Are teenagers much nicer and “ emotionally intelligent” than they used to be? 

That’s the view of comedian Julie Jay who feels that young people in the 2020s seem much more pleasant to spend time with than back when she was their age in the 90s. 

“I’ve been hanging out a lot with teenagers of late and, I have to say, I think they are so much more emotionally intelligent than we used to be,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“I think they’re kinder, I do think they’re nicer. 

“I’m not saying we weren’t necessarily nice as teenagers but I do think it was maybe less socially acceptable to be nice; there was much more ribbing and things when we were younger.” 

Ms Jay said looking back at her own time as a teenager, it was all a “bit toxic” back in the 1990s.

In fact, she even goes so far to as to describe herself as a “nightmare to live with”. 

“On more than one occasion I would go to my mother and tell her I was ‘divorcing’ her because she wouldn’t let me get my ears pierced,” she said. 

“I was very much the quintessential nightmare teen, I was less ‘Curly Sue’, I was more ‘Surly Sue’.” 

Young girls dancing at the debs. Image: picturelibrary / Alamy Stock Photo

There is perhaps, she conceded, an “element of Americanisation here” where people are superficially nice but Ms Jay said she thinks teenagers are also “more likely to like themselves and have a bit of confidence.” 

Despite this, she said there are challenges today that teenagers used not to have. 

“It’s tricky for teenagers these days,” she said. 

“Anyone who was a teenager in the 90s would say that - there’s so much going on online in terms of cyberbullying. 

“Often I think it’s so much more challenging to be a teenager today.”

You can listen back here:

Main image: Happy teenagers. Picture by: Alamy.com