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Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?

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Re: Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?

#111

Post by optimusclimb »

PrimalDual wrote: post #85
Gustomaximus wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> less money to spend on sex This one doesn't need money ;) I would suspect other things being equal, hanging about with little to do would that costs money would encourage socialisation and sex. Anecdotally, I feel kids are more mature in many ways than my generation (I'm late 30's). They have total access to information and I suspect this helps them learn to see the world faster. As for less drinking/drugs, I wonde…

I am not sure about your claim that sex doesn’t require money. At least the male side courtship seems to be rather expensive both in terms of time and money. Granted that depends on what side of the pareto distribution you fall under. I agree with your point that having the breadth of human knowledge at your fingertips helps you make better decisions especially with how inforgiving the internet’s memory is. It does c…

Dude 15-18 year olds having sex aren't meeting on Tinder and then going to an SF bar to get $14 cocktails. Sex in high school is about as cheap as it gets.

Re: Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?

#112

Post by jorgemf »

vowelless wrote: post #40
pixl97 wrote: post #15

There are a pile of different answers to these questions (not question), ones that should be asked separately. For example, excluding factors that affect all the questions, putting off drinking is likely a combination of consumer education and the difficulty in getting alcohol pre-21. Fewer adults want to provide their younger peers alcohol because of legal risks. Driving is the combination of increasing expense to d…

My prior is like yours: There are likely different answers to the various points listed above. Regarding this one: > Sex probably includes factors of better sexual education. Higher pregnancy rates are seen in populations with no or bad sexual education. Also, you are 'held to the fire' by the state if you get someone pregnant. It's possible that the easy availability of porn has a lot more to do with this than just…

I would add Tinder as another reason for less sex. You have thousands of posible candidates on your finger prints, why wouldn't you get the perfect one? So people skip most people and only small percent succeed. Before you were in the bar with few less options, darker and with more alcohol, so you were more likely to match someone more real and normal.

Re: Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?

#113

Post by nlknz88 »

vparikh wrote: post #3

Because todays kids are coddled and have a 'safety net' of being able to stay home and not join 'adulthood'. I mean when I was a teen ager - my parents couldn't afford to support me. I had no way of staying home and riding it out. If I wanted anything in my late teens (car, fuel, guitar, computer, books, money for dates - etc.) I had to come up with the money for it - my parents provided shelter, food, clothing and a…

Now you're thinking like the classist that the elites expect!

It was only that way for most people because of economic status.

The rich have been pandering to and pampering their kids for generations.

None of them are kicked to the curb at 18 or told to mine, smelt and chop down the materials for their guitars.

It's "adulthood" to you because that's what the adults that reared you apparently told you to do. Because that was THEIR experience too. Not because it is some requirement to join "adulthood".

If the outcome is the same, the sense of being more free is an illusion, isn't it? You're just on the same old path, even though the buildings and faces look different.

Re: Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?

#114

Post by smashingfiasco »

Oh god, not Jean Twenge.

People, please, please read the Strauss and Howe book (Generations), not Jean Twenge. She makes overly-cranky observations about generations (especially younger ones, like Millennials and Homelanders) without the context of the rest of generational theory. The things I have read from her before seem to show a very basic understanding of the topic of generations compared to others who came before her.

I mean, Strauss and Howe wrote about (predicted, you might say) that the youth would clean itself up as this current cycle progressed by way of exacting Boomer expectations (in hypocritical contrast of the Boomer's own behavior during the late 60's and 70's). To anyone who has read the book, this is news article is probably coming as no surprise.

Re: Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?

#115

Post by tomjen3 »

ams6110 wrote: post #98
vowelless wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My prior is like yours: There are likely different answers to the various points listed above. Regarding this one: > Sex probably includes factors of better sexual education. Higher pregnancy rates are seen in populations with no or bad sexual education. Also, you are 'held to the fire' by the state if you get someone pregnant. It's possible that the easy availability of porn has a lot more to do with this than just…

Porn was readily available on the magazine racks at gas stations and less-than-family-oriented bookstores back in the day. Easy enough to get if you wanted it.

Sure but only if you didn't mind people knowing you brought porn. Also what you get now is compilations of just the scenes you like, rather than having to fast forward to just the few sections with the milf.

Re: Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?

#116

Post by PrimalDual »

optimusclimb wrote: post #111
PrimalDual wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure about your claim that sex doesn’t require money. At least the male side courtship seems to be rather expensive both in terms of time and money. Granted that depends on what side of the pareto distribution you fall under. I agree with your point that having the breadth of human knowledge at your fingertips helps you make better decisions especially with how inforgiving the internet’s memory is. It does c…

Dude 15-18 year olds having sex aren't meeting on Tinder and then going to an SF bar to get $14 cocktails. Sex in high school is about as cheap as it gets.

I think you are failing to take into account compounded interest and opportunity cost. Efforts you make when you’re young get compounded during the rest of your life time and the time you spend learning the intricacies of human mating is time that you could spend doing so many other things. Especially today when you can’t just start working at a factory at 18 and expect lifetime employment. Not just that, human mating has also gotten a lot more complicated with the advent of the Pill. You probably won’t be marrying your highschool sweetheart either. With the right incentives and a wealth of information I am not surprised to see the population follow a less greedy strategy when it comes to dating and drugs.

Re: Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?

#117

Post by Sophistifunk »

spodek wrote: post #91

I wonder what it's like to grow up in a world you know was trashed -- likely to have more plastic in the ocean than fish, wars over resources, hundreds of millions of people displaced from their homes, population decreases, etc... all consequences of past generations' carelessness. Maybe not all those things will happen, but some will. That has to factor into your world view and behavior.

Do you not remember the cold war? Shitty weather and floods of refugees sounds pretty sweet compared to nuclear armageddon.

Re: Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?

#118

Post by Animats »

"Teens spend a 'mind-boggling' 9 hours a day using media, report says."[1] That cuts into driving, dating, and drinking. Kids just aren't leaving the house as much, for any reason. They don't need to.

[1] http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/03/health/teens-tweens-media-scre...

Re: Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?

#120

Post by labster »

JenBarb wrote: post #95
PrimalDual wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure about your claim that sex doesn’t require money. At least the male side courtship seems to be rather expensive both in terms of time and money. Granted that depends on what side of the pareto distribution you fall under. I agree with your point that having the breadth of human knowledge at your fingertips helps you make better decisions especially with how inforgiving the internet’s memory is. It does c…

From the female side, safer sex and pregnancy prevention can also get pretty expensive in terms of time and money. Getting on the pill requires multiple doctor's appointments, and the pill itself can cost upwards of $50 a month. Just that could be a reason young women who have received comprehensive sex ed can't be bothered to try PIV sex.

From an insurance perspective, contraception is muuuch cheaper than pregnancy. Every time I hear $religious_group complaining about paying for contraceptive coverage, I lol because it's actually a cost saving measure, like vaccination.

Of course, contraceptives can still be expensive to individuals in the US because insurance incentives aren't aligned with covering the whole society, but that's a long topic for another day.

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