commentary+essay

When teens hang out in public more than half the time something bad happens. Teens tend to act out in public, but the big question is Why? Sometimes teenagers think they aren't affecting or hurting anyone, but when teens act without thinking, they bring consequences among themselvs. Teens acting out in public shows a lack of behavior skills and respect for themselves.

Older people think negatively about teens now. After asking 20 people from the ages 30-70, 16 of them believe that the generation now is out of control. These people said teens need discipline, more responsibility and less privelages. the other four people said that if they are not getting any attention at home, then they tend to seek attention elsewhere. Teenage behavior gives people the wrong impression on teens. A study titled "Kids These Days," shows that 90% of the respondents said youngsters failed to learn values. 12% of 2,000 adults surveyed said it was common for children to treat people with respect. The reason for these different assumptions is that children are assuming adult roles earlier than they used to.

A generation ago children were likely to be encouraged to be polite, courteous, and respectful, especially toward adults.Today's messages from the significant adults in their lives are likely to emphasize self-respect, self-assertiveness and self-esteem. Children are constantly being reminded of the virtues of standing up for their rights and having positive self-esteem." Since adults interact with children and adolescents more, they tend to see more aberrant behavior than in earlier times. These messages often pose a conflict for young people who may not know where to draw the line between asserting themselves and respecting others.

When teenagers act out they think they are not hurting or affecting anyone. What they fail to realize is that they are actually hurting themselves. As a result for the need to be accepted, teenagers are receptive to certain characteristics such as personality, attitude, behavior, social groups, and social learnig. How a teenager communicates with others shows the type of personality a teenager possesses. Teenagers are more sophisticated now and have the intellectual ability to distinguish among the various brand images presented to them. Teenage behavior is most noticeable when images become integrated into their everyday lives. Evidence exists on how many teenagers wear a certain clothing or listen to music by certain artists or how many teenage viewers watch a popular tv show. Teenagers primarily desire the acceptance of their peers. Teenage acceptance is categorized into subgroups or cliques. Individuals have always been associated with particular social groups (racial, ethnic, gender, class, etc.) When teenagers watch others perform certain behaviors and see which result in rewards or punishments, they are engaging in observational learning. Teenagers are so easily influenced by others style, behavior, or actions. The most popular phrase teenagers tend to say is, “Everyone else is doing it.”

All teens suffer or loose privelages due to certain behavior. Curfews and, driving privelages, are changing. They also have to be with an adult in many more places. Some reason for these behavioral problems are brain development, hormones, their need to define themselves such as (showing off/love interest), attention seeking, testing the rules, challenging authority or maybe just having a bad day/week/life.

The way teens are raised almost always affects their outlook on life. Many teens who are raised in a low-income household, in a bad neighborhood with other low-income people usually tend to act a certain way because they are not exposed to much else. This is a stereotype but for the most part it is true.The lifestyle affects the way a person acts because the persons lifestyle is who the person is.They will then act accordingly to their own views and outlooks.For instance people involved in what is popularly known as the "Ghetto" sub-culture will ussually try to perpetrate an image of toughness, and fearlessness. (Many times leading to illegal activities.) So this affects teenagers in a strong way.

Certain teenage behavior pushes other people to stereotype teens. The biggest stereotypes I researched are saying teens are violent, reckless, hypersexed, wel-fare draining, obnoxious, and ignorant. Stereotyping is a chiefly responsible factor for difficulties of the teenage years. It has come to the point where teenagers believe the negative attributions themselves. Adults treat them the way they do simply because they are among the ranks of so-called "out-of-control teens." In a magazine one teen said,"An important issue is how adults treat me just because I'm a teenager. There are bad ones out people out their in the world but I'm not one of them. It doesn't just hurt but it's disrespectful when security figures follow me around like I'm some kind of loser or criminal."

Although some of these stereotypes may not be true, teenagers tend to act this way and make it seem true. HPA(habital physical activity) data indicates that HPA decreases from childhood to adulthood about 7% per year, with a great reduction during puberty and adolescence concurrent to changes in the type of physical activity.