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Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

economist.com

221–230 of 466 posts

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#221
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, the second tier of Carnegie Mellon and Cornell. Lol.

While CMU is huge in computing, it's lacking in prestige. Cornell is most-frequently referred to as a 'fake Ivy' everywhere college discussion can be found, and has been since the 1980s. I direct the audience's attention to the results of the search query "fake ivy university": https://www.google.com/search?q=fake+ivy+university

This is actually accurate. The main product of the Ivy League is prestige by association in the general populace, and it requires mass marketing to try to keep their brand of prestige scarce. The fact that the studentry and faculty are as able and smart at the state universities is irrelevant to the product.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#222
post #27

16-year-old here. My experience is probably markedly different from most teenagers in the US (I'm an immigrant who goes to a competitive school full of other immigrants) but I find that, for the most part, this article hits the nail on the head. High School is nothing like the usual media portrayal - I've never heard anyone even talk about a party, nobody's doing anything stronger than weed, nobody's fucking or even…

Wow, how things have change from when I was a teen in HS in the early 90s. I was a 'responsible' one because I had a job. Few people thought about 'getting in' (IIRC the valedictorian went to the AF academy), but otherwise we all just wanted to graduate and go to one of the 2 big state schools or the local college. I was smart enough, i.e. paid attention in class, that I never had to study (that caught up with me in…

Things haven't changed that much since the 90s, you were just belonged to a very different demographic than the parent commenter.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#223
post #27

16-year-old here. My experience is probably markedly different from most teenagers in the US (I'm an immigrant who goes to a competitive school full of other immigrants) but I find that, for the most part, this article hits the nail on the head. High School is nothing like the usual media portrayal - I've never heard anyone even talk about a party, nobody's doing anything stronger than weed, nobody's fucking or even…

> but the "second-tier" schools (Carnegie-Mellon, Rensselaer, Duke, Cornell, etc.)

Odd how the perception among high schoolers differs from that of industry.

In the software engineering industry, CMU is considered top-tier, along with a few others probably not on this group’s radar like University of Washington.

Also, fwiw, Cornell is Ivy League too, and afaik Duke is considered effectively same tier as Ivy League.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandatory military service otherwise known as government mandated slavery

It depends if you think of your country as an accessory burden or as the ensemble of your fellows. Incidentally, this seems to be an argument towards smaller, culturally homogeneous countries, where it is much easier to feel connected to the whole set of your countrymen.

I agree.

In the 90's my country began to experience deep tensions between imported communities and the historical population.

The military service was then abolished (officially for budgetary reasons).

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#225
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not true that nobody's fucking. The LGBT kids fuck to an extent, as do some of the lower achievers, but even then it's nowhere near as much as I expected. I'm surprised to hear you compliment my writing style. I always thought it was subpar - too many clauses, a slew of unnecessary qualifiers and weasel words, no shortage of kludges for things I can't express very well. I tend to be better at it after I've been…

> The LGBT kids fuck to an extent, as do some of the lower achievers, but even then it's nowhere near as much as I expected. I'm trying to be charitable and not over-interpret the juxtaposition of "LGBT" and "lower achievers". I'm surprised you have so much time to study who is having sex. Quite remarkable.

A jewel of a comment.

Acidic, condescending and dishonest.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#226
post #121
post #27

16-year-old here. My experience is probably markedly different from most teenagers in the US (I'm an immigrant who goes to a competitive school full of other immigrants) but I find that, for the most part, this article hits the nail on the head. High School is nothing like the usual media portrayal - I've never heard anyone even talk about a party, nobody's doing anything stronger than weed, nobody's fucking or even…

> I've never heard anyone even talk about a party, nobody's doing anything stronger than weed, nobody's fucking or even dating at all. That's easy to explain: You don't have to talk about these things anymore, because of IM & co.. It's all still happening, but it's easier to hide it from the "dweebs". I've seen both sides, and it's really surprising how well this unwritten system works. At best you realize a few year…

[deleted]

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#227
post #27

16-year-old here. My experience is probably markedly different from most teenagers in the US (I'm an immigrant who goes to a competitive school full of other immigrants) but I find that, for the most part, this article hits the nail on the head. High School is nothing like the usual media portrayal - I've never heard anyone even talk about a party, nobody's doing anything stronger than weed, nobody's fucking or even…

I think you are on to something in your second sentence. To what extent do you perceive these social effects being a result of the cultural character of those places that your classmates or their parents have emigrated from? It seems that affluent (or at least professional class) immigrants of the past three decades are very attuned to status/conformity, and so your experience may well be outside the 'norm' of the US. Keep your mind open as you grow up and meet people from across this country, there is an exciting amount of thought/values diversity if one looks for it in good faith. Focus on the upsides in the hyper-competitive nature of your current peers, they will hopefully mellow with age and wisdom (and will be extremely capable!).

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#228
post #27

16-year-old here. My experience is probably markedly different from most teenagers in the US (I'm an immigrant who goes to a competitive school full of other immigrants) but I find that, for the most part, this article hits the nail on the head. High School is nothing like the usual media portrayal - I've never heard anyone even talk about a party, nobody's doing anything stronger than weed, nobody's fucking or even…

Why does the school allow anyone to keep their phones on their desks, much less tolerate use during class time?

Many don’t; students will find a way to use them anyways.

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#229
post #27

16-year-old here. My experience is probably markedly different from most teenagers in the US (I'm an immigrant who goes to a competitive school full of other immigrants) but I find that, for the most part, this article hits the nail on the head. High School is nothing like the usual media portrayal - I've never heard anyone even talk about a party, nobody's doing anything stronger than weed, nobody's fucking or even…

> but the "second-tier" schools (Carnegie-Mellon, Rensselaer, Duke, Cornell, etc.) Odd how the perception among high schoolers differs from that of industry. In the software engineering industry, CMU is considered top-tier, along with a few others probably not on this group’s radar like University of Washington. Also, fwiw, Cornell is Ivy League too, and afaik Duke is considered effectively same tier as Ivy League.

[deleted]

Re: Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

#230
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Finland has mandatory military service for males. How is that kind of institutionalized sexism still legal?

Finland has a history of needing to fight off a much larger expansionist neighbor. One who has recently (a few years ago) annexed more territory while the rest of the world sat around and did nothing. Or are you asking why they don't extend the mandatory service to women? The reasons for that are somewhat historic and very _biotruth_. A country that fights a devastating war that wipes out 90% of the men but keeps the…

If there was ever a situation where there was a genuine risk of a significant portion of the military being killed, it would not be difficult to withdraw all women from the military at that point. And I do not think there has been a single country in modern history that was at a genuine risk of being wiped out due to combat deaths, even if all of those combat deaths had been men instead of women.

To me this incredibly small risk does not seem to be worth holding one gender back over another, increasing the gender gap for no reason. Forcing someone to work just because of their gender seems very wrong to me.

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