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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)

#251

Post by alexhutcheson »

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…

As I mentioned in a reply to a peer comment, the environment you describe is still the norm in most of the US. By contrast, there's a very high-pressure atmosphere in many of the "superstar" metro areas of the US. Many of us here on HN grew up in other places and moved to these "superstar" metro areas, so the contrast appears even starker that it would be if we were comparing the same places over time.

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

#252

Post by kalium-xyz »

user5994461 wrote: post #187
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…

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.

Plenty of people sneaking out to get drinks or get high when I was 16 years old and in highschool (8 years ago).

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

#253

Post by govg »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #223
_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…

> but the "second-tier" schools (Carnegie-Mellon, Rensselaer, Duke, Cornell, etc.) Odd how the perception among high schoolers differs from that of industry. In the software engineering industry, CMU is considered top-tier, along with a few others probably not on this group’s radar like University of Washington. Also, fwiw, Cornell is Ivy League too, and afaik Duke is considered effectively same tier as Ivy League.

CMU is arguably top tier only for CS (where it is basically the top college tied with 3 others), the ivies generally are highly ranked in sciences and liberal arts, and also in other areas. The industry knows what's the best for subjects relevant to them, the school kids are just going by a general quality perception (which may or may not match with the industry perception).

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

#254

Post by nkozyra »

smt88 wrote: post #156
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 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.

I have never really heard high schools referred to by a ranking event though I went to high school at the same timeframe you did.

Is this common? What's the measurement? State testing methods? Seems nebulous.

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

#255

Post by _5yps »

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.

At least in Orwell's 1984 the Tele-Screens were imposed by an external authority. The present day is much worse than he could have ever imagined.

Everyone over the age of 13 carries a high-quality camera with them at every waking moment; in fact, they regularly shell out for higher-quality cameras as technology improves! Not only that, but they've been operant-conditioned to take photos and videos of any interesting events and send it to the central servers of spy companies like Facebook and Snap, where they will be stored permanently for the foreseeable future - and they do this all for free!

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

#256

Post by Zenst »

Be mostly due to many things have been curtailed by laws, bylaws and other restrictions.

However, online has been an avenue of teenage expression that seems to of taken up the slack in many area's.

But hard to compare say 70's childhood experience with todays without factoring in that many aspects of life changed.

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

#257

Post by sysbin »

luckylion wrote: post #96
sysbin wrote: post #21

The fact is competition has been increasing every generation at a ridiculous rate. I like to think society would desire to remove competition as a requirement for everyone and allow basic needs being supplied for a somewhat enjoyable life. Sadly, I think it will take two generations of travesty before anything substantial happens if at all. I predict a lot of suicide & homelessness if not for some disaster and that w…

> I assume a lot of progress will happen regardless. The newest generation has everything at their fingertips. They get to read past experiences and how to approach things while the information is criticized more so than previous decades. What? Yeah, sure, it's easier to open a tab and google something than to get a book from the public library, but I don't think that's what's stopped people from learning about the p…

information is criticized more so than previous

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

#258

Post by sysbin »

naveen99 wrote: post #86
sysbin wrote: post #21

The fact is competition has been increasing every generation at a ridiculous rate. I like to think society would desire to remove competition as a requirement for everyone and allow basic needs being supplied for a somewhat enjoyable life. Sadly, I think it will take two generations of travesty before anything substantial happens if at all. I predict a lot of suicide & homelessness if not for some disaster and that w…

If you are worried about competition from below, think about how people above should be worried about competition from you. If you are worried about competition from above, think about how people below are worried about competition from you. or you could not worry so much about competition and just keep your eye on the goal which hopefully isn’t just competition.

I'm not worried but I observe people younger than I and that definitely happen to be. I should say the issue is obviously more complex than the example I gave. In my opinion people are just having to compete too much for little return than the past and it likely brings an emotional toll with it.

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

#260

Post by guntars »

softwaredoug wrote: post #161
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.

As a parent, I've noticed the biggest problem that prevents "free range" kids is other adults without kids. Those of us WITH kids relish getting the kids outside and out of our hair. But those without kids frequently are calling the parents to complain our children are roaming the neighborhood, perhaps on their property. Or they fear these kids will create problems. Usually, however, they're just kids being kids. Goi…

I don’t know, kids being kids is just another word for getting in trouble. I certainly wouldn’t want kids roaming around my property if they are anything like I was at that age.
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