Actually, not too bad for a teenager's room. And, I saw books! All is not lost.

OMG--we ARE leading parallel lives! Your's is A LOT neater than mine. I'd love to post photos of her room, but I'm afraid the health department would show up.

Hey! The clothes are almost in the laundry basket and I saw books too. And that desk, zowie - so neat. Now that is a teenager with good taste.

I have a mental picture of my daughters rooms when they were teens. Oh boy. The EPA designated them hazardous waste dumps...

i saw books too

In my world, that's a pretty clean room.

You let your kid have a lip ring? You're a cool mom.

Your teen's room appears to be much neater than my teen's room :)

This is good--it will go down like archives and someone will discover it for a sociology project in the year 2099.

Aside from the can of Axe body spray, he looks like he's on the right path.

There's clear space on the floor. Can your kid come over and give my kids neatness lessons?

I see floor space and a made bed...I'm envious. And why don't I see any caged rodents!?

But seriously, I figure my kids' rooms are their own and I don't hassel them about it much (until the rodent cages start to smell).

I've got one that's a neat freak (obsessive-compulsive about it) and one that is a total slob (can't see the carpet, furniture or bed most of the time)...both girls. Be thankful your son is in between. :-)

I hope it's your belief that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I thought this was such a great idea that I posted a spin-off w/ some pics of my own kid's habitat. Those pesky teens!

Looks pretty normal to me. But, it's also way cleaner and neater than I remember my kids' rooms being.

Pretty neat for a boy. Expec ially my boy. AND my girl (altho she gets the idea to clean it every so often)

Both of my daughters are in their 30's One is still Miss Neat and the other is still Miss Slob.

Some things never change.

I have a sixty-something friend - a bachelor - whose house regrettably looks very similar to these pictures. I don't know what that means exactly; just thought it was interesting...

Not bad at all. I wouldn't even have shown pics of my kids rooms when they were teens.

Hey he's a Patriot fan...all is not lost.

I'm like hesgot - both girls, total opposites.

Lipring? I can't let my eldest (the slob) see this post!!! She's been lobbying!

He has a calendar (although, I have no idea for what year). All is not lost.

Looks mighty familiar...

One of my sons was WAY piggier. Now? He owns his own home and it is ALWAYS clean as a whistle. There's hope, dear. Your son appears normal to me.

You should have taken a picture of whatever is under the mattress.

Congrats on the cover.

Yeah, Bruschi!!! I don my #54 jersey every game day. I'm glad that he's encouraged to have fresh air and freedom.

The bed looks made.

The made bed is almost enough to disqualify him from being a typical teen. If the sheets are changed weekly, that's it, no go.

Deborah Young,
You posed a good question here, re "What will this generation bring us in the future?" ....and as an Internet Readability Consultant based in Taiwan, far far away from the continental USA, I recently interviwed Mike Males in America about his views on all this. See the entire interview here:

http://zippy1300.blogspot.com/2009/08/mikes-males-on-future-of-internet.html

Mike Males is the author of four books on American youth (including ''Framing Youth: Ten Myths about the Next Generation'' and ''The Scapegoat Generation: America’s War on Adolescents''). Mr Males, a 1999 graduate of the University of California, Irvine, also serves as senior researcher for the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. He is board member of Youth Facts at http://www.YouthFacts.org.

excerpts:

DANNY BLOOM: How do young people, people in their teens and early 20s, react to these differences?

MIKE MALES: Beautifully. They screen in/out (just advanced multitasking, like watching TV, talking on phone, and doing hoework was to my generation) online much more deftly than older folks.

DANNY BLOOM: Should we be worried that paper book reading is slowly being abandonned in favor of screen reading on computers and Kindles and cellphones?

MIKE MALES: Not the least bit, what we should evaluate now is what paper media is good for -- and I think contemplative text (poetry, lyricism) is it's strength,and that also depends on the media consumer. No Medium is "better" than another absent what the individual user is using it for.

DANNY BLOOM: In the future, will the daily newspaper be read in print on paper..... or online?

MIKE MALES: People will get their news 99% by screening. You have to understand, I pray for the complete demise of today's daily newspapers, major broadcast networks, and nearly all "alternative media." In the area I work in, youth issues, they are all so destructive that I no longer even follow them. We'd be better off relying on random bloggers we have to search out.

Looks like a normal, well-adjusted teenagers room. I did not see a crack pipe anywhere in evidence, so life is good.

Really not bad for a teenager's room.

Hey, you could actually see the floor! What a neatnik your teenager is! I had 4 teenagers at once and I and they are lived to tell about it. Some of the most harrowing days as a parent (4 teenagers = 4 totaled cars!, etc.) and some of the most wonderful. I think their biggest challenge will be in living out there in the big bad real world.

doesn't look that bad to mwah...are you flooding, like on the big island, girly?

Yeah, a pretty neat room. My youngest daughter just turned 20 and her room looks like a soccer team just spent the weekend there. Fortunately, the other three are now on their own. Just two more years...

I asked my kids to look at those pix. They had no idea what they are. Guess I have a long way to go.

This was super!!!! Your kid's bedroom looks much better than my kids' bedrooms!! No kidding!