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Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

economist.com

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

#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 years or decades later.

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

#122
post #111
post #104

Finland has mandatory military service for males. So every year you most of the young men (mostly age 18 to 20) into a controlled environment and go through standardized testing and observation. - Physical fitness has gone down, overweight goes up. - Intelligence peaked among those who were born in 70's and has been in slight decline last 18 years. Similar results can be seen in other developed countries. - Anxiety d…

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

Because there is a law for mandatory service, and nobody wants to extend it to women.

Women can volunteer and some of them do.

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

#123
post #104

Finland has mandatory military service for males. So every year you most of the young men (mostly age 18 to 20) into a controlled environment and go through standardized testing and observation. - Physical fitness has gone down, overweight goes up. - Intelligence peaked among those who were born in 70's and has been in slight decline last 18 years. Similar results can be seen in other developed countries. - Anxiety d…

Mandatory military service otherwise known as government mandated slavery

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

#124
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…

Honestly this doesn’t sound that different from my own competitive high school experiences almost 30 years ago. The fact that you and your peers bin Duke and Cornell into the second tier bargain bin suggests that your subset of peers may not be a representative sample of the student universe.

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

#125
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 wonder how many of you are out there, I bet is a non-trivial number. Going into management or early financial independence are my only hope when your friends arrive.

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

#126

Everyone wants a child to be a responsible grown up adult. Stolen childhood.

For almost the entirety of human history, 12 was old enough to get a job and look after a family. It's modernity that's the aberration here. Our obsession with keeping children immature has nothing to do with their well-being, and everything to do with adults deriving a sick emotional satisfaction from it. I think history will judge our obsession with keeping children from growing up in the same way we judge foot bin…

> For almost the entirety of human history, 12 was old enough to get a job and look after a family.

Pretty sure the point of progress in society is to avoid repeating historical ills just because we did them in the past

> The anomie that teenagers experience is a result of them having nothing meaningful to do.

This is only true when you define "meaningful" as "wage slavery".

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

#127
post #22

I am also curious about the effect of "private" communication channels for kids. They can be hidden to parents and friends irl but still remain public online. I have seen many groups of depressed teens online without adults or someone with experience in them. They all encourage each other to be more depressed because they all have a similarly sad life. The only perspective that gets shared is that life sucks and it i…

It's almost as if you're implying kids were imprisoned indoors and didn't hang out with other kids out of earshot of their parents.

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

#128
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…

> not necessarily to the Ivy League (everyone knows that's just luck of the draw), but the "second-tier" schools (Carnegie-Mellon, Rensselaer, Duke, Cornell, etc.)

Cornell is an ivy league school, and calling the likes of cmu and Duke "second tier" schools?? by any metric they're on par or. better with ivy league schools

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

#129

id say this is very true, but im not sure its for the better, many seem to have totally missed out on having fun at all while growing up

That's a bit judgmental and err, nostalgic? "Back in my day" kinda thing. I mean they still have fun, it's just different from what you grew up with.

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

#130
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…

You should have said you were 12.
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