The Teen Decision Process

Being a teen myself I have a pretty broad spectrum of what the teenage world is like. To be honest it is more complex and simple then most people imagine. Today I will be talking about the teen decision process of this world. More specifically for teens in the modern US.

There is a big problem with the teens of today. It's all based off of the decision process. This process is mainly influenced by the typical hormones. But also strongly influenced by parenting and experiences in the teens life. Let’s admit it, American parents suck these days. They don't know how to be strict enough, or laid back enough. I either see the DI (Drill Instructor) type of parents. Or I see the hippie parents, that just don't give a “you know what”.

To figure out how this affects a teen thought process we must first look into the brain of a teenager. A National Institutes of Health study shows us that the human brain does not develop until age 25. Which means in the teenage years, it is still building. And during childhood is when the brain develops the most. We treat our little kids like retards, when in actuality they are little geniuses. Ever wonder how you learned your first language, but how it's 100X more difficult to learn another language? It because your brain was absorbing more when you were a child.

With this concept in mind if a child learns very rapidly around bad parenting, that child will grow up with bad skills of their own. They learn from bad parents to be bad people. But, if you are a good equal balance of strict and loose enough it is expected that your child will grow up more successful. I find myself to be more successful than the average teen. My parents and grandparents were just like that. Sometimes they would kick my butt. But sometimes they would let me stay up late to watch a Scooby Doo movie. It's all about balance.

But I've stayed away from the topic at hand far enough. The second largest factor in the teen though process is hormones. Hormones have always contributed to bad behavior and thought processes. But could the hormones be getting more severe? Multiple studies have indicated that milk and other meat products which contain growth hormones can lead to earlier sexual maturity and a larger hormone growth. My point, teens are getting hornier. Combine that with the amount of porn on the internet. Amount of drugs available. The undeveloped brain. And the amount of bad parents. And you have a big pile of stupid people. And it has only been getting worse every year. In fact I'll admit as a teenager sometimes I feel like going crazy.

With this kind of thought process our children of America are going to grow up spoiled, mean, disrespectful, and unmotivated. It seems more and more to me that these teenagers don't think of the future. They act like a person would if he knew he was going to die. News flash, Most of these teenagers will live for another 60+ years. Do they honestly think that funny tattoo of the word S*#) is going to be funny when they are doing that in their pants at age 75. Or maybe the huge amount of pot they're doing will just magically have no effect. IT'S SMOKE!!! Usually when you escape out of a house fire they tell you not to breathe the smoke.

By far the worst effect is that these teenagers don't set goals. Why would you set a goal if you figured "Hey I'll be dead in four years"? That's their thought process. They can't think ahead. No goals. No money. No future. One more thing I'll add: Not all teenagers are like this. First I've met countless intelligent teens in my cadet program. And second, look at me. Unfortunately the majority of teens live by this thought process. There must be some solution? Any solutions, Comment Below.

-Griffin