Live data from Hacker News

How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy

conversableeconomist.blogspot.com

31–40 of 56 posts

Re: How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy

#31
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being misinformed due to the 'abstinence only' sex-ed. I wouldn't blame it on the teen, but on the education system, or the teen's parents who can't be bothered to teach birds and bees.

Misinformed how? It's not as if abstinence-only education claims babies come by stork.

Misinformed because they don't inform the kids about birth control. It's a sin of omission

Re: How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy

#32
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being misinformed due to the 'abstinence only' sex-ed. I wouldn't blame it on the teen, but on the education system, or the teen's parents who can't be bothered to teach birds and bees.

Misinformed how? It's not as if abstinence-only education claims babies come by stork.

[deleted]

Re: How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy

#33
post #2

I had heard about this a few years ago and I find it fascinating. Entertainment being used for good! Its interesting how effective this particular show has been, so I have to wonder how effective those heavy-handed episodes of Family Matters or Home Improvement were. I'm sure there are many examples of a TV show heavily impacting stuff that we encounter in our everyday lives, but I also would recommend reading The Po…

I once sat in a talk by a NASA Ames director (?) about his belief that even the tremendous cost for a manned mission to Mars would be "worth it" for the inspiration it would provide to the youth of the country to pursue STEM fields. But then I thought -- wait, wouldn't it be much cheaper if we could harness the same kind of inspiration through Hollywood storytelling?

Yes that would true, except that Hollywood can't produce reality. Real things are real so they inspire a lot more that just invented stories, I suppose.

Re: How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more concerned for the baby's prospects than the teens'. (Baby is utterly innocent.) The teen situation is also unfortunate, but was also of their own doing in almost every case.

Teens being denied access to proper and accurate sex education isn't their own doing.

I have significant shared frustration with that situation, but feel that even in those cases, the teens bear a non-zero amount of responsibility, which is larger than the baby.

Most teens can read and most have access to google.

Re: How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy

#35
post #30

The teen pregnancy rate in the United States is falling dramatically. It just reached a historic low and has dropped by 61% since 1991. However, nobody really knows why. Theres a lot of hypothesises going around (this being one) but the real reason is probably a combination of many factors. There is probably a positive feedback effect going on as well, lowering teen pregnancy leads to even lower teen pregnancy. I rea…

[deleted]

"Just asking people" is a part of "conducting research."

http://www.vox.com/2015/12/23/10652258/teen-birth-decline-ma...

"Experts like Ehrlich know that the teen birth rate is dropping fast — faster than it has since the federal government began to keep count. They know that this is not about teens terminating more pregnancies; separate data shows the teen abortion rate has steadily declined since the late 1980s.

What they don't understand is what, exactly, is driving the trend. But they do have lots of ideas.

I've spent a lot of time talking to experts who study teen pregnancy. They all told me something pretty similar: We don't have one clear-cut explanation for why teen births are going down. And if anyone tells you they have the answer, you should be skeptical."

Re: How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy

#36
post #2

I had heard about this a few years ago and I find it fascinating. Entertainment being used for good! Its interesting how effective this particular show has been, so I have to wonder how effective those heavy-handed episodes of Family Matters or Home Improvement were. I'm sure there are many examples of a TV show heavily impacting stuff that we encounter in our everyday lives, but I also would recommend reading The Po…

I once sat in a talk by a NASA Ames director (?) about his belief that even the tremendous cost for a manned mission to Mars would be "worth it" for the inspiration it would provide to the youth of the country to pursue STEM fields. But then I thought -- wait, wouldn't it be much cheaper if we could harness the same kind of inspiration through Hollywood storytelling?

I think this is happening to a degree. I know of a guy, whose younger brother started reading up on physics after Big Hero 6.

Also didn't older tech-related movies on hackers inspire some of us?

Re: How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy

#37
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being misinformed due to the 'abstinence only' sex-ed. I wouldn't blame it on the teen, but on the education system, or the teen's parents who can't be bothered to teach birds and bees.

Misinformed how? It's not as if abstinence-only education claims babies come by stork.

It often claims things like condoms being ineffective against STDs or all sorts of birth control having far greater failure rates than in reality.

Re: How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iirc (from the talk) a mission to Mars will cost a few trillion dollars (I forgot the exact figure, but somewhere between $1T and $10T). That's a lot more than Hollywood storytelling.

Maybe with current technology. But as technology continues to advance things will continue to get cheaper. What costs a trillion dollars today could cost a couple billion dollars in a not so distant future

...if you ignore inflation :)

Re: How MTV's “16 and Pregnant” May Have Reduced Teen Pregnancy

#39

The teen pregnancy rate in the United States is falling dramatically. It just reached a historic low and has dropped by 61% since 1991. However, nobody really knows why. Theres a lot of hypothesises going around (this being one) but the real reason is probably a combination of many factors. There is probably a positive feedback effect going on as well, lowering teen pregnancy leads to even lower teen pregnancy. I rea…

Pure speculation. 1) Internet, followed by 2) Ubiquitous smart phones making it to teenagers -- and/or the laptops that also seem to be ubiquitous in education, these days.

A personal place to look things up, less monitored than the family or library computer.

(So, the other side of the "porn epidemic"? To be clear, not attributing porn per se, but rather range of information available to those who seek it out.)

Post reply on HN