Oh, those teenagers.
Dec. 28th, 2005 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
majutsukaiI've been thinking. You know how the phrase "teen angst" exists and is in common use in the english language? It's sort of a one-size-fits-all explanation for all the drama that teens go through in that critical seven-year period. Something to do with emotional and mental development, raging hormones and all that, no doubt. Got a histrionic, emotional teen on your hands? Oh, it's just that teen angst. They'll get over it, nothing to worry about.
What does that mean, exactly? Does the existance of such a phrase mean that all teens have an excess of drama, that hormones are entirely to blame? Does that mean that, were I an adult, I wouldn't observe half the grievances in my life as I do now? Am I being overdramatic when I observe how much my life sucks? It really does confuse me.
With this whole idea of hormones, I feel like my emotions are being played with. How many of them are real, and how many are hormonal outbursts? Who would LIKE being told that's all their emotions are? Who would LIKE being told that the grievances they experience are nothing but a part of growing up, to be grown out of, cast off, and laughed at later in life when looking through photo albums and attending high school reunions? They FEEL real, which makes it all the more confusing when you have an entire culture's worth of evidence that they're not. What's one to think?
You hear people take on the same sort of tone they use with "teen angst" when they mention "young love", too. What does that mean? You hear stories of how guys in ages past tatooed the names of their High School sweetheart to their arm or back or something (In fact, I've seen some present-day guys that have done just this), and ended up regretting it when the one they actually grew up to marry saw it. What should the countless number of teens in the midst of such "young love", as it's so tactfully put, make of that? Your love is fake? Your relationship is destined to fail? You do hardly ever hear of a successful High-School romance. The consensus seems to be that young people are never capable of understanding the concept of love in the first place, and that they'll only experience that "deep, meaningful love" later in life. What's one to think?
Are our minds really so governed by this monolithic "puberty" that we're not ourselves at all?
(EDIT: Perhaps I was exaggerating here a bit... Obviously one can't be completely governed by such a thing, but the question is, to what extent does it affect us?-- A question that can't be answered with any level of certainty, at least not here and now.)
I'm not sure I know where I'm going with all this. Maybe just a way of venting some troubled thoughts I've had of late. I don't really like the thought of any other force but my mind governing my emotions; it's been the source of quite the amount of unrest in the past months.
Hm. Funny thing... Now that I've typed out all my thoughts, a quote I heard recently comes to mind.
"Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young."
I'm not sure if this ties anything up or not, but it certainly seems relevant. I guess this is just a question I'm going to have to figure out in the years to come. Who knows? An answer may come even sooner than that.
Feel free to discuss your opinions on this, even though this is basically just a venting session. >.>;;
(EDIT AGAIN: That was kind of a hint that I wanted opinions. At least SOMEONE got it. ¬¬)
What does that mean, exactly? Does the existance of such a phrase mean that all teens have an excess of drama, that hormones are entirely to blame? Does that mean that, were I an adult, I wouldn't observe half the grievances in my life as I do now? Am I being overdramatic when I observe how much my life sucks? It really does confuse me.
With this whole idea of hormones, I feel like my emotions are being played with. How many of them are real, and how many are hormonal outbursts? Who would LIKE being told that's all their emotions are? Who would LIKE being told that the grievances they experience are nothing but a part of growing up, to be grown out of, cast off, and laughed at later in life when looking through photo albums and attending high school reunions? They FEEL real, which makes it all the more confusing when you have an entire culture's worth of evidence that they're not. What's one to think?
You hear people take on the same sort of tone they use with "teen angst" when they mention "young love", too. What does that mean? You hear stories of how guys in ages past tatooed the names of their High School sweetheart to their arm or back or something (In fact, I've seen some present-day guys that have done just this), and ended up regretting it when the one they actually grew up to marry saw it. What should the countless number of teens in the midst of such "young love", as it's so tactfully put, make of that? Your love is fake? Your relationship is destined to fail? You do hardly ever hear of a successful High-School romance. The consensus seems to be that young people are never capable of understanding the concept of love in the first place, and that they'll only experience that "deep, meaningful love" later in life. What's one to think?
Are our minds really so governed by this monolithic "puberty" that we're not ourselves at all?
(EDIT: Perhaps I was exaggerating here a bit... Obviously one can't be completely governed by such a thing, but the question is, to what extent does it affect us?-- A question that can't be answered with any level of certainty, at least not here and now.)
I'm not sure I know where I'm going with all this. Maybe just a way of venting some troubled thoughts I've had of late. I don't really like the thought of any other force but my mind governing my emotions; it's been the source of quite the amount of unrest in the past months.
Hm. Funny thing... Now that I've typed out all my thoughts, a quote I heard recently comes to mind.
"Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young."
I'm not sure if this ties anything up or not, but it certainly seems relevant. I guess this is just a question I'm going to have to figure out in the years to come. Who knows? An answer may come even sooner than that.
Feel free to discuss your opinions on this, even though this is basically just a venting session. >.>;;
(EDIT AGAIN: That was kind of a hint that I wanted opinions. At least SOMEONE got it. ¬¬)
