Being a teenager, I know that a LOT of people have it programmed into their minds that teenagers are all juvenile delinquents. I have had people pull their children away when they were walking towards me (I was wearing pants with bondage straps…otherwise I looked pretty “normal”).
I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to why people think this. I realize that teenagers are statistically supposed to be loud, unruly, shoplift, etc. But I’m looking for something a little deeper here. As well, I’d like anyone’s opinions on teenagers, and what your automatic thoughts are when you see one.
As a teenage (16) I have been pulled over in a car with a teenage driver 5 times. On one occasion the driver was speeding. On all the occasions the cop serched the car. On the 2 occasions the cop a lame excuse to pull us over (example: Taillight out) On the other 2 the cop had gave no reason other than that we “looked supsicious”.
Out side of a few run-ins with cops I’ve had no discrimination for being a teen.
I hang out with geeks and nerds. We’re about the most unthreatening people out there until we buy guns and go Columbine one day. I’ve never experienced any hassle about my age.
As a teacher (aka. your sworn enemy), I find most older teenagers (15+) to be easy to work with for the most part. The younger teens and pre-teens are, in many cases, pure undistilled evil.
Of course some teens are just trouble, then again there are 30 year olds who are unruly, rude, and prone to shoplifting and vandalism as well. I live and work in a relatively low income area where many teenagers are living ‘adult’ lives. The 17 and 18 year olds I know are juggling school, a part time or full time job, and family (in some cases their own children, in many cases younger siblings - as their own parents work so much as well).
I am wary of groups of thuggish looking teen boys. I think most people are. but many people can’t distinguish too easily between truly malevolent kids and kids that just are normal teens. An elderly neighbor of mine asked me if I was afraid to work at my school, since when he goes by there all he sees are “gang members”. I don’t know of any gang activity at my school, but all the baggy jeans, bandanas, caps, jerseys, and so on that many of the kids wear creates that impression. Of course this clothing is banned in the school, but after class when the kids meet along the street and at nearby fast food joints, it all magically appears.
I know these kids, and for them, these clothes just what they see on TV and buy at the mall. But I imagine to a lot of adults
not familiar with them, they look like the Crips and Bloods out there!
I don’t have anything against teenagers. My oldest daughter is 15, and some combo of goth/punk. I don’t allow body piercings, or clothing that would be considered indecent, but while I don’t like the baggy pants, bondage straps, arm warmers, etc. I don’t stop her from wearing them. She has friends with body piercings, mohawks, purple hair, all that stuff. Most of them are OK. MY number one rule is that if you show up at my house stoned, you don’t come back to my house. I’ve had to enforce this rule a couple of times. But I’ve never had one of her friends steal anything from us, or destroy anything on our property or anything. I try to remember that when I was a teenager, my mother hated the way I dressed, and didn’t trust most of my friends who, for the most part, were pretty trustworty. IOW, what goes around comes around.
The one thing I don’t understand is when my daughter says that being a punk means you don’t care what other people think about how you look. I say bullshit! It’s all about other people caring. Otherwise, she would never deem a pair of pants “not punk enough”, etc.
Welcome to the boards, Jamie, and keep an eye out for my punk/goth daughter, gothiebaby
[slight hijack]The idea of “evil” teenagers, as far as I’m aware, started with the idea of “superpredators” around the 1980s (granted, I was still a wee kid then, so I may be misremembering). The idea was that broken homes and poverty in the inner city were going to create swarming hordes of amoral teenagers who would rob, rape, and murder with impunity, and only by treating teenage criminals in the same fashion as we would adult criminals could we ever stem the tide. Well, it’s 2003. Still no rampaging horde of superpredators. But we’re still trying thirteen-year olds as adults, and sending them to adult prisons instead of juvenile reformatories. Of course, at the adult prisons, they learn from the older cons (if they aren’t abused by them), are hardened instead of reformed and emerge… That’s right. Superpredators. We were right all along! [/slight hijack].
I would actually feel more comfortable around a group of goth or punk teenagers than around a group of expensively dressed, well groomed teenage girls. This could perhaps have something to do with the fact that I was a massive, massive geek in high school.
When you hit your teen years, a lot of things fall into place.
Over a very short period of time, you suddenly develop abilities to accomplish things physically and mentally that you never could have dreamed of before. You begin to experience many moments where the world feels like it’s in the palm of your hand.
Of course, then you grow into adulthood, and you realize you were out of your mind to think it could ever be that simple. You look at teenagers, who, apart from a number of exceptions, are basically all right, and they’re just so CLUELESS about things that there are no words to warn them with (like they’d listen), that they’ll just have to strumble through for themselves. Watching them perform these stumnbling routines resurrects memories of our own painful lessons learned.
Anything that can put us through that kind of anguish MUST be evil.
I, a 16 year old, assure you that I am not evil.* There are good and bad teenagers, just like there are good and bad kids and good and bad adults.
*My parents and little brother might disagree.
A few possible reason for widespread fear and loathing of teenagers:
We hate you because you remind us that we’ve gotten old and ugly and are going to die soon.
That loud, violent music you all listen to is nothing like the loud, violent music we used to listen to.
If he talks like a thug, and walks likes a thug, we have to consider he may be a thug.
We have no idea what you’re talking about half the time, and we fear what we don’t understand.
The idea of disturbed, dangerous teenagers is a useful and profitable one for treatment centers, certain “news” organizations, politicians, &c.
Teens are more likely to flout established social conventions (at least what older people recognize as conventions) in the way they dress, talk, &c. People may assume this translates into a disregard for social norms in general.
We remember what we were like as teens, and although most of us weren’t exactly evil, we may not have fullly formed the ideals we now take for granted.
Adults may be more cautious because we feel they have more to lose in a confrontation.
Some people are slower than others in developing social skills. A shy or awkward teen my seem rude and aloof to adults.
Teens who do act up are more noticeable than those who don’t.
That last one works in reverse, too. Adults who treat teens with contempt and hostility are probably more noticeable than those who don’t.
You mentioned statistics in your OP, and although I don’t have any to cite, I was under the impression more teens are hurt by adults than vice versa. It’s j
Welcome to the board, Jamie. Just don’t cause trouble. And clean up your room, will you?
Yessssssss! There is nothing on this planet more wicked, vile and contemptible than a junior high school girl. Pure evil, I say. And am I the only one who didn’t go through the “experimental phase”? Sure I did with my ideas, but my style of dress has remained the same; whatever fits.
I’m 15, 16 this year and i guess i’m what i’d call punk. I wear baggy jeans, trainers, coloured beads, arm warmers and have pink and black hair. Me and my friends are constantly discriminated just for looking the way we are, and being young.
Generally anyone who knows me say I am extremley reasonable, generous, kind-hearted e.c.t but because I have a nose ring and wear black nail polish i’m assumed to be a trouble maker.
I find this extremley unfair and I think everyone should think twice about the old saying ‘never judge a book by its cover’ because it comes in force here alot.
Generalising is facism.
The problem is, people will judge you by your appearance. That’s just the way the world works. Being a teenager, you are no doubt very ideological, and believe that you should stick to your guns and refuse to adapt to (what you view as) the unreasonable expectations of society. When society refuses to follow your ideals, you become indignant, because it makes no sense that people act like they do. Why can’t they accept you for who you are instead of what you look like? Can’t they see how stupid they’re being? Why can’t they realize that your own ideal vision of society is superior to how things currently are?
Unfortunately, that state of mind is a bit naïve. It’s not society’s job to adapt to you, it’s your job to adapt to society. Don’t get me wrong, sticking to your ideals is a noble thing. But when the ideals are as trivial as hair color and unusual attire, life becomes much easier when you finally learn to compromise.
Just look at practically any adult, and you’ll see someone who once had (and probably still has) high ideals. It’s just that they’ve discovered that being a rebel about it is counterproductive. You can accomplish more by working with the system than against it.
And that, I think, is one of the reasons that teenagers are considered “bad news”. They’re too young to have had their ideals tempered by reality yet, so they tend to go in their own direction, which very often is against the normal flow. It is only later in life where you begin to see the benefit of modifying things like your behavior and appearance to get society to work for you, instead of ignoring society and having it work against you.
I have the worlds greatest teenager. Even when I’m upset with him or he with me… He’s still the best teenager I.ve ever known. He’s more mature and a better human being than quite a few adult men I’ve met.
I have to ask the teens if they think the adults are the evil ones.
Seriously. I am the type to always smile and say hello to neighbors and make smalltalk at McD’s, but when it comes to teens more often than not I’m always greeted with a sneer.
The thing is, I think I would probably prefer spending time with younger people. My teen daughter knows how to have FUN. Her friends I really love. But they don’t really consider me THEIR friends, know what I mean? They don’t seem to trust me because I’m…OLD!
I don’t know about “evil” (though teens do consistently have a much higher crime-rate than adults), but I’d say that a disproportionate number of teens are assholes. Most teenage assholes seem to age out of it, probably because, after awhile, they’ve just been burned too many times (i.e., what goes around comes around).
Being a teenager is the best time to experiment with appearances… after all, you’re young and don’t have to worry about whether or not you’ll get that vital promotion at work that will put food in the bellies of your three kids, etc. Might as well have the fun while you can!
One of the things I don’t miss about being a teenager is that me and my friends were always blatantly followed around in stores, as if we were going to shoplift at any moment. Sometimes when I’m in a store I still think about that.
The only complaint I have about the some of the teenaged boys where I work is that I sometimes see them damaging company property. Although young women and all adults are just as capable of vandalism, I’ve never seen a teenaged girl or adults destroying anything at work. Just the young guys. That pisses me off to no end because it’s disrespectful to all of us.
As a teenager, I’d have to answer the OP’s question by saying “Yes. Yes we are.”
Maybe the succinct nature of the above reply reveals my immaturity, unwillingness to face the broader depth of this issue, and teenage tendency to generalize and oversimplify things. Or maybe not.
Well, I’m just now finishing a book written by Barbara Strauch (Medical and Science editor for the New York Times) called “The Primal Teen”.
She (and the scientists she references) might say that the root of it all is the prefrontal cortex. That is the “command center” of the brain, which decides what is appropriate and what is not. This section of the brain develops later than the rest of the brain. The effect of this can be seen in the inherent riskyness or impulsiveness of a teenager. Teens don’t often have the experience to know what may or may not be appropriate in life, and to think through what they do. They often don’t have the mental structure to allow them to control their behaviors enough. Furthermore, in many younger teens, the pure ability think ahead and predict problems, beyond even remembering to actually do it, may be lacking.
Oh, and I’m a teenage male who has two tickets and an accident on his driving record, and is in serious danger of flunking out of school. (Just turned 18 two weeks ago today).
