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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)

#91

Post by IIAOPSW »

_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…

>The main thing I notice among my peers is an obsessive (borderline autistic) focus on "getting in" and having good credentials. Enjoying your life and doing things that you take pride in are secondary to the all-encompassing drive to impress people who know nothing about you.

This sickness was around a decade ago when I was in HS but it sounds like its gotten worse.

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

#92

Post by mettamage »

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…

I think there are two factors for this in my case:

- My environment wasn't batshit crazy, my parents environment was. In part because of their class, in another part because of the time.

- They gave me advice that they couldn't get, like "don't smoke, don't do drugs, alcohol is bad for you in the long run, etc." Back then people simply didn't know, or didn't know well enough.

I'm sure I'd turn out like them if I'd have lived in their circumstances. The world is simply becoming a better place, and in part it's because around 1945 it was an awefully shitty one to such an extent that the world was still reeling from it in the seventies. I daresay that it takes 2 generations to smooth the sharpest of edges.

Disclaimer: armchair historian here.

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

#94

Post by cameronbrown »

switch007 wrote: post #90
_5yps wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not true that nobody's fucking. The LGBT kids fuck to an extent, as do some of the lower achievers, but even then it's nowhere near as much as I expected. I'm surprised to hear you compliment my writing style. I always thought it was subpar - too many clauses, a slew of unnecessary qualifiers and weasel words, no shortage of kludges for things I can't express very well. I tend to be better at it after I've been…

> The LGBT kids fuck to an extent, as do some of the lower achievers, but even then it's nowhere near as much as I expected. I'm trying to be charitable and not over-interpret the juxtaposition of "LGBT" and "lower achievers". I'm surprised you have so much time to study who is having sex. Quite remarkable.

Those are orthogonal concepts anyway

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

#95

Post by DC-3 »

_630w wrote: post #22

I am also curious about the effect of "private" communication channels for kids. They can be hidden to parents and friends irl but still remain public online. I have seen many groups of depressed teens online without adults or someone with experience in them. They all encourage each other to be more depressed because they all have a similarly sad life. The only perspective that gets shared is that life sucks and it i…

> I think before the digital age, it must have been hard to do it irl or not?

Isn't this the stereotypical 'goth' group or such like? I reckon sad kids have always found other sad kids to cling together with.

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

#96

Post by luckylion »

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 past.

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

#97

Post by Theodores »

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.

Music was different during the illegal rave days in the UK. It brought people together to party. Kids were doing the organising and not to make money. You would work with your friends to pull off an event that could be a house party for 25 to 100 people or some event for 200 to 2000 people. Some people got to play records and be the DJ, some got to sell drugs to their mates (mostly at cost), some got to get laid and everyone got to dance. You would have a network of people able to do sound systems, lights, decor and whatever else needed. Publicity was word of mouth with no social media or even mobile phones.

Eventually the music died along with the organising capability. Nowadays there are organised festivals with security, laws to obey and profits to make. Kids go to these proper events as spectators rather than participants. There is nothing subversive about it.

The culture that went with the rave party scene in the UK was a reaction to the Thatcher government. Temporary autonomous party zones where the police were powerless were wonderfully exciting. Today I don't stumble across the equivalent scene when travelling at night. There is no equivalent going on, young people are just not having the same fun. It is consumer capitalism all the way.

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

#98

Post by snazz »

_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

CMU is definitely "top five" for CS, though (at least in the US, which is mostly where the big tech companies recruit from anyway). And while going to a top school might be an advantage at somewhere like Google, you have good odds of getting in even if you don't. There are other ways of differentiating yourself that are more effective.

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

#99

Post by kick »

mnky9800n wrote: post #66
_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…

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

While CMU is huge in computing, it's lacking in prestige. Cornell is most-frequently referred to as a 'fake Ivy' everywhere college discussion can be found, and has been since the 1980s. I direct the audience's attention to the results of the search query "fake ivy university":

https://www.google.com/search?q=fake+ivy+university

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

#100

Post by [deleted] »

searchableguy wrote: post #4
twomoretime wrote: post #2

After decades of increasingly rebellious movements, it seems like the last few have been rebellion for the sake of rebellion - progress for the sake of progress. Perhaps this is the pendulum swinging back.

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

[deleted]
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