All students behave like Skins characters, right?
As students, there are certain things we have to get used to: cheap vodka, pasta and pesto, and being looked down on by almost everyone around us. Since the protests in London, it’s been worse, but there’s been a certain prejudice all along.
It all started going wrong when we embarked on A levels, of course. As anyone who has watched Skins knows, people who take A levels are either pill-popping, mentally unstable, arrogant little STI-ridden teacher-shaggers or total squares who secretly want to be pill-popping, mentally unstable, arrogant little STI-ridden teacher-shaggers. Oops.
Now, when we’re not out spending our overly large student loans on iPods and salmon sandwiches, we’re busy attacking riot vans. Or worse, we’re sitting on our arses being apathetic. It’s safe to say we get a bad press. But, just maybe, do we deserve it? What if we’re not actually as good to people as we think we are?
In everyday life there are hundreds of interactions that we don’t even think about when we do them, and perhaps that’s the problem. The youth of every era has been seen as unruly, including the rise of the “teenager” in the fifties, the rivalry between mods and rockers, and the emergence of punk.
Be that as it may, once-common manners have now, unfortunately, become a thing of the past. Sometimes, it’s in a situation where basic respect and courtesy seem unnecessary, or when alcohol has blurred people’s real behaviour.
Pushing around young girls a foot shorter than you at a gig is fine, because it’s all about the music, right? And hey, that beer made you invincible. It surely doesn’t matter if someone gets trampled by people barging through a crowd so they can legitimately be rowdy at the front.
So many times I’ve seen people of our generation look back down at their phones and carry on, unmoving, as old people, leaning on walking sticks and barely able to walk, struggle down a bus. It’s rare that a seat is given up to help someone else out. Worse, the inebriated have tried to steal peoples’ crutches. Crutches needed for broken bones.
With everyone firmly inside their own little iPod and texting bubble, maybe it’s unrealistic to expect a little perception. Besides, just be thankful they’re sharing their music with you by playing it loud enough through headphones to compete with a jumbo jet. I know I love hearing tinny death metal on the bus.
It comes down to this: how would you feel if it was your little sister, or your grandma who had been hurt by other people’s inconsideration? It’s not about being a gentleman, and it’s not about old fashion chivalry. It’s about being a considerate human being.
Shortened version published in Forge Press, 18/3/2011
Image courtesy of Channel 4 (and yes, I’m an old-skool Skins fan. None of this series 5 crap)
