It seems that pessimistic, overcritical pontification on the shortcomings and character flaws of “kids these days” is a right of passage for any aging adult. It also seems that millennials, who are lambasted for their laziness, reliance on technology and sense of entitlement, are the newest generation to fall under this condemnation, and have no chance to fill the shoes of their predecessors.

However, the criticism of “these kids and their damn iPads, rap music and sagging pants,” which usually begins with, “you know, back in my day…” is nothing new, and is actually present throughout history to a retrospectively comical extent.

The Waltz

A beautiful and elegant dance that conjures images of lavish ballroom celebrations for nobles and aristocrats, right? wrong.

At the time of the Waltz’s popularization, religious figures unanimously denounced it as vulgar and indecent. An editorial in the Times in 1816 after a London ball stated, “We remarked with pain that the indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced at the English court on Friday last … It is indeed far removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered the distinctive of English females."

Rock n Roll

In the 1950s, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and others became the fathers of a musical movement called Rock n Roll that had the soul of the blues, the sharp kick of distorted electric guitar, and the provocative sway of rockabilly melodies, as well as Elvis’ hips.

This movement swept up the generation that followed the aforementioned “Greatest Generation” and, fueled by teenaged obsession, established itself as a permanent craze.

The parents wouldn’t have it. Going so far as to denounce this loud, unabashedly provocative musical explosion as the music of the devil, it was many years before the older generation accepted it as a legitimate form of music that wasn’t out to turn their children into dope smoking delinquents.

Chess

Yet another subject that conjures a sense of intelligence, maturity, and strategic fortitude, chess was once denounced as an injurious and pointless game.

In 1859, an issue of Scientific American remarked that "Chess has acquired a high reputation as being a means to discipline the mind, but persons engaged in sedentary occupations should never practice this cheerless game; they require out-door exercises—not this sort of mental gladiatorship."

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise”.

This sort of statement sounds familiar, as something any adult in this day and age could say about the infamous “millennials”, right?

It so happens this comes from Socrates over 2,000 years ago.

Some things never change.