Golden Deer Pub Community Forums

I do think its a little extreme to say that all teenagers are sinister, and as Yuna pointed out thats a logical fallacy (something I learned when I was a teenager..), that they are beings that are either overdeveloped children or underdeveloped adults. And Boss is probably just being extreme for the sake of making a point (though I could be mistaken...). But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a point.

LENGTHY DIATRIBE TO FOLLOW

[spoiler]Its true that not all teenagers are all bad all the time, and at one point not so awfully long ago I was a young troublemaker who got up to all kinds of nonsense that probably pissed off all of the adults around me. I also didn't fill out my bank deposit slips, which is even worse. And when I look back on it, I'm not even that bad compared to a lot of people I knew. My nonsense was almost all in good fun, and I tried to be the voice of reason within my group of friends so that we didn't get arrested or destroy anything, or hurt anyone. Seriously, what good comes of making fun of the girl who is pregnant in her senior year of high school?

By and large teenagers are obnoxious, self absorbed, loud, attention seekers with little to no respect for authority, either real or imagined, regardless of whether or not that authority is justified. For every one teenager who volunteers at the animal shelter, there are ten that throw fireworks at stray cats, for every one that befriends an outcast, theres ten that insult them, for every one that quietly watches a movie, theres ten giggling/talking/rutting teens, and for every single one that drives even close to safely, theres hundreds more that can't even park between the lines, or don't care to. The point is that there certainly are teenagers who are more or less well adjusted, kind, aware, and functional. I'd like to think that aside from my occasional half-drunk tomfoolery and what have you, that I was one of them. They do exist, but they are so dismally overshadowed by their kin that its nearly impossible to notice.

(Seriously I go to the movies all the fucking time, and have since I was 15 or 16, but these days I go on weekdays whenever possible so that 10 minutes into the movie a herd of teenagers doesn't walk in and then stand at the front arguing about where to sit.)

I think it also depends on how you define "teenager", which seems to mostly rely on ages that have a "-teen" suffix in them, so 13-19. This is usually pretty accurate. But I think that the sinister lack or regard for the rest of the human race lies in something else entirely, and is not restricted to age. Its mostly a responsibility issue. Teenagers are physically and mentally capable of acting like adults, but they bear very few of the consequences that adults would face for misdeeds. The world is a lot more forgiving when you're a teenager, even if you think everyones out to get you. For the most part, people have family to fall back on, and the law as well as school treat them a lot more gently than those same institutions do for adults. I have friends who have barely changed since we were 16, simply because their parents have continued to bail them out whenever theres trouble. One of my friends had his entire university experience, including his rent and bills, paid for by his parents. Which is not a bad thing, and its awesome that his parents were able to do that, but it created a kind of extended adolescence.

While he matured, and I would hardly say he was writing bad poetry in his room or anything like that, this often resulted in teenager like behavior. Trying to coax me into going out drinking on a weekday evening, when I responded with "I have to work at 8 AM", it was inevitably "So?". I think you see things like this in teenagers pretty often. The lack of responsibility spawns a lack of regard for those who do have it, more than likely out of the inability to understand. Theres little to no consequence for their actions, so why not do whatever they want. Its one thing to stay up too late drinking in high school, and miss your first 3 classes, its another thing entirely to stay up too late drinking as an adult, show up to work 3 hours late, get fired, and not be able to pay your mortgage or something. Or what if someone yells something obscene at you or your friend, and you punch them? Probably get suspended for a few days. Do that as an adult, and you might end up in court, with a criminal record, and in county jail. But to a teenager the consequence for them is so small that they can't even understand how that action might effect others. They have no experience with consequences, so what harm could possibly befall anyone?

Certainly not all teenagers are bad, nor are all adults mature, good people, and nobody suddenly gets their maturity card when they turn 20, it varies from person to person depending on experience. But this much is true, the gap of responsibility between adults and teenagers is simply ridiculous, and teenagers, particularly those under 18, simply do whatever they want, on whatever impulse, regardless of anyone else, because of a lack of consequence or responsibility to their actions. Of course this manifests differently in different teenagers. Some of them might simply be too loud or vulgar in a restaurant, others might drive dangerously, and some might beat up homeless people. Anyway...
[/spoiler]

tl;dr Not all teenagers are bad, though most of them are, and not all adults are good, but there really isn't a clear demarcation zone, and an adult without responsibility or consequence can be just as vapid and annoying as a teenager. Just look at Paris Hilton!

I regret nothing!

[spoiler]Well, I actually do regret that I frequently shut myself down and didn't do whatever I wanted to do because I didn't want to deal with people standing in my way. I could have gotten a much bigger headstart on becoming awesome if I had just put some of the people-stuff out of my mind and done my own thing. Like finishing learning the piano-forte. I didn't, because I didn't want to attract attention and expectations.

I'm not as good as I want to be because I gave a damn about people and defying them when I should have cared about important stuff and ignored people. Ironically, now I'm worried about disappointing people I care about as a result of worrying about defying people I didn't like.[/spoiler]

That makes for more awkward last words though, PLA. Better stick to the first part.

You know, I find I don't mind teenagers as such, not much anyway. A few of the most tiresome coworkers I've had have been teenagers, but not even 50% of the teenagers have been bad coworkers. Etc.

Experience has taught me, however, that what I cannot stand is groups of teenagers. Ohgod it's an entirely different story. Teens would be just fine without all the . . . teen stuff that they get into.

At my workplace, groups of teenaged customers are by far the most irritating to wait on. They snicker, make noise, utter rude comments, test boundaries, and are the only groups to have committed vandalism.

Groups of people, when together, are far more predictable than individuals, and when they get into those little insectoid units, most of the stereotypes about teens seem very true indeed.

Groups of adults tend to revert into teenage.

"Teenager" is a rather charged word for this. It boils down to immaturity, really. It's less of age as it is a mental state, as it were. And it comes down to that being something typically attached to age. Those younger have to prove to be "wise beyond their years" rather than that being the norm. Similarly, immature "adults" isn't the norm but it's the same level of general disdain when it occurs.

To say otherwise is quite ridiculous. Poking and prodding back at it is hilariously proving the point. And now someone may misconstrue that so we can continue for another page.

Ah, but it's much more evident in Sweden, where particularly bad teenagers are consistently called fourteen year olds, be they older or younger than fourteen. :3