"The Myth of the Teen Brain"

Every time I see this thread title I think, "Oh, so teenagers don't have a brain after all. I always suspected as much...."

 

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We see teens with problems and assume this means they are messed up. I see it more as they are moving into the contradictions of adult life in a sick society. So they haven't learned how to control all their natural reactions to the mass of ugly and confusing stuff that is getting shoved into their brains. Those in the alternative community get more of an overview and some distance from these messages, not that they all avoid all the problems, but I think it helps.

 

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Hey, I'm still a teen, and I resent that!

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I agree - I don't think they should be kept away from other teens but I DO think that they should be given the mental tools to see that teen counterculture for what it is and not let themselves get drawn into it.

Yeah I am likely one of those. I learned social skills artificially and with the help of my mother, and I still did weird shit. (And throw ASDish fits and tear out handfuls of my own hair. In front of a group of kids, no less.)

 

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Thank you for a VERY interesting and fact-filled source!!!

And here's a quote from the notes on that series of productions which squarely points out EXACTLY what I've been saying all the way through this thread which contains a lot of speculative comments that simply do NOT match up with reality:

"The Science:
Scientists are now realising that risk taking is actually a crucial phase of adolescence. By taking risks we force
our brains to make decisions which allow our brains to grow. Until recently it was thought that the brain was
fully developed by the time a child reached their teen years. We now know that the adult brain isn’t fully
formed until well into a person’s twenties. This period of brain growth is central to carving out the future
individual adult. But it also means that certain regions of the brain are still under construction. The brain’s
‘brakes’ don’t yet work, which lead teens to making some poor decisions."

(The italics are mine and were added for emphasis.)

 

Actually, I did - and I think I handled it quite well and fairly.

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I tend to agree, though I have always suspected there is a myth of the male brain as well. It's convenient as it lets us justify our wandering eye and blame out lack of self-control on a quirk of biology rather than a lack of willpower.

 

You do have to remember though not all people are the same.

People are individuals, some teens are very reckless (I was one of those, still am very reckless), some are quite fearful and refuse to take even small risks, still others are in between those extremes.

 

Sure. I believe somewhere in this thread I said that there are *always* exceptions to everything.

 

But making poor decisions doesn't always mean one is reckless. I was not at all a reckless teen. I was very well behaved and very responsible even when my parents were not around. But that didn't absolve me from making some poor choices, these ideas that made perfect sense to me. No matter how much my mother or father kept trying to guide me into making a better choice, what they were saying just didn't make sense. I wasn't purposely rebelling or anything, but what they were saying just didn't seem logical to me. So of course I did it my way, which I found out first hand was not the best way. When I think about it now nearly 7 years later, I can't even understand what my reasoning for that particular decision was. Whatever I was thinking at 15 makes no sense to me now.

If the research is correct, I assume it might be because my brain was wired differently at 15 than it is now. Just like how a three year old's brain is wired differently than a 15 year old's. Through both experience and different thinking processes, a 15 year old can easily understand how it is possible for someone with a birthday in November to be older than someone with a birthday in May. Most three year olds find the logic in that faulty and it doesn't make sense to them. And no matter how much you explain and explain about people being born different years, they just nod, but they don't really get it. All they know is that May is before November, and people born before are older than people born after. I think limited knowledge that only comes with experience, and having a different thought process causes teens to make choices that adults know to be illogical or not well thought out also. Even though the teenager can believe the choice to be completely logical and they may have spent a great deal of time thinking it over.

 

Hmm, I don't remember having problems with making poor decisions. But like I said everyone is different, though I didn't have that problem I was VERY reckless and did a lot of stupid things in the heat of the moment.

Still do, I'm just a few degrees better at controlling it...

 

Isn't that the same thing as making a poor decision?

 

I was just about to say the same thing. (Yes, it is.)

 

Yeah I guess you're right, it comes down to that problem of not having the brakes on yet. (with impulse control)

 

Sorry, Fraggle, I may be getting sleepy (11:45pm here) but I don't follow.

 

Neither do I...

 

That's fine - I can buy that with no problems at all.

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(And every single thing gets repeated again and again at some point.)

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(And then yet again...)