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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)

#231

Post by saagarjha »

kekekkd0nsnd wrote: post #162
_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…

Well, you’re 16. It shows. Every teenagers generation could be described as exhibitionist. “Hold my beer and watch this.” is how they used to proclaim some shallow effort at relevance was about to occur. You describe how people are obsessed with credentials and don’t take pride in achievement anymore. That’s conflicting rhetoric. You’re trying too hard to make a point. They’re humans. That hasn’t changed. What’s chan…

> Well, you’re 16. It shows.

I don’t think it would have shown if they hadn’t mentioned their age and chosen this as their subject matter. There’s a lot of people on Hacker News that are teenagers, they just never disclose themselves as one.

> You describe how people are obsessed with credentials and don’t take pride in achievement anymore. That’s conflicting rhetoric.

Not really. You can try hard to look good in a college application but not really be into the things that you work hard to do well in.

> You’re trying too hard to make a point.

I disagree.

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

#232

Post by privateprofile »

jandrese wrote: post #169
101404 wrote: 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…

Israel has mandatory service for women and men, and has presently one of the most advanced armed forces.

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

#233

Post by BurningFrog »

hckr_news wrote: post #208
_jal wrote: post #109

Another vote for the Lead Hypothesis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead–crime_hypothesis

This was my first thought.

Mine too!

It's crazy that almost a century of human history might have been so fundamentally influenced by this one invisible factor.

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

#234

Post by legionof7 »

franze wrote: post #14

I became a young father with 19, after way too much party starting from 15. So naturally I was concerned that my son would behave like me at that age. Or even just 50%. So I was kinda dissapaointed how well behaved he is now with 22. Mostly interested in E-Sports, Tinder and his CRM job. Said that, becoming a father at 19 was a great career move. Got a job making websites in the dot-com area as I needed money and was…

Wow big props to you though. I'm 19 right now, if I had a kid now, I'd have no idea what to do. Would probs turn out very badly.

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

#235

Post by foldr »

cameronbrown wrote: post #184
switch007 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There isn't any way to accurately track how many people in a high school are having sex. We used to talk about sex a lot when I was in high school too, but I really have no idea how much actual sex was going on.

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

#237

Post by sergiotapia »

_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…

Carnegie-Mellon is second tier? I always pictured my oldest going there and learning with some real radical change-the-world scientists and professors. I was under the impression these people were the leaders in forward thinking technological progression.

You have IBM, Package Bell labs, Microsoft, Google - doing tech in general.

And then way out there researching neurolink fungi-based mesh materials: Carnegie-Mellon.

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

#238

Post by _5yps »

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

CP stands for "College Placement" and is the baseline, AP is regulated by the College Board and considered the most prestigious, and Honors is somewhere in between.

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

#239

Post by ptero »

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…

Based on what I heard from other folks (I am an immigrant and have no first hand experience) your experience seems pretty typical in early 90s. There were of course different setups, but I do not think it is primarily based on class or income. They were schools that pushed kids, but they were statistically rare. In 1990, being up until 2AM several times a week doing school projects would be considered insane. Now, while not universal, it is not unheard of.

But I think you hit the nail on the head mentioning the current "your life is on file, no mistakes allowed" setup. To me, it is critical to let kids try things, including stupid things, and learn from their mistakes without having those mistakes affect every job search 20 years later.

I think the pendulum will eventually swing back, but the generation growing up in the current setup will have to try the same stupidities and learn similar things as adults, at a much higher cost. My 2c.

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

#240

Post by sergiotapia »

privateprofile wrote: post #232
jandrese wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Israel has mandatory service for women and men, and has presently one of the most advanced armed forces.

They can thank the US for footing the bill for all those war toys.
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