--- title: The American Teenager in 2015 | TIME description: Then and now, it's not easy being teens. Watch what the teenagers of 2015 have to say about their generation, and the ones before. canonical: https://time.com/video/yvcajvQf/ og:title: The American Teenager in 2015 og:description: Then and now, it's not easy being teens. Watch what the teenagers of 2015 have to say about their generation, and the ones before. og:url: https://time.com/video/yvcajvQf/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/yvcajvQf/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The American Teenager in 2015 twitter:description: Then and now, it's not easy being teens. Watch what the teenagers of 2015 have to say about their generation, and the ones before. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/yvcajvQf/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The American Teenager in 2015 > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The American Teenager in 2015 [Watch (HLS stream): The American Teenager in 2015](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yvcajvQf.m3u8) (3:31)  _Published 2015-01-29. Then and now, it's not easy being teens. Watch what the teenagers of 2015 have to say about their generation, and the ones before._ --- Jul 27, 2023 5:49 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [The Hosts of Teenager Therapy | TIME100 Talks Spotlight](/video/j4xrMi3H/) ### The Hosts of Teenager Therapy | TIME100 Talks Spotlight [Barron Trump is Officially a Teenager](/video/0Xrk3TVP/) ### Barron Trump is Officially a Teenager [Grammys 2015: Obama "It's On Us" Domestic Violence PSA](/video/pD4GDc1H/) ### Grammys 2015: Obama "It's On Us" Domestic Violence PSA --- ## Transcript 50 years ago you weren't expected to go to college. It was finish high school and go get a job. Now it's finish college and then figure out how to get out of debt. Taking selfies, posting stuff about what you're doing, we have different portals that allow us to be more selfish. The biggest difference between being a teenager now and 50 years ago. I think we have more responsibility for things. Is the technology and the resources that we have. The way we communicate with each other and the way we interact with one another. [ MUSIC ] The latest dance is the jerk. Partners. Face each other. Three feet apart then langorously sway their upper swine and arms while rhythmically punctuating the undulations with a savage pelvic thrust. [ LAUGH ] Oh dear. Pelvic thrusting? That still exists. One you've got to name the number one there you go. Twerking. The thing that's what it used to be called when I was in middle school. Yeah when girl's doing it that. [ LAUGH ] And then guys are like beat alright it's dry humping basically. [ LAUGH ] There it go it's dry humping. I don't get authority at home. We're just a bunch of people who go about our business and live under one roof. My parents are definitely more authority figures than they are friends. for me, but sometimes it can be friends. Depending on the conversations we have, sometimes it's, Kristen, I have a story to tell you about my day at work or Kristen, how are you feeling? Or Kristen, do you like a boy? It always goes back to do you like a boy. It's all right to get blasted, if you can be. Can be witty or brave. But if you get sloppy, you're way out. Glue- sniffing and marijuana are also out, because they bring on major trouble from the cops. I don't think drinking is popular among my friend group. But it is definitely popular among this generation. This generation loves pushing the envelope and trying to get away with. What they know they shouldnt be doing? I mean, when you watch movies, you know you get, you can get the sense where, oh, if they can do it then we could do it. A lot of people are using mari, marijuana right now. It's so normal now, like everybody just talks about it just like in the most like loose terms ever. Kids just go out and like do whatever they want. Behind every reasonably well- heeled teenager lurks a stereo set endlessly playing the Beatles. Big in the older set: the twanging social protests of folk singer Bob Dylan. [ INAUDIBLE ] teenager, [ INAUDIBLE ] stereo set and this we play with the Beatles. [ INAUDIBLE ] and the older set, the twanging social protest of folk singer Bob Dylan. I'm not going to lie, this morning I was listening to the Beatles. State Motel, we've been getting into a lot. State Motel, I love Artig [ INAUDIBLE ]. Monk is. Oh, I think Monk is amazing. Yeah we listen to a whole bunch of different genres. [ LAUGH ] I was going to say, like, Travis Scott and, and then they just started talking about the Neighborhood. And I was like, what? [ CROSSTALK ] I don't want the parents that are going to watch this til they go Google the Weekend and they listen to their music. [ LAUGH ] Well, I don't know. I think they've heard worse. It is scary not knowing what you're gonna do but I'm really excited to figure out like, the next step after high school. No. I don't think that it's easier to, living today as a teenager. Those pressures don't allow us to connect with like, older generations. It's hard for you to interpret it because you believe that we have it easier. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The American Teenager in 2015","description":"Then and now, it's not easy being teens. 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