like they’re in their 20s while back then, it was all about figuring out life one awkward party at a time.
SR_RSMITH@reddit
Maybe because teens used to be played by 30 year olds? Still are?
kucucuk-girdi@reddit
90s teens: Got milk? Now: Got a mortgage. Wild times lol