Teenagers used to crave fun and freedom. Today’s lot are more uptight than their parents.
In pre-industrial societies, you went straight from being a child to being an adult the minute you hit adolescence. Then you laboured on the land and you fought in wars. No one raised an eyebrow when Shakespeare had young teens Romeo and Juliet get married; in Italy, as in England, the age at which a couple could undertake marriage – without parental consent – was 14 for boys and 12 for girls. The idea of a teenager didn’t exist because those in their teens were all too exhausted having children, being parents, fighting wars and labouring on the land to even contemplate jiving, jitterbugging and the like.
