Gen Z cop a lot.
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Just about everything they lay their hands on is criticised within an inch of its life.
All the things that are spawned online and can be accessed by a mobile are eagerly grabbed by the Gen Z-ers and turned into the newest big thing.
Even their school work is scorned, they are accused of no longer being able to use a pen and paper, or multiply in their head on the spot.
They are constantly reminded they need to get off their devices and get a dose of reality.
But when we look closer at this situation, it is clear reality is not being adhered to by those judging.
Of course the youngest generation are going to engage with the newest trends and technology.
Youth are of their time, if the children now were born in the 1920s, their spare time would be spend hunting rabbits and doing chores.
And if the children of the 1920s were born today they would be obsessed by Tik Tok.
The Gen-Xers among us, a loud voice on social issues, may need to cast our mind back 40 years and remember the aspersions cast on us as the youth of our day.
Like many country towns, Warrnambool had lots of teenagers cruising around its streets in the 1970s and 80s.
And Warrnambool was in tune with a big trend of the day, the love of pinball parlours.
As the name suggested, these establishments had the latest pinball machines, which were still a big deal.
Pinballs had been around for many years but it was when electronic displays were introduced in the early 1970s that they soared in popularity.
But these parlours, or games arcades, were so much more than pinball machines.
Space Invaders, Galaga, Pac-Man, Frogger and Donkey Kong set high-water marks for video games that would light up in front of your eyes with the drop of a coin in the slot.
Not only were these arcades great for entertainment, they also turned into places to meet up and hang out.
Warrnambool had the skegs (surfers) and petrolheads (car lovers), with both groups picking their games arcade to hang out in.
From memory, Yatesy's, which was located in Timor Street across from the Civic Green, was the choice of the petrolheads, while Geoff's, also in Timor Street near Smarts Newsagency, was where the skegs went.
Thankfully, this turf war was all posturing and posing.
But The Standard of the day reported the arcades came under scrutiny for a number of issues.
One of these was the danger posed by youths leaving their bikes strewed across the footpath in Timor Street, making it dangerous for pedestrians.
Warrnambool City Council were so concerned with this problem that in 1984 it decided to dedicate two car parks in front of Geoff's arcade with bike stands to help clear the footpath.
In 1980, an article said an alarming amount of young people were getting hooked on pinball and video games.
The article stated: "Pinball wizards started feeding 20 cent pieces into the psychedelic space-age machines when the parlour doors opened and did not stop until closing time".
Evidence shows that maybe like today, the youth section of the community had things more under control than they were given credit for.
