• A rising number of young Americans are disconnected from work, school, and a sense of purpose.
  • Disconnection rates have been increasing since the 1990s, affecting young people’s futures.
  • Poor mental health and a lack of a financial safety net contribute to rising disconnection.
  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    Yeah more and more there’s a sense of “what’s the point” among young people, and having few supports and being burnt out from multiple jobs just makes it worse. Most of their energy gets spent on trying to make it to the next week or month, and from whatever’s left they can’t really even think about saving up for anything.

    You’re working for older people’s pensions that you’ll never see. You’re working to fill the pockets of the rich owner class. If I didn’t have a very specific goal and a decent amount of support from my family, I don’t know if I would have gotten through a rough patch in my life after finishing university.

    • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      Almost 2 months every year for my brothers are dedicated to fucking standardized tests, they’re way longer and worse than when I was a kid and it was like 3 days a year. What can you even learn when every couple months you have to spend a whole month learning nothing and taking tests?

      • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        Yep and as a professional now, none of those standardized tests I took in high-school are relevant to me.

          • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
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            7 months ago

            No they don’t, standardized tests determine funding for the schools, punishing poorly performing schools and giving additional resources to schools already doing well.

            • tearsintherain@leminal.space
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              7 months ago

              Over emphasis on testing is an early introduction to the zero-sum game of capitalism. Rather than reasonable and helpful testing, to help students and teachers gauge where they are. It’s about performance, students as numbers/beans, and as you said, about funding. Conservatives especially love this approach, school and students as a business, merely as future workers.

          • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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            7 months ago

            Calling me a moron doesn’t bolster your point, fyi.

            I also went through the Canadian education system, where SAT scores, AP etc aren’t required. I wrote an essay on my club, volunteer and educational experience to qualify for my university.

            To me, standardized tests sound like hoops schools force kids to jump through and yet another middleman you have to pay to be able to access college. Those things are also completely skippable if you have rich enough parents.

            Back to the main point, I’m saying that the AP tests I did have no relevance to much of what I did in college or in my job now, so kids spending much of their time grinding for these tests seems like a waste to me.

            • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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              7 months ago

              which is still barely relevant to your job, despite colleges using it for admission

    • TheFriar
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      7 months ago

      Sounds like ideal conditions for a long-overdue Riot Time.

      • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Nah just STOP BUYING FUCKING BULLSHIT.

        Every time this comes up we have the solution but some lazy spoiled fucked says “well coke or chips are the only thing that makes my life good”.

        That’s fucking pathetic.

        • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

          Coke and chips is pretty low on the list of problems when struggling to find a decent full time job or trying to afford education.

          • TheFriar
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            7 months ago

            Although Coca Cola the company has a pretty goddamn monstruos history. So they’re not really blameless in the wonderous history of capitalism. And lays is owned by Pepsi. So…yeah, chips and soda are pretty good examples of contributing to the societal rot that capitalism has left in its wake.

            But then again, the person you’re replying to is still off the base and I don’t support their “vote with your wallet” message in response to direct action.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          if we are overworking ourselves to an early grave but can’t even afford coke & chips, i think its riot time.

        • ChexMax@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          We’re not buying anything, we’re choosing between rent, groceries, and healthcare. Grow up.

        • HauntedCupcake@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I love how this has gone from Starbucks, to Avocado toast, and now to Coke and Chips.

          Even the disparaging boomers have had to drop the quality of “small thing to help make it through the day” from something that cost $10+ to something that costs less than $2.

          I don’t know how they can be cognisant enough to figure that out, but not see the world decaying around them