With so much media buzz about "bad girls" and "bad boys" humming in the ears of adults, older Americans have such low expectations for young people that nothing surprises them anymore.
Except perhaps the findings of a poll conduced by the Associated Press and MTV.
The seven-month study showed that kids —age 13 to 24 — just may be more stable, sane and sincere in their values than most grown-ups dared to think. The young people see themselves as generally happy, they have goals and plans to reach them.
True, there are still valid concerns about wayward, dangerous, self-destructive behavior, but the poll at least offers a modicum of hope and a chance for rethinking attitudes that have not been helpful.
Cynics will say expectations were so low that America's teens were bound to do better than expected.
But those cynics are certainly not prevalent in the young people who were polled. According to the survey, 65 percent of them said they were generally content with their lives. Many answers broke out along racial lines, with 72 percent of white youths saying they are happy while just more than half the Hispanic and black young people feeling that way.
Some 46 percent said that being with family and loved ones made them happy, while 44 percent said religion was the most important thing in their lives.
In something of a "no brainer," two out of three respondents pointed to new technologies such as the Internet and cell phones as a source of contentment and said their lives would be more stressful and sad without the gadgetry.
Given the negative image so many young people carry in the minds of oldsters, the study should help some parents and grandparents lighten up a little on the hand-wringing over the future of humanity and maybe feel new energy to pitch in to help kids make it through.
If the findings show anything at all, it's that more should be done to help ethnic teens and young people find ways to feel as good about the world as their Anglo counterparts. But even then, all of America's young people appear more grounded and steeped in traditional values of friends, family and faith than was assumed.
And that's "media buzz" everyone can live with.