How come? They are always up to no good, no matter what!
Is it something to do with growing up?
What about tattoos?
Teens are young and stupid and will do anything.
Can’t wait for the factual answer on this.
And what about that insistence on growing up? It seems as if they’ve shot another inch every time you look at them! And they get body hair! Why? They were all so cute when they were three!
Well I can’t speak for all teenagers, but I started selling crack to my neighbours’ kids when they were 10, so that accounts for them.
Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way? What’s the matter with kids today?
“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”
― attributed to Socrates
The main problem with kids today is that they are on my lawn.
IMHO it’s a lot to do with taking control. As kids it was do this, don’t do that, go there, do what you are told. Now they are stretching their wings and looking for things that they can do off their own bat. Having sex is one of course, but for the most part that’s a private thing (mostly solo). Having a tattoo or a stud says “Look at me… I’m all grown up - I can make my own decisions now.”
Most teenagers don’t get tats or body piercings apart from conventional ear rings. Many find other ways of expressing themselves like jumping off high rocks, revving engines late at night and so on - just as teenagers have been doing since time immemorial.
Not a General Question. Moved to IMHO.
samclem, moderator
As far as piercing/tattoos there is a definite endorphin rush that makes the process enjoyable. Tattoos hurt. A needle going through your nipple hurts. But on some level the sensation can be appreciated.
Kids don’t do more drugs than adults. Especially when you throw in prescription drugs.
Teens emerging into adulthood often adopt some style that loudly illustrates, while they are now adult (and choose their own clothes, hairstyles, etc), they are definitely NOT an adult of the parents generation.
The problem comes from a youth worshiping culture wherein 40yr olds are coopting youth style to ‘stay young and relevant’. Think Mom jeans and leisure suits. This drives teens into tattoo and piercing territory, as it can define/announce them, with no fear of the style being co opted by 40yr olds trying to look hip!
So thirty and forty something’s youth worshiping, style stealing ways, pretty much gives rise to affectations such as piercings, I think. Now imagine what the next generation will have to do for attention!
Sent On My Tapascribe.
Back home they just look terribly preppy. I was talking with a friend about it, he said “they make me and my HS pals look like escapees from the set of The Wild One” (the closer any of them got to motorcycles and leather is that one had a 49cc Vespino) “yeah well, remember José Luis and his pink vests and grey slacks?” “Oh god yes… HAH! OK.”
José Luis was so preppy they would have had to invent the word just for him. He’d wear knit vests in pastel colors, perfectly pressed slacks… a classmate once asked him “so why do you dress like that” and the answer was “pisses my mother off no end :D” His mother had a hippy store and still dressed (well, still does) as if she was in Eivissa in 1969.
That nice Mrs. Betty Gutrumble from the book club at the Methodist church used to tell me that it was because the teens were young, dumb and full of cum.
There’s a certain degree of believing you’re immortal when you’re that age; I mean, intellectually, you know that your health will eventually decline, you’ll become aged, and you’ll die. But that’s DECADES away; thus far in your life, you’ve only become bigger, stronger and more capable, and for the most part, the only people you’ve seen die were just so OLD, or it was a random unavoidable thing like childhood diseases or wrecks where their parents were driving.
So things that a 40 year old would realize are permanent, or that have a risk of death/injury/disablement, are things that teenagers and 20-somethings see as fun, or acceptable risks. It’s not at all surprising that getting tattoos or smoking doesn’t seem so bad as a teenager.
Being older, we see the risks and rewards, and assess those differently, having more experience to draw from. I suspect that if we didn’t age, or could switch bodies “Old Man’s War” style, then we’d probably have a totally different conception of stuff like this- it’s experience that makes them unappealing to older people.
nm
Why did teens in the 70s wear bell bottoms? The answer is the same: fashion.
For fun.
It also seems like teens are far more homosexual/lesbian and bisexual than in the past. Certainly to some extent because it is mostly acceptable to come out of the closet now, but I wonder if it’s also just a trendy way to be and gets attention/sympathy.
Elderly rambling over, get off my lawn!