This study is about young people’s vocabulary knowledge. The aim is to examine whether the vocabulary knowledge has changed for the worse, according to research, two teachers’ experiences and media. My hypothesis is that a change for the worse involves risks: it can become difficult for young people to be a part of the public dialogue and understand the academic literature. With public dialogue, I mean the dialogue in for example newspapers, TV, the office etcetera. The methods I have used are a literature study and interviews. The result indicates that the vocabulary knowledge has changed for the worse. The curriculum for the Swedish upper secondary school states that the students should learn how to participate in a process of making decisions in a democratic way, in society and at work. If the students reach these goals it should not be a problem to be a part of the public dialogue. Three studies from 1997, 2011 and 2017 show that the vocabulary knowledge is worse. The words that young people seem to not understand are words connected to politics and words that usually occur in newspapers and fiction. Moreover, the teachers’ experiences of the students’ vocabulary are the same as the result of the research. They think that the vocabulary knowledge is insufficient now compared to what it was a decade ago when they started to work. In addition, media does not seem to hesitate to enlighten people about a school in crisis.