I don't think this song is really about lousy parent. After all, you can't really control whether you have anxiety attacks. I have them, and I can vouch for the mom to being on medication is better for everyone. Neither can you really control whether you are a "middle-class intellectual." That is all pretty much decided long before you had children.

so I think (as I do about almost all their songs) that this song, instead of being about parents who are "lousy," is about parents who are just too American. Because being American makes a lot of people middle-class intellectuals, and it also makes a lot of people go crazy and need Valium.

I think this song is about all kids getting drowned out by TV and Video Games and stuff like that, and not working and becoming lazy as hell; also about bad parenting(my mammy's on valium,
she's so ineffectual). In the Live at the Pallidum DVD, Jay sings (I tried to tell you about no control, but now I really don't give a fuck!), which I think means that they the people trying to help about it are done. This is just my interpretation on this song, I'm not so sure though.

While I think it's fairly obvious that this song is about busy parents neglecting children, and said children growing up messed up as a result, as the others before me have stated adequately, I do believe that I have discovered a reference that no one discovered beforehand, or at least it hasn't been mentioned.
The 60's psychadelic band King Crimson has a song called 21st Century Schizoid Man. The opening line is "Cat's foot, Iron Claw". The verse ends with "21st Century Schizoid Man." We come to the second verse... And again, the last two lines are:
"Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty first century schizoid man."
Starting to sound familiar yet?
And again, the third and last verse:
"Nothing hes got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man."
It seems to me that Brett is fan of King Crimson, and is paying homage, modernizing an old song. Props to him, did a great job.
This is just something i found fascinating, like a little easter egg, discovered this while listening to King Crimson at 5am. Hope you found this as fascinating and cool as i did.
cheers.

I really agree w/jms for this, but I just wanted to touch on the line "symbolised bar code quick id' because it reminds me of a book called 'The bar code tattoo'. The book is about a barcode you can use to identify yourself everywhere. It's the latest technology, and everyone is pushed toward having one. The bar code ID is like the symbol of conformity. If you want, read the book-I can't give everything on it, I havn't finished it yet.

I think the first few lines are self-explanatory and have already been done to death, here. To sum up, the lyrics from 'I can't believe it' to 'oh yeah' are the singer's scornful rejection of the 21st century 'conveniences' that the 21st century digital boy and his family have become, in their complacency, completely dependent on. The lines 'I'm a 21st century digital boy' to 'ain't life a mystery' are the digital boy's answer - he recites his problem, his lack of understanding of life and the causes thereof - the dependence of him and his family on technology.
The verse
'I can't explain it,
the things they're saying to me,
going yayayayayayaya,
oh yeah,'
is far harder less obvious in its meaning. It could be the singer saying that he doesn't understand the connection the digital boy has with his technology and the way he talks about it ('I Love My Computer' is perhaps Bad Relgion's satirical example of this taken to the extreme. Equally, it could be the Digital Boy saying that he doesn't understand why people perceive problems in the way he lives his life; why do people think he should get a social life in the real world? Why do people find him strange?
'I tried to tell you about no control,
but now I really don't know,
and then you told me how bad you had to suffer,
is that really all you have to offer?'
is a clear reference to the Bad Religion song 'No Control' and album 'suffer'. Here the band is questioning whether their message in 'No Control' was in fact a harmful one; that people these days take little responsibility and point to their supposed lack of control as an excuse for their actions. They find an aspect of their own personality they dislike and, by placing blame for their wrongdoings on that aspect, feel as though they themselves aren't actually responsible. Whenever they are criticised, they make excuses rather than changing themselves, blaming a bad upbringing, their lack of friends, whatever. This excuse-making is what 'and then you told me how bad you had to suffer,
is that really all you have to offer?' refers to, and Bad Religion fears that their preaching about the lack of control we have can only help to prevent people taking responsibility for themselves.
Why is the lyric in this song? Because the song is all about people who are consumed by their flaws rather than changing themselves. The 'lazy' father, the mother who relies on valium as a substitute for her own willpower, and the boy who, when faced with his own social problems, doesn't fight them but answers
'I'm a 21st century digital boy,
I don't know how to live'.
The most important message of the song to me is about the dangers of refusing to take blame. We can defeat our personal demons if we try, but in the 21st century we just use drugs ('my mummy's on valium'), make excuses (the digital boy) or just do nothing and let the problems in our life fester, and rely on money and a providing society ('my daddy's a lazy middle class intellectual').
The penultimate three lines (taken from King Crimson's '21st Century Schizoid Man') are just a summary of what Bad Religion sees as the problems of the 21st Century: people resorting to medicine to solve problems in their personality ('Neurosurgeons scream for more'), kids spending all their time being exposed to violent and pornographic media ('Innocence raped with napalm fire'), and the lack of effort needed to gain anything leading to a society of lazy intellectuals who believe they have the right to own everything they want ('Everything I want, I really need').

I think this song is about how we rely on technology way too much in modern times.We often worry about how many 'toys' we have and probably how we rely on new inventions alot more then we should.We're being lazy and weak-minded as a whole, which I think Bad Religion was simulary trying to say.But it's just my point of view.

I believe this song reflects a growing trend in American thought that technology is and will be the answer to all our problems. This song reminds us that relying on technology to get us through life can create people who are intellectually void. "I don't know how to read but I've got a lot of toys" is a line that I think represents this point. Calculators can make our minds lazy because we rely on technology to do the work for us. Spell check can turn our bad grammar into perfect form. There are many more examples where Americans rely on technology and pretty soon we become dependent on technology to get by in life. Thus, we truly have no control as the things we own end up owning us. Another point that I think this song brings up is the idea that in America, status is often measured by how many items you have. Just watch some T.V. commercials and see how much emphasis is placed on buying things and what happens when you buy things. Buy the right beer, car, and clothes and some hot chick will hook up with you. But somewhere in our quest to obtain as many "toys" as possible we lose track of the importance of education, learning, and becoming well rounded individuals. I think the digital boy (a product of American society) is someone who has placed all his emphasis on acquiring "toys" and no emphasis on getting educated. Pretty soon this digital boy can't read or live life because all he knows is his toys. And this boy is suffering. He's shallow and is useless without his toys but it really isn't all his fault. His dysfunctional family gives him no direction and American society tells him that obtaining possessions is the right thing to do. Bad religion has produced songs before that remind us that technology doesn't solve all of our problems. Well, all of this is just my opinion. Like it or not, it's just one interpretation. And one last thing. The line 'innocence raped with napalm fire' is a direct reference to the napalm filled bombs that we dropped on south Vietnam during the Vietnam conflict. There are a bunch of pictures from this event that show little Vietnamese kids getting burned to death by napalm. Little kids (innocence) raped (killed) with napalm fire. Bad religion also mentions south Vietnam in recipe for hate 'maybe jack did it Marilyn, but he did it to south Vietnam.' Jack Kennedy, president of USA at that time, ordered the bombing of south Vietnam.

My personal interpretation, a few lines at a time.
"I can't believe it, the way you look sometimes, like a trampled flag on a city street, oh yeah"
Well, this verse doesn't really have much context to measure it against yet, but here's what it means to me; it's basically somebody saying that they can't believe the way a 'certain person' looks sometimes, so worn-down and miserable (like a trampled flag on a city street, maybe?) that sometimes it doesn't seem like they were ever fit for a social life.
"And I don't want it, the things you're offering me,
symbolized barcode, quick ID, oh yeah"
The same guy is now rejecting these quick and simple modern 'conveniences,' that the 'certain person' has, no matter how desperately they're objectified as the pinnacle of social perfection and whatever you could ever want.
"'Cause I'm a 21st century digital boy,
I don't know how to live but I got a lot of toys,
My daddy's a lazy middle class intellectual,
my mommy's on valium, so ineffectual, woh oh
Ain't life a mystery?"
And now the perspective switches to that of the 'certain person,' of how he never really learned how to relate to other people, so only gets their attention (and defines his self-worth) with his flashy toys, gadgets, etc. (everybody knows or knew a guy like this), his rich, middle-of-the-road parents providing everything and nothing at the same time, throwing money at him as if he were a problem to be dealt with instead of a human being. Almost like actors paid to play a role. You know, the horrors of middle class. Ain't it funny how life works out sometimes?
"I can't explain it, the things they're saying to me,
it's going yayayayayayaya, oh yeah"
Life, it seems, is so full of illogical rules and ways to act, ineffable and never-expressed yet widely-known, that it's just like all the things they're saying make no sense at all.
"I tried to tell you about no control,
but now I really don't know,
and then you told me how bad you had to suffer,
is that really all you have to offer?"
I always thought this part was interesting since it looks like they reference all of their previous Epitaph releases here (No Control, Suffer). But as for what it means, I think it's saying how later on in their lives, all these 21st Century Digital Boys have to say is about how lonesome they were, what suffering they went through, and you have to wonder; is that all they can talk about, the limits of what they have to offer others? Pain? Oh well. And yeah, I've already read on 'The Answer' about how this song is supposed to mirror Brett's childhood growing up. This is just what the song's meant to me, and why I found it so compelling, even before I got into Bad Religion.

I think that the song is about our world going downhill because so many kids would rather play video games or watch movies than work. Children, like myself, will shape the world when they grow up, so in the next generation America will only offer poor quality, half assed work.

The outro lyrics, 'Cat's foot ... napalm fire,' were NOT written by Brett. They were stolen from King Crimson's similar (in spirit if not in musical execution) 21st Century Schitzoid Man. In fact, the entire song reads like an adaptation of KC's theme to the perceived wasteland of modern teen life and the utter lack of hope offered in the transition to adulthood.

Basically I agree with the posters below except for a couple of lines. 'Tried to tell you about no control, but now i really don't know. And then you told me how bad you had to suffer, is this really all you have to offer?' I believe this is a two part line written from both the kids perspective and from the author (Greg). Greg is saying that he tried to tell people about having no control (think of the song) and of things similar to this and he isn't sure if it has helped. The next line I believe is from the kid's perspective, 'and then you told me how bad you had to suffer, is this really all you have to offer?', its referring to the album suffer, and how he doesn't feel a need for the things being said through the bands music.

This song is about how parents are always working and have their own lives. They decide to have children but they have other people raise them. They take their kids to a day care and the kids get put in front of the TV all day. Then when the parents feel guilty for leaving they buy their kids everything they could possibly want.

I think this song is an example of what the average, suburban, middle class, white teen is today. They have so much, take so much for granted, and still want more more more. 'I don't know how to read but I've got a lot of toys,' shows how little learning means to them, and how little they care about anything but themselves. 'And then you told me how bad you had to suffer, is that really all you have to offer?' really portrays the attitude of the 21st Century Digital Boy. He hears about the suffering, starvation, murder, poverty, and war that is all around him, and his response? 'Is that really all you have to offer?' It is like he is appalled that someone would bother him with all this 'useless' information, when he doesn't get anything out of it! Anyways, just my opinion, let me know if you agree or not It is a wicked song any way you put it.

I think that this song is about having kinda shitty life at home, but also how like the future is going to hell with all this technology, 'Don't know how to read, but I gotta lot of toys' talks about how he sees the world going to hell but he doesn't want it and also shows how parents aren't parents at all and expect technology and material things to raise their kids

I think 21st Century Digital Boy is about a teenager who has a shit home life (he says 'my daddy's a lazy middle class intellectual, my mommy's on valium.') He sits with his computer all day, learning everything he knows from it. Then I think the song goes on (angrily, might I add) to give a glimpse of how the writer feels about what he was writing (innocence raped with napalm fire.) Also, maybe the song is about him arguing with his parents, and just being angry at the world in general.