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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)

#181

Post by nogabebop23 »

maze-le wrote: post #174
_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…

This is so sad... I cannot even begin to contemplate. When I was young blogging was something exciting and new. You could share your thoughts and interests with complete strangers and make connections to people you didn't even know -- albeit not very deep ones. Never once was it about status or signalling -- I mean surely there were people for whom this was important, but they were playing their status games with eac…

When I was young computers and taking computer programming in high school (gasp!) was for nerds and losers. The only thing that shielded me from ridicule and worse was my physical size and playing varsity sports. University combined a lot of us computer-lovers, regardless of whether we were obvious nerds or hid behind something else in our previous lives - it was great to be special and on top.

Now everyone feels obligated to "learn computers" and pursue the academic path after HS. Sadly as a whole we're not being successful; we're essentially customers of both.

I sure hope some kids are rejecting the current culture and creating something new that will up-end the current path...

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

#182

Post by vegetablepotpie »

_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 wish adults understood the realities of being young in 2020. Even when I graduated HS in 2007 I could tell my experience and the academic expectations I needed to live up to were much higher than it was for my mom. After I graduated I saw younger friends take more AP classes than I did and do more leadership activities than I did. Expectations are always ramping up. It is no party.

Our laws and bureaucracies haven’t caught up to life from 50 years ago, and that is something young people today have to deal with too. There are a lot of incongruities in programs offered. One example is Federal Work Study. In college I qualified, it was a benefit, and my attitude was to not leave anything on the table. In reality the money I made was not enough to make a difference and the time I spent working could have been spent taking another class. If I didn’t do work study I could have graduated a semester sooner and that would have been much more valuable financially. The only reason to work in college would be at a job that is directly related to your field.

And of course the adults don’t get it. Every once in a while you’ll hear about a congress person or a business leader say that college students aren’t pulling their own weight in society. The friends of your parents will ask you how you like going to college parties. Reality is you have a deep backlog of work from 6 classes, which are related but have very different concepts and you need to master them all in four months.

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

#183

Post by thundergolfer »

tachyonbeam wrote: post #167
foldr wrote: post #10

This generation has fully internalized consumer capitalism. Music is about success, not dropping out. Edit : See e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22985678 in this thread.

I feel like I'm hearing more and more about tiny houses, sustainability, etc. I feel like there is an increasing anti-capitalist sentiment. Like, I go on dates, and women look down on me for being successful and making money. In order to win points I would have to volunteer or go hiking more often.

Women are almost certainly not looking down on you for being successful and making money.

Unless they had literally said that to your face, I would just say it’s something related but more specific about your success and income. Given the context in the rest of comment, that seems likely.

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

#184

Post by cameronbrown »

switch007 wrote: post #141
kick wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might actually reflect your own prejudice a bit that you're interpreting it that way. Speaking as a rainbow myself over here, it's...not unlikely? Throw a bunch of teenagers or young adults in support groups together with the subtext that they all have the same sexual orientation with no chance of being shamed for making advances for what's effectively the first time in most of their lives, and it doesn't take a f…

The way it was written makes out they have hard evidence of who is having sex broken down by grade and orientation. I don't believe that for a second. I guess you just need to write assertively and nobody will question it.

It might surprise you to know (/s) that people in high school talk about sex. A lot. It's not unreasonable to assert that he does know roughly what's going on.

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

#185

Post by DFHippie »

user5994461 wrote: post #177
_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…

What's AP CP Honors? for non american readers

I'm not sure about CP, but AP is "advanced placement". You get college credit for it if you do well on a standardized test at the end.

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

#186

Post by cmrdporcupine »

nostrademons wrote: post #157
vostok wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-…

The post 9/11 period has markedly less tolerance for rebellious behaviour (anti-sociaL or otherwise) than prior to that. I feel like there are things we did back in the 90s with warehouse and squat parties and underground raves and political occupations and mass blatant MDMA use that could result in far more serious treatment by law enforcement in this era than prior to it.

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

#187

Post by user5994461 »

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…

The partying portrayed in the media is more representative of student life in universities.

There's not much going on in high schools, 15 years old kids living at their parents who can't even buy alcohol.

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

#188

Post by pantalaimon »

allannienhuis wrote: post #175
pantalaimon wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is plenty of work, why focus so much about the big tech companies? The notion that you have to jump through hoops to get a tech job is pretty ridiculous. If you know your stuff you’ll have no trouble to find a job even without a degree from a fancy school.

because the bug tech companies are more likely to pay big $$. There's a huge gap in salary potential between FAANG and the rest. There's always outliers among the rest, but that's generally the case. So if you're optimizing for $$ and prestige, you optimize for getting into FAANG.

Sure if money is what you want to optimize for, that's the route to take. For me it was always more about the passion in building things, money is nice but IMHO other things are more important.

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

#189

Post by kradroy »

_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…

Dear trend-following worrier,

For all the effort you're making know this: you'll eventually be evaluated by a Gen-X or Millennial hiring manager. We largely don't care where you went to college. We've learned that name recognition means very little. It'll get you a job, but if you're one of those kids who "does nothing" on an extracurricular team, it'll show through on the job. You won't get promoted. We fucking hate micromanaging Ivy League grads who are too scared to take initiative and possibly make mistakes.

Sincerely,

An engineering manager who went to one of the "second-tier" schools you listed.

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

#190

Post by pier25 »

_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…

> If I had to characterize my generation with a pathology, it would be exhibitionism.

I'm not sure it's about exhibitionism, or some ego-driven motivation, but rather a profound fear about being left out of the group.

We know humans have biological social behaviors like cooperation but until social media we didn't really have ways to measure how others reacted to us. Seeing a number of likes, shares, upvotes, etc, is the ultimate drug for the social animal.

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