Nowadays, the door to the information age has been left unlocked for us, and it feels like the way we live is changing drastically every couple of years.. But no demographic is a better representative of the times than an era’s teenagers, whose behaviors and spending patterns have not yet started to fossilize. You may shudder at the thought, but the teens are giving a glimpse of what will be normal over the next generation. And a comparison of the way teens were a generation ago can really help you visualize how dynamic of a time we live in. We all know that kids will be kids, but how much do they change over the course of a generation?
The typical teenager in the early 1980s was rocking a Walkman and had just seen E.T. Today's average kid? He has a cellphone in his pocket, he listens to Rihanna, he's less likely to finish high school and he's more likely to practice safe sex.
Music
1982: Olivia Newton-John, Survivor, Joan Jett and the Blachearts
2012: Adele, Rihanna, Katy Perry
Movies
1982: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, E.T.
2012: Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2
Video Games
1982: Coleco Vision, Atari
2012: PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
Sports Stars
1982: Pete Rose
2012: LeBron James
THEN VS. NOW
THE CHANGES
BY: ITZEL APORTELLA AND AUDREY ROSILLO