The Teen Years

 

In her TED talk, Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore explains how the brain, contrary to popular belief, continues to develop well into the 20’s and 30’s, and how different parts of the brain change during different periods of life. She says that social skill development occurs as the prefrontal cortex and limbic system develop in the brain, and that the adolescent prefrontal cortex exacerbates risk-taking tendencies and decision-making skills. Blakemore argues that teenagers are wrongfully stigmatized, sometimes even demonized by the media, and that the importance of secondary education during this formative time of life is woefully underestimated by many.

Similarly, Simon Sinek discusses the stigmatization of the Millennial Generation, which is the generation of people born around 1984 and after. People characterize millennials as tough to manage, entitled, narcissistic, self-interested, unfocused, lazy. However, I agree with the characterization Sinek gives the Millennial generation as highly intellectual people who were dealt a lot of bad cards. While I may be on the cusp of Millennial/Gen Z, I can identify with all of the issues Sinek discussed that affect millennials. He illustrates his point by focusing on four main areas of concern: parenting, technology, impatience, and environment.

For parenting, I concur with several of the issues he stated. One of my teachers talked about how he was playing games with his 5 year old daughter, and he won. When he celebrated his win, his daughter said, “No, we both are winners!” He made sure she understood that no, she did not win this time. She lost, and that’s okay because losing today does not mean she won’t win tomorrow. This is a healthy way to teach kids that not everything in life will go their way, and how to deal with that and come out the other end better than they were before.

As for technology, I noticed that seeing other people being happy on social media makes me depressed. I’m addicted to apps that make me feel bad about myself. People do not know how to make deep, meaningful relationships because of the things they’re addicted to– alcohol, smoking, gambling, social media. For example, in therapy, I had to reevaluate my definition of a friend, because I used to say “I love this person so much, they’re my best friend” when I had just met them that same day. There’s no way I could possibly know a person well enough just after meeting them, or even after a couple of weeks, to properly love them.

Sinek’s opinions on technology overlap somewhat with his concerns about environment. Because of social media, our minds are never left to wander and be creative because we are addicted to technology and can’t let ourselves be idle. Our environment is saturated with things like advertisements and promotions all the time.

I can relate to his points about impatience, because instant gratification is something that interferes with my own work ethics and habits. I need to understand and implement patience and change my habits so that I don’t focus on what would make me feel good right now, I need to be able to do the hard stuff now so I can be happier and more successful in the long run. 

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