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

331–340 of 466 posts

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

#331

Post by sq_ »

joshgachnang wrote: post #209
user5994461 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think that very much depends on where you grew up. I grew up middle of nowhere Wisconsin and we were definitely drinking and throwing parties (even with parents home) at 15. All it takes is "cool" parents that accept kids are going to drink and want to provide a safe spot for it (especially taking all the car keys), or someone's older brother who will buy the alcohol and drinking after the parents go to sleep.

As someone from a coastal city, can confirm that the same things happen back where I'm from. There's always the friend with the chill parent and the college-aged sibling who can buy. Uber, Lyft, and/or a DD make it easy enough for the kids to make sure everyone can get home safely.

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

#332

Post by dathinab »

_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…

Tbh. this sounds super dystopian.

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

#333

Post by realbarack »

quantumwannabe wrote: post #203
_5yps wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second-tier compared to the world's top universities; that is, Harvard, Stanford, Oxford and their ilk. I've seen posts on this website[0] how some big tech companies almost exclusively skim off the top. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15543371

That's bs. I work for a big tech company, and do interviews for them as well. Most people went either to a state school, a normal university in another country, or a small liberal arts college. Very few big tech employees have degrees from the "elite" class of universities. The same is true for interviews, the vast majority of interviews are not given to the so-called "elite" class, and the new grads I've interviewed…

True. But there are more prestigious companies than the big tech firms which do this.

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

#334

Post by lambdasquirrel »

alexhutcheson wrote: post #327
closeparen wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the segment of every part of the country that aspires to those costal metro areas. The driving motivation is "get me the hell out of this godforsaken place." The personal cost was immense, but I'm glad I did. I got to do fun and high-impact work at a fast-rising startup while my title and TC leapt up by $50-$100k each year. I got to meet friends from all over the world, travel, hike, run outdoors year-round,…

NYC, SF, Silicon Valley, Seattle, LA, etc. are all full of successful people who went to public universities that didn’t require crazy high school credentials to get into.

If you want to be an engineer and deal with tech culture, sure. We can be a little myopic about that here on HN. Engineering is not "status" oriented, and going to a nice school doesn't have the weight it does, if you want to be doctor and heal people, for example. School still matters. We can't all start startups.

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

#335

Post by idoby »

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.

There are now highways where there used to be fields, rivers or just empty land.

I mean this as much in a figurative sense as in a literal one.

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

#336

Post by [deleted] »

_5yps wrote: post #77
mnky9800n wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, the second tier of Carnegie Mellon and Cornell. Lol.

Second-tier compared to the world's top universities; that is, Harvard, Stanford, Oxford and their ilk. I've seen posts on this website[0] how some big tech companies almost exclusively skim off the top. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15543371

[deleted]

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

#337

Post by m463 »

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…

It was WAY easier to hide from everyone 30 years ago. I had friends who would outrun the police in their cars. A large percentage of young folks had fake ids. When the drinking age was 18 (or lower), kids had to just be cool to get into bars. The penalties for bars and kids were diminished and the police were not as efficient. Kids brought knives to school, and some brought guns to school. Heck, kids learned how to shoot in school. (I'm not talking about inner city scenarios, I took riflery in school). girls and boys got together. Pregnancy was the visible symptom. Kids were horrible to each other. Fights were common. Bullying even more common. It generally went unchecked.

The stuff I didn't realize until decades later -- there was lots of dark stuff, but one surprising thing in front of my eyes every day was one teacher had been habitually drunk in class and I never knew.

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

#338

Post by cschep »

_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…

You're a great writer, thanks for the account!

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

#339

Post by baryphonic »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #102
baryphonic wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there was something I could impart to this generation, it would be this. I deeply admire your commitment to entrepreneurialism and to taking a bit of ownership over what you can learn in terms of "return on investment." However, I would caution you to remember still what is the most rewarding in life. Too often I see a never-ending status tournament for those in the elite schools (all of those mentioned), and it c…

> And if I may be so bold, I believe that many would be well-served by realizing that out there beyond the cosmos above us is something that deeply loves each of us. Unfalsifiable claims like this one tend to have a bit of baggage like eternal punishment. IMO that's one thing plaguing plenty of teens in rural parts of the US. They need fewer overseeing eyes, not more.

> Unfalsifiable claims like this one tend to have a bit of baggage like eternal punishment.

Here's something that is falsifiable and true: the teen suicide rates in the oppressive and orthodox 1950s were much lower than they are in the "liberated" times today. I cannot and will not claim that this can be reduced to belief in a higher power (I would tend to be skeptical of such a just-so argument that fits my worldview without additional data). And in fact, my main point in the GP was not that people should believe in a higher power (though I do think that), but that I hope the younger generation can learn to reject these destructive status games that undeniably cause immense suffering and deprive children of their childhoods.

Furthermore, our culture today routinely indulges in unfalsifiable claims that carry heaps of baggage. What is worse: eternal punishment that you are quite certain is not real, or the very real temporal punishment that can and has ruined lives in response to even inadvertent stumbling through cultural minefields?

> IMO [baggage like eternal punishment is] one thing plaguing plenty of teens in rural parts of the US. They need fewer overseeing eyes, not more.

This may be true as a trend, and insofar as it is, it is lamentable. But it is not nor has it ever been my way. I am here to show love and mercy, to serve and to desire justice; I am not here to pass judgment or hector. And part of that is speaking to what I believe and what I have experienced.

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

#340

Post by doikor »

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…

Note that the Finnish military uses the intelligence test (P1 test) mainly to compare the men within the same arrival group. More specifically within the same unit to pick who go to leadership/speciality school etc. (together with the P2 "personality test")

For us it was done the morning after being on a training exercise in the forest whole weekend with most being lucky if they have gotten more then 3h of sleep per night for the last 2 nights. Also a certain portion answer it badly on purpose (don't want to end in leadership/speciality stuff due to longer service time).

But yeah main thing the military is complaining about new recruits is physical fitness being down (a lot) and thus a lot flunking out and maybe again in a couple years (most of these get permanent "not fit for duty during peace time" after a couple rounds with the doctors over a decade or so)

Also the P1 test to some extent tests your test taking skills. Specifically the kind where you know how to quickly scan over the questions and pick the easiest ones and answer them first. It has a time limit and more questions then most in general can answer within of.

Post reply on HN