Understanding Teens—Is it Possible?
Posted on 14/02/2012 | 0 Comments
So, our teenagers are a mess. They mostly cause trouble. They are at best annoying and a pain! Sound familiar? Try this on for size: “What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?” Sound familiar? It’s a quote attributed to Plato!
So what are todays teens really like? Reginald Bibby in his book “The Emerging Millennials” provides a fascinating snap shot of todays Canadian teens. His research finds that teens today value their families and their friends. That they share significant concerns and problems with their parents and that they value honesty and personal freedom. Over the last decade, the numbers of teens who smoke, drink alcohol or use cannabis has gone down. More than before they expect to do well at school, to marry and to have children. No you are not hallucinating. Of course they have their problems. We all do. But they are not “lost” or “floundering” as a group. And a recent report of a study in the Globe and Mail highlights similar findings (Youth today? Just like you were, study suggests): http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/youth-today-just-like-you-were-study-suggests/article1504467/ .
So there we have it. No some Freudian fantasy (for example, Anna Freud can be noted as one of the most important people to have created the mythology of the universally troubled team). And so, so different than popular culture would have us believe. For example, here is a quote from a movie critic in the National Post writing about the movie Ferris Buelers Day Off: “Ferris is … what every teenage guy dreams of being: a raging, narcissistic id who gets away with it all. Cameron is an actual teenager: alienated from his parents. painfully insecure, angry, depressed.” Nothing could be further from the truth!
I gave a lecture at the Academy of Medicine in Halifax last night. The title of the talk was: Modern teens, their brains and their lives - a primer for grandparents. If you are interested in reviewing the materials, you can link to it here: Canada's Youth. Enjoy and remember. Teens are just like adults, only maybe a bit more fun!
--Stan
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This is a great set of comments and rings very true.
I totally agree that scientists (just like everyone else) have their biases and foibles. After all, scientists are human beings too! But science is different than scientists.
The scientific method is the most objective frame that we have by which to evaluate and predict. Science is not about finding truth. It is only about being less wrong most of the time. The scientific method (experimental design and mathematics) gives us the ability to test what we believe. The scientific method is not used to prove something is correct, on the contrary, the scientific method is designed to prove that something is not correct! It is designed to test what is called the “null hypothesis”. It takes ideas that come out of left field (or wherever else they come from) and puts those ideas to an independent test.
t does not drive our beliefs. It does however challenge our beliefs. In that way it is self-correcting. Of course scientific inquiry and understanding lives within a wider social context. That is one of the great features of science.
But gravity is gravity, social context notwithstanding. And thus it is nasty, brutish and long. As Brecht said, (something like this) - the purpose of science is to save us from everlasting error.
By Christina Carew on May 11th
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