Adolescence is usually recognised as a time of rebellion against accepted social norms and authority figures, in a process of individuation and transition from childhood to adulthood. But Western cultures have long ago lost any sort of tribal rituals to acknowledge this transition, plus American capitalist culture in the 1950s created th…
Adolescence is usually recognised as a time of rebellion against accepted social norms and authority figures, in a process of individuation and transition from childhood to adulthood. But Western cultures have long ago lost any sort of tribal rituals to acknowledge this transition, plus American capitalist culture in the 1950s created the "teenager" as a consumer group to be targeted.
The history of advertising tells us that this meant a new tribalism among peers who copied each others' fashions, trends and opinions -- no longer those of adults. So that peer approval became much more important than approval from adults.
The internet with all its social platforms has further cashed in on this (often literally, for teenage "influencers" now selling products to their peers) for over 25 years (starting with IRC "chat rooms") and made bullying and social contagion so much easier. And so much harder for its victims to escape.
It's also often hypothesised that playing online video games, with "avatars" as chosen online identities, has helped to condition children and teenagers into the idea of alternative and sometines multiple identities: from which Dissociative Identity Disorder becomes a much shorter step for confused and distressed children longing to escape from abusive situations, and belong to a a new tribe.
Your explanation sounds reasonable and plausible. I'm old and things were tamer back in the 1960's when I was a teenager. I would say I rebelled to some extent against my mother, but that was only because she was too controlling. I nonetheless adopted her well-balanced liberal world view. I was also a nerdy type who wasn't accepted into any cliques, so no one was influencing me.
And yet ... even back then there were people who considered teenagers to be a distinct group with their own culture, and who were afraid of them.
Yes, I think any sociological overview of big demographics over broad sweeps of time has to omit the specific individual circumstances and family and other relationships that also contribute a lot to how we experience our lives. As a teenager in the 1950s in the UK -- held to be 10 years behind whatever happens in the US -- my memories are of postwar drabness and austerity: with food rationing until I was 12. And wearing my mother's cast-off clothes: with nothing new unless I made it myself from remnants bought in sales. I think most British teenagers had very little money unless they'd left school and had jobs. And with very little in the way of teenage "rebellion" until Radio Luxembourg started to broadcast pop singers influenced by American rock'n roll. I dutifully listened to this a few times late at night, but found it fairly boring. Parental rule -- when they took any interest at all -- could not be escaped except by my moving 400 miles to a university far enough away that mutual visits could not be expected.
It is nice to read such clear and intelligent writing from someone who must be in your late seventies or early eighties. I am 73, and my mother had Alzheimer's, so I am naturally concerned.
Thank you! It continues to surprise me that I'm 81. Re halting, prevention & even reversal of Alzheimer's try checking out Dr Dale Bredesen and the Bredesen Protocol or ReCODE Protocol. He's written three books, of which the latest details experiences of the first eight or so (of now hundreds of) cases of people recovering from Alzheimer's syndrome following his sleep / diet / exercise etc protocol (with 36 factors to attend to).
His Facebook page is also interesting: where he frequently posts articles and research papers from science journals.
(Don't waste time on any drugs for Alzheimer's: ineffective and a huge waste of research funding for a lifestyle disease, by treating results as causes and looking for a single "silver bullet" for a multi-factorial syndrome. Genetics ie presence of one or two ApoE4 genes is not the life sentence it's often deemed to be.)
Adolescence is usually recognised as a time of rebellion against accepted social norms and authority figures, in a process of individuation and transition from childhood to adulthood. But Western cultures have long ago lost any sort of tribal rituals to acknowledge this transition, plus American capitalist culture in the 1950s created the "teenager" as a consumer group to be targeted.
The history of advertising tells us that this meant a new tribalism among peers who copied each others' fashions, trends and opinions -- no longer those of adults. So that peer approval became much more important than approval from adults.
The internet with all its social platforms has further cashed in on this (often literally, for teenage "influencers" now selling products to their peers) for over 25 years (starting with IRC "chat rooms") and made bullying and social contagion so much easier. And so much harder for its victims to escape.
It's also often hypothesised that playing online video games, with "avatars" as chosen online identities, has helped to condition children and teenagers into the idea of alternative and sometines multiple identities: from which Dissociative Identity Disorder becomes a much shorter step for confused and distressed children longing to escape from abusive situations, and belong to a a new tribe.
Your explanation sounds reasonable and plausible. I'm old and things were tamer back in the 1960's when I was a teenager. I would say I rebelled to some extent against my mother, but that was only because she was too controlling. I nonetheless adopted her well-balanced liberal world view. I was also a nerdy type who wasn't accepted into any cliques, so no one was influencing me.
And yet ... even back then there were people who considered teenagers to be a distinct group with their own culture, and who were afraid of them.
Yes, I think any sociological overview of big demographics over broad sweeps of time has to omit the specific individual circumstances and family and other relationships that also contribute a lot to how we experience our lives. As a teenager in the 1950s in the UK -- held to be 10 years behind whatever happens in the US -- my memories are of postwar drabness and austerity: with food rationing until I was 12. And wearing my mother's cast-off clothes: with nothing new unless I made it myself from remnants bought in sales. I think most British teenagers had very little money unless they'd left school and had jobs. And with very little in the way of teenage "rebellion" until Radio Luxembourg started to broadcast pop singers influenced by American rock'n roll. I dutifully listened to this a few times late at night, but found it fairly boring. Parental rule -- when they took any interest at all -- could not be escaped except by my moving 400 miles to a university far enough away that mutual visits could not be expected.
It is nice to read such clear and intelligent writing from someone who must be in your late seventies or early eighties. I am 73, and my mother had Alzheimer's, so I am naturally concerned.
Thank you! It continues to surprise me that I'm 81. Re halting, prevention & even reversal of Alzheimer's try checking out Dr Dale Bredesen and the Bredesen Protocol or ReCODE Protocol. He's written three books, of which the latest details experiences of the first eight or so (of now hundreds of) cases of people recovering from Alzheimer's syndrome following his sleep / diet / exercise etc protocol (with 36 factors to attend to).
His first book is at https://a.co/d/4nmAiqU
His Facebook page is also interesting: where he frequently posts articles and research papers from science journals.
(Don't waste time on any drugs for Alzheimer's: ineffective and a huge waste of research funding for a lifestyle disease, by treating results as causes and looking for a single "silver bullet" for a multi-factorial syndrome. Genetics ie presence of one or two ApoE4 genes is not the life sentence it's often deemed to be.)