Answer:
A lot of the possible traits teenagers lack tie in together to the overall theme of what we see as an underachieving teenager.
Today some teenagers lack:
Gratitude—Being thankful for what you have, the people who give it to you, and everything in your life isn’t seen often enough in teenagers. This is a skill that if parents don’t ingrain in their children, the children will not learn for a long time.
Showing gratitude extends into many parts of life and generally will improve your life. It also pushes you to make better use of your time and try harder with the things you are given.
Comparative gratitude i.e. “I have this and some people don’t” is also a good tool for being more empathetic, compassionate, and aware.
Thinking—Most teenagers think about what they want to the point that when they get the inevitable question from an adult of “What are your future plans?” they can answer them with a possible path. Very few teenagers research the things they talk about and try to find out more.
Teenagers also lack the foresight to look ahead at what life might be like and what should matter to them most in the future. They still live with a “I’m gonna live forever” mentality and this really equates to “Why do something now? I still have so much time.”
Hard Work— it is surprising how many teenagers who have big dreams don’t take any steps towards those dreams (I am included in this). Teenagers are good at talking the talk but few have take actionable steps towards the goals that they state.
One reason is many do not know how. What they don’t know is that the people who make progress did not know how to when they started; these people tried many things and sometimes made progress and other times (most times) failed to accomplish anything. It is through figuring out what doesn’t work that we find what does work. This is hard work, going forward into difficult tasks and not knowing if they are the tasks that lead to your goal.
A solid example of this is applying to college. Admissions counselors get TONS of essays talking about what students want to do and the big goals that they have. The students that get in definitely write about these things but they are only a tag on to the end of showing the counselor how they have already started the process of achieving these things. Students who have volunteered, started organizations, done cool science projects, etc.
Teenagers don’t work hard.
Teenagers today also lack many other traits but these are the first ones I thought of.
It’s unfair to say teenagers today lack certain traits that other generations claim to have had because all of this is a generalization.
Explanation:
