How have adolescents changed over the last thirty years?

Based on stories you have heard about your interviewee's childhood or teen years, how was parenting different when they were young?
I think that from what my dad and my mother said, parents were a lot less present in their children's lives. They wanted to give them the freedom to do whatever they wanted, and they relied on schools or organizations like scouts, for example, to teach them principles. At the same time, parents were stricter with things like money. My parents buy most of the things I want, and I don't have pocket money. Lots of teens in these days actually had to get a job if they wanted to buy things, but maybe this is also different for me because I live abroad.

Why do you think adolescence has changed so much in the last thirty years?
Well, I think an obvious change is technology. My mom also lived abroad when she was my age, and when her friends moved the only way she had to keep in touch with them was through letters. These days, we have Facebook, MSN, Skype...distance isn't so much of a problem. People also have more money, at least most of the people I know - the parents often say that when they were our age, they didn't have all of these things. I think that things like videogames or movies kind of ended up bringing people apart, though. When I have sleepovers, we talk but we also spend less time interacting by watching a movie, playing a computer game or surfing on the internet...I guess technology just brings about new relationships. I think another thing that has made things change are our parents. Since some of them felt like their own parents weren't present enough in their lives, they're doing the opposite.

Are you happy to be a teenager today, or do you wish you had been born in a different era? Why?
Well, I think being a teenager in the 2000s is pretty good. Lots of things are changing around us, perhaps even more than during our parents' generation as far as technology is concerned; there's more money, less poverty, less wars...but then, it's hard to tell what our lives would be like without computers for example, so I have trouble imagining myself living in the 90s or the 80s. I think teenagers today have a lot of freedom to be whoever they want to be, and the monetary means to do so. Being a teenager abroad is definitely nicer nowadays, when you can keep in touch with all your friends.

What do you think defines your generation?
Probably technology, and how meaningless distances have become. The internet, computers, videogames, movies...a lot of improvements and changes in our lifestyle, less time outdoors but more diverse hobbies. I think diversity is definitely one of the things that define us. People don't have to fit into any sort of society "mold" anymore, you are free to be pretty much anything you want - especially while you're a teenager.