Interesting that so many responded this way (especially with U.S.A.'s frequent “Land of the Free” hype :dubious: ).
During the Eisenhower Administration I was a grade-schooler but went on hikes or bike rides alone. Even at age 5 we’d go on long walking adventures accompanied only by other young children. But during the Clinton Administration my much-older nephew and niece were not allowed to go alone to a playground right around the corner.
Doesn’t Michael Moore claim that American socio-economics is based on fear? Could he be right?
(Edits: Oops. OP asked about teens and I answered about grade-schoolers. But some of the comments may still be relevant.)
Although we lean more that way than most European countries.
Only last night there was a 1 hour special on BBC1 prime time about how addictive video games are and the devious tricks they use to get “our children” hooked (like making them entertaining).
I think that in America you have a more defined demarcation into adulthood. You have graduation and prom night, you typically get a driver’s licence and car at, what, 16?
In the UK, we don’t make a fuss about graduation until Uni, prom nights are a recent and still uncommon import, and getting a car and licence at the earliest opportunity (17) is much rarer.
Comparing my own (Irish) 10-18 period with American friends.
I think American kids are hoisted with a lot more responsiblity earlier than me or my peers typically were. Having to learn to use a car responsibly in order to get out of the house wasn’t something that we had to do, although people in more rural areas would have grown up more similarly to American kids.
Irish kids seem to start drinking way earlier than the average American kid would, partly because we have 18 legal drinking age, but also because our culture for so long has been booze-centric. A lot of my friends began experimenting with alcohol (aka getting bananas drunk) from age 12 or 13.
With regard to schooling, I get the impression that American High Schools are more advanced curriculum-wise than their Irish equivalent but that Irish universities are slightly more advanced than the US average. However, university education standards (like many things stateside) seems to vary a lot more than it would here.
Between 10-18 I was outside Ireland a number of times, some of my peers would have been in other countries once maybe twice a year. A lot of my American friends have never been outside North America, especially not when they were that age.
Teenage discos, the mating ritual etc: Here, similar to the UK I imagine, we had teenage discos where a lot of the kids would have been sneaking drink etc. At these debauched events it was typical for kids to get a “snog”. A lot of Irish kids spend their mid-to-late teens (and indeed much of their twenties) meeting and kissing randomers. I dunno what the American equivalent of all this carry on is, but it seems that it might be a bit different.
I don’t want to, but I’m afraid I have to issue you a whoosh.
I was being sarcastic in my preceding post, making fun of the hysterical media’s depiction of games (they really did cite certain features, like improving visuals and interactivity, as some of the unscrupulous tools of the games industry).
You know that’s a funny comparison, right? I mean, my home state alone is more than five times larger than the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland combined.
It depends on the route you take, but yeah, it’s about 400 miles (644 km). That’s the fast, and very very boring route. The more attractive route, on Highway 1, which follows the coast, is closer to 500 miles and is a loooooong trip (I want to say about 9 hours, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done it). But it’s really beautiful.
What do you want to bet that you and I could get together over a bottle of scotch and a globe and I could find a thousand pairs of cities that you don’t know the distance between?
And Kyla, since I had to answer BG’s silly post it gives me a chance to answer yours too, even though it does continue the hijack a bit. I’ve never gotten to drive the Hwy 1 trip, much to my chagrin, but I did do the I-5 trip once - at night no less. An endless ribbon of headlights. Fortunately I like to drive so I enjoyed it anyway.
So Devil’s Slide is open now? It was often closed when I lived around there, in a previous century, with some commuters having to detour via Skyline Blvd. I’ve had dreams of falling off Highway 1 (:eek:) and a friend once spun out DUI hitting a guard rail near Devil’s Slide (:smack:).
What has the size of your state got to do with it? Nobody is suggesting that you walk.
Getting on a plane from Ireland to the US, or Australia, or - well, many places - involves a journey of thousands of miles. Typically the airport is somewhat closer than that.
From the south of one country to the north of the country immediately to its south? Why would you be surprised that it’s close?
How far is it from Detroit to Toronto?
Yeah, the US is physically larger and much less densely populated than most other countries, but I’m not clear on why that would prevent one driving to the local airport.
Dunno, never thought about it. Why would I? Besides, your line of argument about someone flying to the States or Australia is kind of stupid, considering the comment that sparked all this mess was about being outside one’s home country, not one’s home continent. If you’ve looked at a globe, as you suggest the rest of us do, you’ll know there are indeed many, many places outside Ireland that are not, in point of actual fact, the States or Australia.
Most kids in the US have traveled equivalent distances to An Gadai and his buddies (some of them on planes, even!), it’s just that traveling that far won’t get you out of the country. In some cases, it won’t even get you out of the damn state. That’s all anyone is saying. Geez.
But in the US it would more typically be a drive of 200 miles and not a flight. Even in the densely populated east it would be a drive or a train ride than a flight.
