Nope.

Don't get me wrong, none of these things helped.

My opinion, it comes down to one common thread. And I will give you anecdotal evidence in a minute.

We have "criminalized" youth.

What we're seeing is a direct result of over scheduling children and micromanaging every waking minute of their existence. They are overly monitored across all walks of life. They are separated and treated with contempt and derision. Adults make it known at every opportunity that they are not wanted. Schools are run like prisons. Truancy officers and teachers habitually dehumanize children.

Amongst conservative religions, children have become property in theological discourse. Parents are treating children like accessories rather than people. Emotional abandonment is rampant, especially in divorce.

We can bitch and moan about video games all day long and I get it. It's annoying that that's all young men want to do.

But what happens when they go out? Where can they go? What is there to do? There are no more arcades, or putt putts, or whatever. Cops will run you off from parks for "loitering". You can't go out as a group of young people any more without being hassled and harassed by anyone in authority or even just being scorned by adults.

Here's my anecdotal evidence. Even though we're talking about young men, the same is true of young women. They're not leaving the house and going out to socialize as much as they used to either. They are more than young men. But if you compare young women today hanging out like they did when Gen X was young....it's a stark divide again.

We've cloistered children away to protect them from social problems rather than deal with the social problems so they won't have to be hidden away.

We've become so competitive over every goddammed thing in the world that over competitiveness has infiltrated nearly every institution that's supposed to provide public goods, like an education. And we force the children to spend 12 years or more in an educational Lord of the Flies atmosphere we're it's everyone for themselves and you come out traumatized as much or more than you do educated.

That's the common thread. We are raising children in an atmosphere where it is clear that they are not wanted and/or treated like objects and accessories or weapons and then expect them to magically step into adulthood and do adulthood like we did when their life has been so markedly different. Then we blame technology rather than look in thr mirror.

They've never had the freedom we had. They've never had the basic human dignity we had. They've never had the basic good will shown to them that we did. They've never had the sense of belonging we did.

And that's why they don't "try".

Try? Try what? Why? To what end?

They are tapping out in major ways. Ringing thr bell. I dont blame them. And trying to shame young men and women into being what we want them to be and do what is required to keep the societal train going when they've spent their entire lives in the equivalent of the cattle car isn't going to cut it.

The rest of us, our institutions. the cultural greed, and the societal attitude are getting the return on our investment we deserve.

We are reaping what we have sown.