They’re exposed to sexuality at a younger age but the relatively solitary existence they lead due to living their lives largely online via social media, has led to the persistence of childlike behavior well into early adulthood. I see it with my own 14 year old niece, she’ll lie in bed all day with her stupid phone and ignore her family, even when my mom and I are visiting. My mom is in her early 80’s and she’s her only grandchild, she lives to make her granddaughter happy and to try and make pleasant memories and memorable experiences for her, but the reaction more often than not is, yep, whatever, it makes me angry to see it. I try to get her outside and away from the thing as much as possible with some limited success, but she goes right back to it. She has problems with depression and I can see why laying in bed all day. Get out, get some sun, do something, do anything, don’t just lay there in bed I’ve told her. It doesn’t sink in.
Yup, that’s what I’ve really noticed with teenagers these days, a sort of passive there but not there. They hang around, but don’t really engage with the environment around them as much. It’s certainly not entirely bad, I’m Gen X, and we basically did all we could to separate ourselves from adults whenever possible, and it was not generally for a good reason. But man, I feel sorry for them in a way, because what will the memories of their teenage years be like?