What’s Going on With Teens?

[Farm Boy]

The teens are, usually, the first hard years that you can't be shielded from. They come after the Age of Not Believing that comes at 11 or 13 or so.

If you think they're harder than what comes after, I have bad news for you. Life is not Nintendo hard, where you can eventually beat Battletoads. It is arcade hard. It just gets harder and faster until you die. I think overall suicide rates still bear this out. Every loss to suicide has a run of misery that feeds it.

 

[Zardnaar]

Boomers had one of the greatest economic runs in history during their teen years.

Generation X was subject (if they had blue collar parents) to offshoring of jobs from the United States in their teens.

Millennials were mostly the product of white collar workers who chose to have children later and thus were financially better adapted to the new economy in their teen years.

Generation Z is having to contend with the shaky economic conditions and deregulation since the last recession while having to deal with what's essentially a fourth industrial revolution (social media, AI; photography, music, and art related professions becoming obsolete, etc.)

I would also say that the teen years are always the hardest and most difficult years in one's life, especially since you feel like an adult but aren't, want to do things but can't, and are subject to the economic whims of ones parents yet feel like one needs material things in order to socially fit in and relate with one's age group especially those who have parents who are far better off then yours. This creates over time a sort of natural segregation where as one moves into adulthood you tend to settle down and only relate/have friends with those of your own socioeconomic class, but as a teen you're forced to only be with those of your hometown or more specifically your school. So if you come from blue-collar stock but in a town that's demographically changing and becoming increasingly white collar it can be rough. I imagine with adulthood and thus personal mobility social anxiety and thus suicidal thoughts decrease as one can move to a workplace/town that has one's "own kind of people" from which to fit in and become part of a tribe.

The recent increase of girls commiting suicide at all time highs is probably because of the fear of creative professions being eliminated as females tend to be more artistically inclined. Social media is likely designed to mess with the female brain more than men because as you should know social media sites like Facebook were invented by Zuckerberg to rate women in college and pressure them into having sex with the tech bois.

Here they're saying its other way round. Traditional male jobs are disappearing while there's more demand for female type jobs eg office work.

 

[Zardnaar]

Some thoughts anyway to the crises. No exactly current generations fault guess who raised em.

1. Internet and social media. Didn't have to worry about it in the 90's that much.

2. Videogames. I'm a gamer here me out. We played atari, Playstation etc. Kids these days have tablets and online games. They spend way more time on them than we ever did.

3. Less social connectivity. Partly related to two. Watch an 80's movie with BMX. Don't really see kids cycling around that much. Mentioned this to parents and it's "to dangerous". No cycle across town age 7 or 10km cycle down the coast anymore unsupervised.

4. Mollycoddling. Life was kinda harder in sone ways in 80's and 90's easier in others (cheap rent). Eg physical discipline was used at school. Teenagers these days aren't really trained in dealing with life's disappointments. Was the default back then. Had to look after yourselves now it's illegal to be unsupervised under age of 14.

5. Less physical activity. Not talking about sport but more outside play. Side effect is more social interaction. Going outdoors to play with other kids or visiting friends.

6. Economic stuff. Often a stay at home mother was around. I'm not convinced daycare except as a last resort is that effective. My nephew has grandparents helping out not everyone has that option.

Basically nothing in particular but lots of small things adding up. Looking back we learnt s lot of self confidence and life skills type stuff. Eg learning to cook age 10-12, entertaining yourselves or looking after yourselves. Parents weren't around eg work you had a couple of hours each day to do whatever.

 

[Zardnaar]

The teens are, usually, the first hard years that you can't be shielded from. They come after the Age of Not Believing that comes at 11 or 13 or so.

If you think they're harder than what comes after, I have bad news for you. Life is not Nintendo hard, where you can eventually beat Battletoads. It is arcade hard. It just gets harder and faster until you die. I think overall suicide rates still bear this out. Every loss to suicide has a run of misery that feeds it.

It's also when you start figuring out things on your own that you were oblivious to while younger.

 

[Hygro]

@GoodEnoughForMe I too am super curious the most about the mid 90s drop. I know I remember feeling the most unbridled optimism about everything in our world outside of me at that time. I didn't feel personally great at this time. But the world around me gave me hope.

Boomers had one of the greatest economic runs in history during their teen years.

Generation X was subject (if they had blue collar parents) to offshoring of jobs from the United States in their teens.

Millennials were mostly the product of white collar workers who chose to have children later and thus were financially better adapted to the new economy in their teen years.

Generation Z is having to contend with the shaky economic conditions and deregulation since the last recession while having to deal with what's essentially a fourth industrial revolution (social media, AI; photography, music, and art related professions becoming obsolete, etc.)

I would also say that the teen years are always the hardest and most difficult years in one's life, especially since you feel like an adult but aren't, want to do things but can't, and are subject to the economic whims of ones parents yet feel like one needs material things in order to socially fit in and relate with one's age group especially those who have parents who are far better off then yours. This creates over time a sort of natural segregation where as one moves into adulthood you tend to settle down and only relate/have friends with those of your own socioeconomic class, but as a teen you're forced to only be with those of your hometown or more specifically your school. So if you come from blue-collar stock but in a town that's demographically changing and becoming increasingly white collar it can be rough. I imagine with adulthood and thus personal mobility social anxiety and thus suicidal thoughts decrease as one can move to a workplace/town that has one's "own kind of people" from which to fit in and become part of a tribe.

The recent increase of girls commiting suicide at all time highs is probably because of the fear of creative professions being eliminated as females tend to be more artistically inclined. Social media is likely designed to mess with the female brain more than men because as you should know social media sites like Facebook were invented by Zuckerberg to rate women in college and pressure them into having sex with the tech bois.

I think you are "on to something" even it's mapping too broad, too hard. I do believe following your line of thought would provide a key insight that would identify part of the problem.

Realistically, like many things, it's going to be an agglomeration of causes, some counter balancing and some amplifying.

The teens are, usually, the first hard years that you can't be shielded from. They come after the Age of Not Believing that comes at 11 or 13 or so.

If you think they're harder than what comes after, I have bad news for you. Life is not Nintendo hard, where you can eventually beat Battletoads. It is arcade hard. It just gets harder and faster until you die. I think overall suicide rates still bear this out. Every loss to suicide has a run of misery that feeds it.

Which makes it contagious. Suicide is the #1 move if your goal is to hurt everyone who cares about you. As a kid I thought about suicide in some ways all the time. Always told the doctors and counselors and anyone else "nope, never, never think about it" I was coached. But the same coaching gave me the ironclad perspective the damage it does, so as a little kid it was like, well, ok, as much as I'm hurting I would be hurting waaaaay more if one of my siblings or parents did that, so I best not.

 

[9gkj548hkm20vk79dj689bnj4]

2. Videogames. I'm a gamer here me out. We played atari, Playstation etc. Kids these days have tablets and online games. They spend way more time on them than we ever did.

hmmm come to think of it,
In my days we had to play split-screen multiplayer. also needed a TV.
I guess we were limited by the fact that the game was "over" when someone had to leave.

 

[Narz]

hmmm come to think of it,
In my days we had to play split-screen multiplayer. also needed a TV.
I guess we were limited by the fact that the game was "over" when someone had to leave.

Yeah we were limited in space as to where we could game

TV and Nintendo console was in basement. After dinner I was finished.

Nowadays kids can fall asleep w tablet in their hands

The ability to escape into virtual worlds was easy back in the day, it's 100x easier now while the real world is more depressing and confusing than ever.

In 1983 we knew about climate change and its potential impact, 40 years later we're just chugging along like an alcohol w cryrosis trying to convince ourselves to celebrate that we haven't been caught drunk driving yet.

 

[Kyriakos]

Personally, though seeing it from some distance by now (40s; but most regular posters here are either in their 30s or 40s), I do envy teens of today in a number of things. But it is also true that we have access to virtually all of the same positives (the internet being a major focal point; access to practically unlimited information and possibilities).

Even as an informal documentation of your past, the web (through forums etc) is very useful - at least to those of you who do not keep a diary
Still, it's not like I have a diary of years before I was a student, but I'd likely have had enough web posts if web was widely popular back then (became popular just as I was entering university).

Regarding social media, in particular, while clearly bullying and other dangers are very serious, there are also some positives for teens - before the web age, it was very common to go through years of school life without having any idea of who (romantically) liked you. Now that is basically impossible, since texting/reacting to certain images/commenting requires far less emotion than speaking face to face.

 

[Narz]

Yeah the diary aspect is cool. Altho ones digital footprint isn't necessarily forever (I've lost tens of thousands of posts when various forums I was part of went down)

The ability to self-educate today is amazing too.

Back in my day I'd watch the a-team and married w children on TV, now any kid can read/watch videos on whatever they want. If they're into coding, learning French, fitness, rocketry they can saturate their minds w information about this 24/7.

For a certain type of mind that can focus very intensely and block out distractions now is a far superior time to 30-40 years ago (in terms of the ability to better yourself). But for the majority of people who fall victim to distraction, social comparison, junk entertainment, being a consumer rather than a student and a producer it's worse (but has the potential to be better w discipline)

 

[stfoskey12]

I was a teenager from 2011-2018, and while I never had suicidal thoughts then, there were some things that contributed to my negative mental health during that time period.
Growing up in the shadow of the Great Recession, I was afraid I would never get a job (or even if I did, that it wouldn't pay well). This, combined with going to an academically rigorous high school, meant that I felt pressure to always be the absolute best academically. And while some level of pressure is good, because it is important to learn in school and get a good education, it meant I didn't have much time for socialization or other fun activities (part of that is on me for being perfectionist tho). I spent too much time on internet forums like this one and on social media, and struggled to make friends IRL. So for me personally the main two issues were economic uncertainty/concerns about the future, and too much time online.

As far as higher suicide rates in teen girls, use of social media like Instagram seems like a reasonable hypothesis. But I didn't really talk to girls as a teenager, so it's hard for me to say for sure.

 

[Joij21]

It just gets harder and faster until you die. I think overall suicide rates still bear this out.

Well yeah, if you look at the charts for older age groups the suicide rate keeps going up, peaks in one's 50s and 60s then dips a little and goes back up in ones 80s and beyond as one becomes useless.

Is religion a more helpful way of dealing with one's struggles with age?

 

[Joij21]

higher suicide rates in teen girls, use of social media like Instagram

Probably the Instagram.

 

[Farm Boy]

Well yeah, if you look at the charts for older age groups the suicide rate keeps going up, peaks in one's 50s and 60s then dips a little and goes back up in ones 80s and beyond as one becomes useless.

Is religion a more helpful way of dealing with one's struggles with age?

I guess if you can keep it, it is. Loss keeps piling up, in a certain way. You get to missing more parts of you at any given moment. My parents are starting to take on some of the... vibe? of the older person and veteran. There's a terrible sort of clarity to checking the paper everyday to see which of your friends has died, but they aren't, like, alright alright a lot of the time. Their social circle picks up widows, fairly frequently, too. And they aren't alright.

So to your question, in that religion might force you out to deal with somebody else, making it necessary to prioritize another person over your pain, sure it helps. But it's work to keep.

 

[Narz]

As far as higher suicide rates in teen girls, use of social media like Instagram seems like a reasonable hypothesis. But I didn't really talk to girls as a teenager, so it's hard for me to say for sure.

They were sad cuz you didn't talk to them.

 

[RobAnybody]

I'm not sure what the overall explanation is, but I do think that any talk about job markets, the economy, & the general state of the world is missing the point. This question is about teens specifically. Y'all remember being teenagers, right? Did the availability of a hypothetical job after a college you hadn't decided on yet given a Major you hadn't even contemplated factor into your thoughts very often? How often did you pontificate on the overall economy or geopolitics?

It's much more likely to be something about peer-to-peer interaction & acceptance I think. While the rise of social media might be a possible reason for the uptick in the 2010's (particularly among girls), I have 0 theories as to what would explain the drop in the '90's, & I was a teenager for part of them! That was prime Gen X time, & we are known for being lazy, so maybe it was too much effort for us.

 

[H4run]

Looks like a boomer low, X high, Millennial low, Z high waveform

Underrated comment because reading the graph this is one of the most obvious conclusion and a possible starting point to read it correctly.

 

[Ajidica]

If I had to guess, I'd ascribe it to how internet use and the internet itself has changed. I was a heavy user of the internet during my teenage years, but that was all on desktop computer with an extremely limited use of the internet via smartphone my senior year of high school. It was a text-based way of using the internet. (Back in the days when you could make the joke 'on the internet nobody knows you're a dog'.)
Now, the internet is in your pocket every where you go, social media has become more designed to be addictive, and social media is much more visual. Every time you look at social media you are seeing people who are hotter, richer, more successful, and having more fun than you.
Anecdote time, I was at a big shopping mall a few months ago to get my covid booster and new shoes. There were obviously a large number of teenagers hanging out there, like always. However, they were dressing way more fashionable and trendy than anyone did when I was a teenager. When I was a teenager the default outfit was jeans (skinny one if you were an emo), graphic t shirt, and hoodie. Maybe if you were feeling a bit preppy a button down shirt or sweater. Now teenagers seem to be dressing with trendy streetwear and stuff.

 

[Joij21]

It's much more likely to be something about peer-to-peer interaction & acceptance I think.

Yes but how much social acceptance is based on material goods? The one who has a car first in one's teenage years is far cooler than the one who doesn't. Among those teens with cars the one where the parents payed for and gave them a nicer car than the crapper car of the other guy is objectively cooler as well.

Material well being precludes social acceptability.

 

[Joij21]

When I was a teenager the default outfit was jeans (skinny one if you were an emo), graphic t shirt, and hoodie. Maybe if you were feeling a bit preppy a button down shirt or sweater.

Which is still trendy streetwear just for that time. Common let's be honest none of the above has changed.

 

[Narz]

If I had to guess, I'd ascribe it to how internet use and the internet itself has changed. I was a heavy user of the internet during my teenage years, but that was all on desktop computer with an extremely limited use of the internet via smartphone my senior year of high school. It was a text-based way of using the internet. (Back in the days when you could make the joke 'on the internet nobody knows you're a dog'.)
Now, the internet is in your pocket every where you go, social media has become more designed to be addictive, and social media is much more visual. Every time you look at social media you are seeing people who are hotter, richer, more successful, and having more fun than you

Yeah having the internet in your pocket was a huge shift (that i resisted for a long time before finally succumbing in 2015).

Even in 2008 tho I remember staying in a hostel in NY and being shocked @ how different the experience was vs staying in hostels in 1993. The lounge was filled w tv screens, every single person there was on a laptop (laptops existed in '93 but were prohibitively expensive) and no one was interacting whatsoever.

We simply have the ability now to be less in the moment. As I am right now interacting 'here' as my daughter plays w the springy door stop and my gf's 3yo snores next to me