A View on Teenage Generation

  Alison Gopnik's "What's Wrong With The Teenage Mind? "presents science as a reason for youth to reach puppetry at a younger age and adulthood at an older one, thus creating "teenage weirdness." Gopnik agrees that "If you think of the teenage brain as a car, today's adolescents acquire an accelerator a long time before they can steer and brake." The article states that there are two different neural and psychological systems that help turn teenagers into adults. The first system deals with emotion and motivation. "It is very closely linked to the biological and chemical changes of puberty..." This system is what makes young children become restless and emotional teens. The second system deals with control. It harnesses our energy. This system helps our decision-making and impulses. Gopnik hopes that by using this information "We can actually shape and change..." The adolescent brain.

Who is Gopnik to judge the mind of a teenager? Was she not once one of us? Gopnik asks “What happened to the gifted, imaginative child…” Well, that child has entered the world of a teenager. This world is harder than any other world that exists. That child has just entered a world full of heartbreak, hopelessness, and hate. The article states that children are reaching puberty faster and adulthood later. I disagree. Teenagers of this generation are having to grow up faster than ever. We are going through the hardest time of our lives, and having to go through situations adults can’t even handle. Gopnik states that the reason for teenage “weirdness” is two biological systems that have become unbalanced over time. She concludes that these unbalanced systems create reckless energetic teens. The teens I know are tired and very low on energy. What teens are Gopnik referring to? The teens today are nothing like the ones described in the article. Gopnik agrees that “... children have very little experience with the kinds of tasks that they’ll have to perform as grown-ups.”  In the video “ A Vision of Students Today” we learned that most students are being prepared for jobs that don’t even exist yet.  Why are we so overlooked? From the viewpoint of this article we are a reckless weird underprepared generation. Gopnik suggests that getting summer jobs would be a good opportunity for”real responsibilities.” We do have real responsibilities. Although we may be stereotyped as the lazy, irresponsible generation we still have many things to balance, like school homework jobs and homelife. Gopnik closes the article by saying “The good news, in short, is that we don’t have to just accept the developmental patterns of adolescent brains. We can actually shape and change them.” Who are you to even suggest altering the mind of a human? Let alone a child growing into the person they will spend their life being. Particles in our body do not decide what type of person we will be. We decide that ourselves.

It doesn't Stop in High School, Body Image Problems Continue

In the article “The Sorority Body-Image Problem”, Catherine Mitchell from North Carolina describes the harsh criticism and negative effects of selfimage judging caused by sororities. Catherine received only one offer from the 10 sororities she put in for. As she confirmed her choice she cried. From the beginning she had felt that sorority life was not for her. She states that she was constantly judged for her weight which she had always been comfortable with before college. Frequently matching uniforms were chosen for rush. These outfits were often ones she could not wear. The author was put on kitchen duty or put somewhere out of sight during rush. During sorority inspections “ a state pageant-queen-turned-image-consultant came to our house to give us a crash course on proper femininity… she proceeded to critique our appearances and make recommendations. ‘My husband won’t even look at me if I walk around without my makeup on...’ right before she encouraged us to buy the new products in her personal makeup line.” The article states that research shows that women with higher BMIs have a bad experience sometimes even before joining a sorority. “They report more negative feelings during rush.” Studies have also shown that sorority membership have a negative effect on eating behavior and correlate with eating disorders.”

This article was extremely interesting. Sorority situations have always been disturbing. In movies and stories girls will line you up in your bra and panties and circle your fat in red marker. That seems a bit much. When we come out of the movie world it seems equivalent to what's occurring in real life. Mitchell states, “I’ve always had issues with my weight, but I had always done what I wanted to do, regardless of what my body looked like. My sorority put my positive body image to the test.” What does this say about the impact of “sisters” on each other in a sorority? This is no different than discrimination of skin color or religion. Girls with different traits are given different treatment. Whether this treatment be positive or negative; why are girls treated differently because of the way they look. Does discrimination effect most college decisions? Not only inside the sorority but out? In the case of Fisher vs. Texas one student was not accepted while another was when she had a lower GPA. The student was not accepted even though she had better grades and was involved in more activities. Her argument was that she was not accepted because she was white. How does discrimination hurt student experiences? Students like Catherine state, “What I didn’t know was how stressful and demoralizing the experience would be…” What can be done to limit the discrimination caused in college?