Sounds like what parents used to say back in the 1960s during the flower power movement and all the other silly 60s fads. Then the hippies grew up to be establishment yuppies and settled down in suburban McMansions. Most of them anyway.
The reason it seems worse today is that we have an Internet in which millions of people are constantly seeking attention. People like these two young men wouldn't have gotten an inch of space in newspapers back then.
In reality, the youngsters of the 1960s were much wilder and had even loonier ideas.
Sounds to me like the parents were right.
Just because something happens in slow motion doesn't mean it's not happening.