Ask a Teenager!

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2006-09-25 01:47am

While browsing the forums, I've noticed people wondering what exactly is going through teenagers' heads when they do whatever it is that they do. Plus, there's ought to be people that are simply curious.

So the purpose of this thread is for people to ask an SDN teenager as to what the heck is(n't) going on in the minds of these "young adults". I'll do my best to answer, and other similarly-agend people are also welcome to explain, if possible.

So go ahead and ask those questions that you would never get a straight answer from anywhere else. Who knows, maybe you'll learn something? Or as least go "Hmm, that's amusing."

Fuzzy · Post by **Fuzzy** » 2006-09-25 02:38am

Ooh ooh! I want to answer too! I qualify!

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-09-25 03:02am

Are you aware that barring some major unforseen catastrophe, the future will in fact continue beyond the next twenty minutes? And if so, why do you fail to act that way?

There's plenty about teenagers I understand. Bucking authority is part of growing up. Thinking you know everything is inexperience. But again and again and again, professionally and elsewhere, I've seen teenagers act as if they're completely unaware that the decisions they make will have unpleasant consequences that will manifest themselves in the future. And not 30 years from now, like smoking. I mean shit like skipping detention after you've been warned you'll get suspended for not showing up.

Fuzzy · Post by **Fuzzy** » 2006-09-25 03:10am

RedImperator wrote:Are you aware that barring some major unforseen catastrophe, the future will in fact continue beyond the next twenty minutes? And if so, why do you fail to act that way?

In my case, it usually happens to due to extreme laziness. I'm not the kind of person to create much trouble, but I have been known to ignore things I shouldn't.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2006-09-25 03:19am

RedImperator wrote:Are you aware that barring some major unforseen catastrophe, the future will in fact continue beyond the next twenty minutes? And if so, why do you fail to act that way?

Testosterone poisioning or something. If I don't have/take time to think shit through I tend to revert to Og the caveman and do stupid shit. I would like to point out though, that I don't skip detention because my mom wouldn't put up with that shit and raised me well enough to accecpt my punishment for doing stupid shit.

Dominus Atheos · Post by **Dominus Atheos** » 2006-09-25 03:20am

RedImperator wrote:Are you aware that barring some major unforseen catastrophe, the future will in fact continue beyond the next twenty minutes? And if so, why do you fail to act that way?

I mean shit like skipping detention after you've been warned you'll get suspended for not showing up.

So, you're saying if I don't stay after school for an hour, and instead go hang out with all my friends, you'll reward me with a whole day to go hang out with my friends? Fuck yeah! Thanks a lot old timer, you're the best!

What you fail to understand is, a lot of kids don't want to go to school, and only go because it's the best social networking place a teenager can go. It's a pretty stupid idea to punish kids who skip school, with another day of from school.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-09-25 03:38am

Dominus Atheos wrote:
RedImperator wrote:Are you aware that barring some major unforseen catastrophe, the future will in fact continue beyond the next twenty minutes? And if so, why do you fail to act that way?

I mean shit like skipping detention after you've been warned you'll get suspended for not showing up.
So, you're saying if I don't stay after school for an hour, and instead go hang out with all my friends, you'll reward me with a whole day to go hang out with my friends? Fuck yeah! Thanks a lot old timer, you're the best!

Any suspension worth its salt requires a parent or guardian to sign the kid back in the next day. Does your mom appreciate having to take time off from work because you're a dumbfuck?

Or you could do it the way my high school did it and replace suspension with 3-to-7 school. You get the day off, alright. Instead, you spend four hours every evening for the length of the punishment sitting in the detention room under the watchful eye of a teacher who's pissed off he drew "babysit the dipshits" duty that week with a mandate to prevent you from drawing, sleeping, talking, eating, or reading for pleasure for four hours.

What you fail to understand is, a lot of kids don't want to go to school, and only go because it's the best social networking place a teenager can go. It's a pretty stupid idea to punish kids who skip school, with another day of from school.

Oh I understand it plenty. And I've had plenty of kids sing me that tune. Funny how they're not singing it a day or two or three later when mommy drags their sorry carcasses back in. The music stops come report card time, too, when the work they missed and never bothered making up drags their average from an A to a C. Or a C to an F.

And of course, after you finally come back to school, you have to serve the detention anyway, or you get suspended again. There's some quality cost/benefit analysis.

Dominus Atheos · Post by **Dominus Atheos** » 2006-09-25 04:21am

RedImperator wrote:
Dominus Atheos wrote:
RedImperator wrote:Are you aware that barring some major unforseen catastrophe, the future will in fact continue beyond the next twenty minutes? And if so, why do you fail to act that way?

I mean shit like skipping detention after you've been warned you'll get suspended for not showing up.
So, you're saying if I don't stay after school for an hour, and instead go hang out with all my friends, you'll reward me with a whole day to go hang out with my friends? Fuck yeah! Thanks a lot old timer, you're the best!
Any suspension worth its salt requires a parent or guardian to sign the kid back in the next day. Does your mom appreciate having to take time off from work because you're a dumbfuck?

I didn't know that, probably because I wasn't ever suspended when I was in high school.

What you fail to understand is, a lot of kids don't want to go to school, and only go because it's the best social networking place a teenager can go. It's a pretty stupid idea to punish kids who skip school, with another day of from school.
Oh I understand it plenty. And I've had plenty of kids sing me that tune. Funny how they're not singing it a day or two or three later when mommy drags their sorry carcasses back in. The music stops come report card time, too, when the work they missed and never bothered making up drags their average from an A to a C. Or a C to an F.

Many teachers at my school would pass a kid if he or she passed the final, regardless of their actual grade. Some would pass a kid just to get them out of their hair, no matter if they learned a single thing or not.

And yes, it is bullshit.

And of course, after you finally come back to school, you have to serve the detention anyway, or you get suspended again. There's some quality cost/benefit analysis.

I did not know that.

Back on topic, most teenagers are more concerned with instant gratification. It doesn't really register with them that if they miss that detention now, they will be suspended later. I ask you this, how many kids do you see that skip school, get and skip detention, and get suspended on a regular basis, and go on to graduate? I would bet that most kids shape up after it happens enough time that it really registers, or they stop coming to school all together.

thejester · Post by **thejester** » 2006-09-25 05:51am

I'm still a teenager! Pick me!

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-09-25 07:08am

how about proving your maths?

I know I hated it when I was in high school, but the height of accomplishment for me was college trig and proving that the teacher made a common mistake in terms of order of solving when grading our last test, yes, I got the point back and the animosity of most of the class (who had done the same thing the teacher did)

note the whole purpose of proving it, is to show that you understand the process by which you come to the conclusion, not just memorizing what was said by rote. this is one of the backbones of learning to properly question authority, and yet every teen I know (including myself when I was still younger then 21) hate to prove their maths.

defanatic · Post by **defanatic** » 2006-09-25 12:07pm

Oh, that's not true. I could never remember the lowest point in a quadratic formula. So I worked it out at the start of a test or exam, and wrote it in the corner on a page. This was in year 10, BTW. I'm 18 now (for nearly a week

!).

Pick · Post by **Pick** » 2006-09-25 01:37pm

I'd say that you could ask me, but I've never been particularly representative of teenagers as a whole. If you do want to know what nerdy girls talk about, etc., then you can go ahead and inquire

.

Redleader34 · Post by **Redleader34** » 2006-09-25 01:50pm

To red Impeartor's Thread The aanswer that some of my scool freinds seem to say Is that school sucks and that their local school dosent seem to enforce their rles.. The main deal is As Atheos said Instant gratfaction...

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2006-09-25 02:27pm

Pick wrote:I'd say that you could ask me, but I've never been particularly representative of teenagers as a whole. If you do want to know what nerdy girls talk about, etc., then you can go ahead and inquire .

What do girls really talk about in the women's changeroom?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-09-25 02:36pm

When people wonder aloud what teens are thinking, it's a rhetorical question. We were all teens ourselves, and we remember what we were thinking at the time: nothing. You never really sit down and contemplate anything beyond your own feelings when you're a teenager. In fact, you think it's an incredibly profound thing to get in touch with your own feelings, talk about them, wallow in them, etc.

Pick · Post by **Pick** » 2006-09-25 04:13pm

aerius wrote:
Pick wrote:I'd say that you could ask me, but I've never been particularly representative of teenagers as a whole. If you do want to know what nerdy girls talk about, etc., then you can go ahead and inquire .
What do girls really talk about in the women's changeroom?

Usually it's complaining about what we will have to do or what we have already done that day. That is the core of much female communication at the teeange level. Bitching.

That and whining about being fat (regardless of weight) as well as our respective bra sizes.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-09-25 04:35pm

Most teenagers are idiots- see my reckless driving thread (just turned 19, so I guess I still count for less than a year more).

As a teenager (barely), I still do seem to do an excessive amount of self-loathing/whining w/o any action being taken to solve them, as well as doing things on a whim w/o foresight.

Master of Cards · Post by **Master of Cards** » 2006-09-25 05:28pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:how about proving your maths?

I know I hated it when I was in high school, but the height of accomplishment for me was college trig and proving that the teacher made a common mistake in terms of order of solving when grading our last test, yes, I got the point back and the animosity of most of the class (who had done the same thing the teacher did)

note the whole purpose of proving it, is to show that you understand the process by which you come to the conclusion, not just memorizing what was said by rote. this is one of the backbones of learning to properly question authority, and yet every teen I know (including myself when I was still younger then 21) hate to prove their maths.

WE WANT TO KILL THE teacher making us do that

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2006-09-25 07:33pm

Darth Wong wrote:We were all teens ourselves, and we remember what we were thinking at the time: nothing.

Now Mike, thats not quite true. We were thinking about SEX as teens after all.

Redleader34 · Post by **Redleader34** » 2006-09-25 07:39pm

Question to any Teen girls on the fourm Why is Rampant fangirlism seem to be the case?

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2006-09-25 07:40pm

Proving your math is boring. If you know how to do the problem, then showing your work for every single problem of 20 problems is tedious work that doesn't help us. If you don't know how do do the problem and cheat, well, proving the math is impossible. Either way, everbody hates it.

Pick · Post by **Pick** » 2006-09-25 11:07pm

Redleader34 wrote:Question to any Teen girls on the fourm Why is Rampant fangirlism seem to be the case?

Because it gives you something to be enthused about and talk about with others. It's very much a social lubricant. It can also be a form of rudimentary tribalism, giving you stupid conflict if you feel that your life is too dull without hating other people for no good reason.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2006-09-25 11:36pm

The people who wonder what teens are thinking are no longer teens themselves; i.e. they were teenagers at one time and know exactly what was going on. Lots of hormones combined with a massive desire to buck authority. Of course adults understand what teenagers are thinking. That's why juvenile criminal records are sealed when the offender turns 18.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-09-26 02:59am

also why police and prosecutors are disinclined to pursue statutory rape against someone aged 17-19. thye are still teenagers, and aren't fully seperate from that.

Yoda · Post by **Yoda** » 2006-09-26 04:03pm

I am about as far away from the average stereotypical teenager as it is possible to be. In terms of emotional expression I am very similar to a Vulcan. I have no friends, and not because no-one wants to be friends with me, but because I don't want any. My worst subject is Drama, with that in the 80's (everything else is near 100).

I'm the smartest person in the entire school (at least judged by other students, people who are impressed by my ability to multiply 600x20 in my head). I am a stereotypical nerd (or at least close to) yet I am never picked on in any way.

My fellow students seem to revere me due to the intelligence gap between them and myself.

Despite Drama being my worst subject, I act on an everyday basis. This is due to the fact that I attend a Roman Catholic school despite being an Atheist. Good acting skills are necessary to convince religion teachers the brainwashing is working.

If you want an analysis of the 12-14 year old mind, I'm the guy to ask (I'm very observant).