Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Teenagers are better behaved and less hedonistic (2018)

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 466 posts

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

#151

Post by aerovistae »

daptaq wrote: post #121
_5yps wrote: 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…

Exactly. I think the parent comment may be a little misled about who's fucking and who's doing what drugs.

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

#153

Post by cryptonode »

pkilgore wrote: post #112
nabla9 wrote: 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…

Would love to read more, you have a source(s)?

I think the parent is referring to the Flynn Effect.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect?wprov=sfla1

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

#154

Post by enriquto »

qqssccfftt wrote: post #123
nabla9 wrote: 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

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.

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

#155

Post by nostrademons »

aerovistae wrote: post #151
daptaq wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Exactly. I think the parent comment may be a little misled about who's fucking and who's doing what drugs.

Though judging by peer-reviewed research [1] and falling teen pregnancy rates [2], s/he's probably right.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/trends/2015_u...

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/index.htm

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

#156

Post by smt88 »

matwood wrote: post #110
_5yps wrote: 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…

I went to HS at the #1 school in my state in the early 2000s, and my experience was like GP's, not yours. Nothing s/he said was surprising to me.

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

#157

Post by nostrademons »

vostok wrote: post #146
matwood wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I would guess that more of this difference is explained by class/social factors than by the passage of time.

Entirely possible, but there's also potential selection bias.

I was a teen in the late 90s, and was friends with a lot of the druggie/stoner/party crowd. By and large, these people do not have kids, because they can't afford to. A good many of them are dead now, either from overdoses, or drug-related accidents (like crashing their car while going 100 mph while high), or suicide.

The 55 years of American history post-WW2 was a bubble, where people could get away with a number of not-very-adaptive behaviors because the whole country was on top of the world. The last 20 years has rapidly exposed this as a bubble, and the folks who were swimming naked when the tide ran out didn't leave offspring to be part of the next generation.

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

#158

Post by tachyonbeam »

MivLives wrote: post #150
namelosw wrote: post #119

Kids are so less adventurous nowadays. I'm not sure about teenagers, but for college students, it's more obvious. I believe it's because society is less forgiving - young people spent a ton of money or taking loans, work hard at school, cannot find jobs that are not stressful and underpaid. Or couldn't even find jobs at all. One step wrong and they would be screwed.

It's harder to be forgotten. One mistake can follow you for the rest of your life, via social media, via background checks.

I think it's also definitely the case that social media increases peer pressure to conform. If you say the wrong thing, have the wrong political opinion, you will be publicly shamed.

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

#159

Post by troughway »

_630w wrote: post #9
apatters wrote: post #6

They are more likely to commit suicide as well.

I can give some perspective on that. Ignoring the increase in academic pressure and hungry sharks in education (those shady coaching institutes everywhere making you grind 5 hours after school for a single exam). Parents haven't caught up with how their kids interact with the world. Social media is huge for teens and internet which only now some parents are catching up to but they are on Facebook and Facebook is canc…

That can't be good for the mental health of younger people in general. Idols are easy to fanaticize over; not just for teens, but for adults too. HN is a testament to that. But then again HN is a testament to a broad set of fucked up things in general.

I can see how the sniping from random strangers on a near constant basis would cause issues, because there are less and less actual "communities" (ala IRC channels, forums, etc) being formed, it's more of a anyone-can-drop-in-post-and-leave situation because, well, that's the nature of these platforms nowadays. There is no encouragement to build some kind of a conversation with any particular individual beyond the current post/thread/whatever.

Really shitty state of things.

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

#160

Post by cknoxrun »

johnchristopher wrote: post #7
searchableguy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think adults are just too oppressive these days. Expecting their kids to do 10x they did at that age. - concerned teenager

Indeed, a lot of people here seem to be gifted with 6 years old writing their own lisp compiler in minecraft ("and they have fun !"). ^^

I believe it is more than just a shift in parenting.

I am a parent of a 7 year old. The expectations I place on him are to work hard when faced with a task, and don't give up too easily. In terms of activities, the only requirements are swimming (as a life skill, not as a competition), and some kind of musical exposure (something I feel I lacked as a child). He is also required to keep screen time to a reasonable level.

Otherwise, he is free to play when he wants in an unstructured way, be as creative as he wants building things at his own volition, and is super independent.

However, I am still completely floored at his knowledge of the world compared to my wife and I at his age. I recall in grade 1 being just generally dazed and confused. My son and his peers just know so much more about the world due to technology that it is honestly mind-boggling. It is like speaking with little adults sometimes. Obviously the emotional maturity is still that of a 7 year old (actually I would say lower for my son), but his grasp on reality is extremely mature, and I don't think he is the exception.

I believe technology has changed our children completely. They are smarter than ever before, and yearn for more constantly (as we do, addicted to information on our devices). My son is constantly pressuring me to "teach him to code" and I have not said a word about it, or given in to that request yet as I think he needs more time to just play and explore the natural world.

I can only conclude that things have changed drastically for children, and it is hard to keep up. There are obviously go-getter parents out there, wanting their kids to be superstars, but I don't know if that is the general trend.

Post reply on HN