What do you think when you drive through a student town...

I think they’re having fun and trying different styles and expression. It’s not good to judge people on their appearance.

Nothing, but reading this post makes me think how your own prospects were doomed to begin with.

1. That’s not unusual where I live
2. I have been doing that for the last 30 years and my prospects are just fine thx.
3. The kids’ prospects are far more hindered by the greed and damage caused by the generations that came before them.

I don’t have to drive. I see it looking out of my office window. AND I LOVE IT!!!

I love seeing these young people living in their moment. All too soon they will be nothing but cogs in a broken wheel like the rest of us. Beaten into some expected form designed to dull their shine and “fit” a mundane mold of soul-crushing appropriateness.

They are the best sight I see each day and I pray they never lose their fire for life.

Tattoos isn't something new, neither are piercings. Why would any of them have any saying of the prospects of the next generation? It's so common these days, that it won't tell you much about the personal qualities of a person how many tattoos or piercings they have.

I'm thinking they all look amazing and when to get my next piercing 🤷‍♀️

Cheer up! I'm 71 (for another 8 days) and I think those generational changes are healthy.

I would be far more distressed if every new hatching was a replica of the previous one.

We need change and the kids, (orange hair and piercings and all) are the ones who galvanize change.

It's good for us.

I am 57 , I teach…..and I have a piercing and 12 tattoos …I guess we are doomed.

Your opinion is your own. It doesn’t matter….just like their tattoo choices.
Life is easier when we stay in our own lane.

When I was a student, everyone had long hair, tie died shirts and embroidered jeans. There was plenty of drugs. The older generation said that we were all going to hell in a handcart.
These students are now running countries, companies, wear suits, have no hair and are criticizing the younger generation.. XD

Their future is secure. After all they got a degree in Ethnic Studies - that should help land a job with a top 500 company .
And, then they can tell everyone at the company what they are doing wrong.

Sounds like a joke until you consider the recent Budweiser fiasco.

I live in a University City and while some might look a little unusual they hurt no one and add to the cities diversity and vibrancy. 🙂🐼🥢

Hey we were their age once remember the 60s our parents probably thought the same . To be honest I really hope as they get old enough and become our governers they change things for the better as at the moment I have all but given up hope as both the US and the UK seems to be going backward in time instead of forward . We can only hope they do better than the fuck ups we have governing our countries at present .

I don't drive through students town but whenever I see what you're describing I think of art schools. If there's more than two such persons in a group you can tell they come from the local art high school. I find it pretty funny, actually.

I am 50, I have a professional career, I am in management, I have multiple tattoos. The world is not coming to an end. 🙄

It's perhaps indeed a bit strange to be bothered so much about it, but not out of ordinary. I come from an upbringing spent with military chaps of a certain rank and disposition, and there it was only the idea of not being clean shaved, hair cut, tattoos not showing, etc. as being not good enough either. Personally, I've never been too attracted to them either, especially piercings, but I don't really object to them. Perhaps I'm more bothered about people showing me too much builders bum or barmaid boobs. Nothing against builders nor barmaids either

What kind of stupid boomer account is this lol first you go on about feminism like an out of touch conservative and now it's tattoos and piercings like just stfu

I don’t know about that - we’re all a little crazy at that age. It’s not that generation that scares me, it’s the ones running the government - that age group.

I teach a lot of those students.

I have great hopes for the next generation. Hair color and tattoos have nothing to do with character and intelligence. I have generally enjoyed my interactions with my students.

When I was their age, the older generation was despairing about the "younger generation " as well. We were supposedly spoiled by Dr. Spock, ruined by weed, and corrupted by draft-dodging anti-war politics.

And perhaps, today's 20-year-olds will be griping about the "younger generation" 50 years from now!

Every generation has to find a way to flick the middle finger at the older generations. I call it lateral progress in that it's more likely to move us sideways rather than forward. It's more noticeable in college towns where 18 and 19 year olds recently shed their parents and with a credit card in their back pockets are in a hurry to catch up with 20 and 21 year olds.

Much of it is harmless and my best advice is to look through it and let karma find a way to upright what may be sideways.

Au contraire, mon ami!

It gives me great hope. All generations experiment.

Remember the wild clothing colors of the 60's-70's before uptight conservatives reigned that in to the current drab colors?!? Remember Peter Max's wild art colors? It was psychedelic. Colorful hair is not really even new... just more ubiquitous now.

Why do you care about the aesthetics of other people and how do you think that affects who they are as a human being?

Damn kids, get off her lawn!

Another victim of Karenavirus?

That doesn’t bother me a bit. It’s how they treat other people that matters. When I used to volunteer at the shelters and saw many of those young people with multi-colored hair and tattoos helping in the kitchen, cleaning the spaces, helping the destitute find resources, offering encouragement, compassion—all for no pay—I was very proud of them.

I feel like our world will be in very good hands if they keep that mindset. Appearances be [b]damned[/b].

{@bellows] i can understand what you say and the reservations you have but what they look like too others of an older generation may have no impact what so ever too there academic ability

This sort of reminds me of our experience 30+ years ago when our daughter was in the 11th and 12th grades of high school and we took the opportunity to drive through college towns and the student areas to give her and us a bit of a sense for what being a student there would be like. As she got closer to graduation we made formal visits to a few schools. It really helped her make the best choice for her and the best fit for what sort of environment she wanted to surround herself.

Strange that you should feel bothered by such things.

I am 55+. I have a tattoo. My daughter has tattoos too. One of those is the same as mine. We did it on a Father’s Day together as a father- daughter bond! It’s reminds us of a place we visited in her first trip with dad without mom.

I used to streak my hair. It is now naturally streaked salt and pepper so I don’t any more. My wife and daughter have contrasting shades. They love going out together and showing it off.

Where is the problem?

God you sound old and fussy.
Theyre kids...why are you worries about tattoos and piercings?

I'd never really seen the kind of things that happen until I was randomly passing through one on a Friday night. Piss-up, literally, is the word. I walked past someone having a piss in public. I assume they were students because they seemed that age, unless that's the kind of behaviour of most people on a Friday night in the UK. Who knows?

They do it for attention. Many outgrow that stage. Rarely some do not. Piercings and tats and rainbow hair do not mean a person doesn't have brains. So stop being old and close-minded. Is your hair tinted blue? I am wondering....

Are you from the 1800s

My only concern for those who display multiple piercings and tattoos is it limits their job prospects both as students and as a future career .
In many jobs it won’t matter , but if you are client : customer facing , employers will still select on appearance.

I just think, God I’m old. They all look like babies to me. Probably because I have kids that age. My daughter has different color hair and tattoos (I have some myself). I think she is perfect, but alas, I am still old.

Frankly. They're the tip of the iceberg. There's 90% others who are studying for good grades and a bright future.

I think of the hair style in the 50s
or my long hair and attempt of a beard when I was 15

yeah, not so different.

and then I think how their kids will laugh at them in another 10 or 15 years.

I love seeing people with multicolored hair. Neutral on the tattoos and not a big fan of the piercings but it's their bodies.

I don't see why any of that diminishes future prospects. The notion of needing to look just like everyone else is so last century.

With them I see a brighter future.

Clowns. But they're not going to get far as real pt! Clowns are fine here.

Multi coloured hair, piercings , tattoos? Whatever next? Armageddon must be nigh.

🤔..................Not unusual. I work in a collage town.........There's a lot of women that go bra less in this town.........

I think they’re comfortable in their own skin. All good with me.

IDGAF

so you never had big fluffy hair back when that was popular? 🤨

They are fucked so they might as well have fun while they can.

Totally fine with it. It's not like it's the depressing hellscape of quarter zip pullovers and golfing khakis you see in your avergae suburban shithole.