12 Things We Couldn’t Even Think of, and They Are Totally Ordinary for Today’s Students

We’re used to the typical image of students we remember from youth and movies. They gather in groups of interests, they either love books or sports. Girl wear minis, and guys wear sports clothes with baseball caps. But things have changed quite a lot in recent years.

We at CHEERY wanted to find out what things have become ordinary for today’s students. And we realized that we have a lot to learn from them.

No more nerds vs. jocks.

It seems that only yesterday, there were groups of students: nerds with books, and jocks that love football. But today, this separation is no longer a thing and students communicate with each other without labels.

• That breakfast club, jock, nerd, etc is dying out. Most kids hardly do that anymore, and all kinda intermingle in various ways. They do have their own friend groups, but they are far more diverse with it. © MisterCoffeeDonut / Reddit
• Everyone hangs out with whomever they want to be with. I fit into the stereotype of a nerd, yet I often talk to the popular girls or the jocks. The other fellow nerds in my grade also associate themselves with other students from different stereotypes, like the artists or theater kids. There aren’t any divisions anymore; people hang out with those they find interesting (which leads to huge groups of nerds/dancers/jocks/etc). © Jana Rubio / Quora
• In my school, we don’t have any real divisions. Anyone can be friends with anyone. I used to think cliques were only a thing of the past or only in movies, because I’ve never experienced them myself. © Ben Johnson / Quora

Taking care of psychological health has become really important.

Today’s students are very open in discussing any problems that have to do with their own psychological state. Even young students are not afraid of talking about the difficulties they face.

• Students talk about things like depression and mental illness more; whether the prevalence rate for things like depression actually is higher or not I don’t know, but it’s more talked about. © skinnerwatson / Reddit

Thanks to technology, you don’t need to go somewhere to talk to friends.

Crazy student parties were big parts of movies several years ago. And communication with friends meant walking together outside for many hours. But modern technology has changed that: you can communicate with someone non-stop for hours, and you don’t need to physically interact with them.

• I hardly ever see kids outside besides if they’re waiting for their school bus, or walking home around here. © rikaxnipah / Reddit

Students have become way less noisy.

Many teachers say that students spend a lot of time with their phones during breaks. More than that, they don’t even need to ask students to be quiet — they are quiet already.

• In 1999, class was super noisy when you came in. Everyone talking and then quieting down when you started teaching. Now, like walking into a funeral home. Cell phone silence. © Whaleballoon / Reddit
• I teach high school. 15 years ago, the minutes before the bell was a time when kids would talk to each other and goof around. Now, it’s absolute silence. The kids are checking their cell phones. © Unknowm author / Reddit
• I was helping a coworker in Geography with his Geography Bowl for local high school students over the summer, and between the lunch break and the next round of stuff, there were just lines of silent students, not all of them even on their phones, standing in the hallway. © talsiran / Reddit

Students are sure everything is online.

Modern studies are going online more and more, and it’s only natural. However, when students get used to it, it’s hard to go back.

• Students expect everything to be online. I don’t teach an online class, but there’s a Blackboard shell where I post the syllabus, and it’s where they turn in work, if it’s not there then it doesn’t exist. Nevermind what I say in class. © Hedwigbug / Reddit

Parents often study with their kids.

Today, many parents try to guard their kids from difficulties. Such parents can do homework with their children and solve their problems. And when we got bad grades, it was our fault, but today’s parents often blame the teacher.

• Some parents cut down any obstacles in front of their kids, often causing their kids to have issues dealing with failures later on in life, since they never had to work to overcome difficulties. © the_ubiquitous_they / Reddit

They want good grades for “trying”.

We were sure that we got grades for actual results — answers of tests. But today’s students are different: they think that their effort itself deserves a reward. And it really confuses older teachers.

• I had a Freshman last semester who never turned in any of the 3 papers, never did any of the in-class activities, and then tried to argue about her failing grade because, “I tried really hard and passed all the tests, I deserve an A.” She quite literally did not do 3/4 of the work in the class. © talsiran / Reddit

Being able to write is not such a necessary skill.

Many of us had stacks of written pages. But today, everything is digital, so there’s no need to do it on paper, when we can type. It’s also good for the trees. So, modern students can’t write as well as we did. Even though this sounds weird, this skill is not as important today.

• An inability to write. I know profs have been saying this forever, but our local school board tells the high schools to not do paper writing; English is a lit class to them, not a writing class. The rural area where I did my doctoral work, my Freshmen in 101 would turn in better papers than folks do in my Senior level courses now. © talsiran / Reddit

Communication skills are not developing as quickly as they were.

Teachers notice another result of using technology: today’s students communicate in texting more, and they don’t need the skill of live conversation as much.

• The speech/language teacher at my school gave her theory. She worked in the private sector over the summer. Parents would drop off their young kids to her and sit in the lobby on their phones (as we all do). Over the summer she would assess these kiddos and almost all of them were of normal intelligence and ability. So why are the kiddos severely behind in speaking and language skills? She claims that parents are not speaking enough to their children. We adults spend so much time on our phones and laptops and are not having enough conversations with our children. © MoonieNine / Reddit

Girls don’t have to be “feminine”, and boys — “masculine”.

Not a long time ago, we were sure that beautiful and cool girls are those that wear skirts, heels, and makeup. And boys were a little messy and didn’t care about their appearances much. But everything is different now: students dress in any way they like. Girls wear dresses only when they really want to, and boys may have nail polish.

• In 1999, my female students tried to dress nicely for class, and my male students showed up in sweats and a t-shirt. Complete reversal now: the males dress fashionably, and the females wear sweats and hoodies. © Repent2019 / Reddit

Students are not afraid of expressing their opinions.

There are no more lines between “authority” figures and students. They easily talk about the things they don’t like to make their lives better.

• Students are much more open with authority figures about their own struggles or things going on in their life. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that they are more open with their parents. © Velinian / Reddit

Students know technology better today, but their basic computer skills are worse.

It’s impossible to imagine a student today without a smartphone: their whole lives are in there. But some teachers notice that students’ basic computer skills are getting much worse.

• Teaching for 11 years now. When I started teaching, students were waaaay more competent with basic computer skills. Smartphones have killed a lot of this. Typing on a keyboard is slower, many don’t know how to put attachments in an email. It’s weird to see students get worse with technology over time. © ghintziest / Reddit

What differences do you notice?