"The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager" by Thomas Hine

The question of what exactly the percieved notions of the teenager are has always been a fight for me. Looking back at my early "teen" years (from my lofty age of 18), I still understand why I found it insulting to be called a teenager. I was quiet, I minded myself, read often, had good grades, never argued with my parents... so why call me a "typical teenager" the one time we don't agree? The few times it happened, I was livid. Thomas Hine makes an excellent point when he says on page four that the teenager "is a social invention". The idea of the "typical teenager" is so vastly different from what it was a century ago, that I personally question the existence of such a group. At the time this country was founded, a woman my age would have been married for a few years and in the process of risking their life to pop out a few dozen kids, only a few of which would survive to live to the age where they could marry and attempt to produce a brood of children of their own. They were considered mature under the stituate that their bodies, their very biological make up, said they were. Today, teens are sexually maturing faster than in past generations, but age strictures pen them in under one label: Teenager. Thomas Hine put it a little more calmly to be sure when he said, "The concept of the teenager rests in turn on the idea of the adolescent as a not quite competent person, beset by stress and hormones". So what is todays teenager exactly? Who the hell knows? But one thing we do know is that it isn't good. The teenager is a sullen, frightening creature, who rebels for fun and thinks they know everything while in truth their head is full of questionable music that dissolves their moral standards and leads them to question their elders and betters. Hine, and myself, don't see a clear solution to the social branding of the teenager. Blame rests on no one instance, no one generation, for its forming. I honestly feel that if the word "teenager" would retire to simply being a description for that fun, anxsty stage you look back on from adulthood and think how silly you were to think your little kid problems carried any weight, then "teenagers" wouldn't be a problem. "Teenagers" as a group label however is unfair and unjustified. Not to mention annoying for those of us who know they will be considered a teenager by their extended families until they collect their pensions and enjoy the senior discount on only half a sandwich, because they're sure they could never finish a whole one. If teenagerism, if you will, were considered an individual trait, I wonder how many true "Teenagers" still exist in every sense of the word? And on the matter of teenage crime, why such a focus on the age group? It's more interesting and morally and socially demanding to focus on the misbehaving children than the ones who do right by themselves and others. As someone around the age of these miscreants, I can't say I'd like to thank the media for lumping me in with young women who commited horrifying deeds just because I attended my senior prom not so long ago. My being a young woman should not be all I am seen to be. The lack of focus on the individual is astonishing. So maybe that's the answer.