Well that's a bit of a generalisation, because I'm Australian, I'm 17 (18 in a month), yet I have never, ever gone "wild", I have never done anything "bad" behind my parents back - never have I smoked drugs or gone to a party to get drunk (in fact, I have never been drunk, period).
I'm one year older than that idiot kid that the OP's articles refer to, and it's such a shame - looking at people younger then me, I think they're such screwballs. Quite honestly, every single kid in my grade last year at school wasn't into getting totally hammered and high; the worst offenders were two or three girls that were just really into sex. Same with all my friends from Perth that are my age; people tend to generalise that city kids are mostly bogans (rednecks) that like drinking - that's not true. They drink a bit, yes, but not enough to get intoxicated.
Yet looking at the kids in the grades below us, they just seemed to get worse every year. I remember when I was in ninth grade, the new eighth graders were just total idiots. When I was in tenth grade, the new eighth graders were even worse than the previous year...and so on. They love using terminology like "I'm gunna go get smashed this weekend man". Ugh. I've never hear anyone my age, or older, use those words. Thank god.
The main influence, at least from what I've seen from kids at my old high school, are those trashy teen movies. The kids in the grade below me were obsessed with those awful American Pie and other similar films - and their behaviour was, quite literally, exactly how people behave in those. It's as if they're so stupid that they actually think most teenagers are like that.
And then you get the ones that try and imply those terrible Australian stereotypes because they think it's awesome - it's just embarrassing. "Aww yah, I went roo shootin' last night, yah mate!". Ugh, just shut the hell up kid, you're wearing thin. We all know you're full of ****, you're too fat to haul yourself into "yor awsum ute" - oh wait, obesity is something that also isn't cool according to your beloved and oh-so-influential teen flicks
An Australian guy at another message board said something totally ridiculous in regards to that 'scandal' where Kevin Rudd apparently visited a New York strip club. He tried to convince everyone that "all Australians were having a beer to him, saying 'he's a bloody legend'!". Umm, no. No one in my family thought that. No one in my town thought that. None of my friends, not even those few addicted-to-sex individuals, thought there was anything "awesome" or "legendary" about it; it's just another example of a teenager being so delusional and caught up in trying to 'fit in' that they'll make themselves look like a total idiot.
Christ, if anyone younger than me understood my 'affection' for Apple (which, in other words, just means Macs and iPods are my products of choice), they'd insist that I'm just such a loser - such a nerd, with no friends, and imply stereotypes about me being a snotty nosed, acne-covered fat-ass with nothing better to do; which isn't true at all, I am actually none of those things. To be "cool" here, the most you can refer to Apple is "z0mg I gots a new iPod, I'm awsuuuum!".
What I'm trying to say is that Australian kids seem to think that what they see in the media is what life is actually like; that life is all about getting drunk, getting laid, shooting yourself up and that everything will work out in the end. They don't realise that most people think they're making idiots of themselves and that they're being totally ignorant of the consequences. They merely think that because they're pathetic idols can get away with it, they can too. Australian kids need to grow the hell up. And that's coming FROM an Australian kid.
Sorry about the long rant, I'm just ashamed to be part of this generation.
