Being born in the eighties I thought was definitely the right time to be growing up. Well at the time, you do don’t you. The benefits of being the younger generation is that those older ones around you are forever envious that they didn’t have what you have around when they were growing up and there is this feeling that you are ‘it’ right now. Well, twenty-something years later things have definitely changed. Growing up in the eighties was awesome: shell suits, frizzy hair in high ponytails, denim and leg warmers, just to name a few fashions of the eighties. Alongside fashion was digital technology; something which now teenagers of 2000 have the upper hand. Throw away your VCR and video tapes of the eighties and make space for a wall to wall collection of DVDs, preferably in Blu-Ray. Try selling your Super Nintendo or Game Boy on e-bay in exchange for a PSP3 or Wii; dream on. The teens of this generation have replaced the kids of the eighties, and we find ourselves being the older envious generation of all that’s available to them, especially in terms of technology. Gone are the days where you ring your best friends’ house, land-line to land-line, to ask if they want to meet you in town. The teens of 2000 instant message each other via black-berry messenger or msn to arrange their social lives. Social networking in the eighties consisted of physical photo albums of your friends’ birthday, and invitations to birthday parties. Thanks to Facebook and social networking sites, all communication has gone digital. The vast improvements and availability of technology is not necessarily a bad thing. This is all part of the ‘right here right now’ invincible feeling of being young. It reminds older generations of times past and keeps younger generations motivated that they have the most up to date gadgets and phenomena. What would be interesting is what the teens of 2000 will be envious of in twenty-something years time. They will be packing away their Blu-ray players and i-phones in a nostalgic sadness of what once was their time of digital glory.

On the bright side because of technology today Laser Tattoo removal is available to blot out all of our mistakes of the 80s!

I don’t know what it is about today’s youth culture, but it would seem that anyone under the age of about 18 wants to sound like they’re black and live in the ghettoes and its middle class kids who are the worst offenders of this alleged crime. My friend lamented that language is changing for the worse and that today’s teenagers don’t know how to speak or write properly thanks to text speak.

I thought back to my teenage mobile smartphone and computer free years. No, we didn’t have text speak, it really wasn’t invented then. We didn’t spell things like, “CUL8R”but we certainly didn’t speak “properly”. Instead we invented a language that we were fluent in, but which no grown up could understand. And that was the whole point of it.

Language is an organic thing. Dialects change, words come in and out of fashion all the time. Pick up any Shakespeare book and you’ll find it almost impossible to read. I struggle through English Literature, loving his stories but hating the way it was written yet that was the street language of its day.

Our language at school was designed to keep adults out, they definitely weren’t a part of our gang and neither did we want them to be. Our language excluded anyone above the age of sixteen but it kept us bonded together.

I don’t think it’s any different today, the words themselves might have changed, but the intentions haven’t and y’know, kids grow out of this stuff. They are still being taught English and they can read and write properly - the majority at any rate - so I don’t think there’s any need to despair over slipping standards. You get me?

I was fourteen when I first started riding BMX. Every day, straight after school, my friends and I would head on down to the cul-de-sac behind the school, where the dirt jumps were, a barren peice of land that used to be dedicated to a large storage unit. That place was our secret paradise. Secret at least, until the word got out and cars started appearing. Lots of cars, and it was becoming too much.

The residents complained, of course. Not just about the cars but about the language. Most of the people turning up were older riders from further afield, and they were just doing what they were doing – to them drinking beer and swearing at the top of their voice wasn’t doing anyone any harm.

Summer happened without much interference from the outside world and the dastardly residents. It was an amazing time. Some of the riding that went down on our dirt jumps was incredible; we had never seen anything like it before. But then came one hell of a shock. One day we turned up after school and red-tape was being put around the fence. In the distance was a low growling noise – as if some massive lumbering animal was crashing its way through the undergrowth towards us.

We asked the council worker what he was doing, but his answer was swamped as the JCB tore through into the clearing, a frightening metal beast. In one fell swoop it leveled the jumps at the back. Then it drove over them, flattening months of hard graft.

I will never forget those jumps. We had some of the best times of our lives there. But things move on. You have to move on too. Standing still didn’t get anyone anywhere, did it?

Saying that, class and money is always a factor. And from this was created subcultures. Subcultures concerning things that you do like skateboarding, the music that you listen to like Goth rock, or even where you live (east end boys and west end girls).

That’s what it’s all about, a new youth culture, a new world.