Tuesday, March 20, 2007

A question for anybody who cares...

What drives a teenager to seek only activities that bring immediate gratification rather than activities that require delayed gratification??? This is bothering me a lot with some kids. Let's see how many people read this thing.

4 comments:

Michelle said...

Of course I read this, Baby! Wish I had a good answer for you. My guess is that most kids aren't patient enough, so they go for the cheap thrills instead of the delayed gratification activities. Our LDS culture teaches different values then a lot of kids receive, so maybe that is why we didn't struggle with that. Did I mention you are hot?

Sushiboy said...

I check out your blog from time to time. But its been a few months.

My opinion, I think it has something with the brain of a teenager not being fully developed. When the brain finishing developing in the ealry 20's most instant grat kids seem to be able to buckle down and accomplish things.

Anonymous said...

I hear that the brain doesn't mature until 25 years old in the way that they understand cause and effect. They cannot think past the "I want to do this or that phase". When you turn 25, you can see the result. I guess the neurotransmitters connect at that age.

Anonymous said...

Jamity - this is the BN in Vegas. Have you ever read Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi? He suggests that teenagers are physiologically mature beings, but present social arrangements don't provide adequate challenges for the skills teenagers may have, so they must discover opportunities for action outside those sanctioned by adults. Most activities are under adult control and leave little room for the youth's initiative - so they get in trouble when they turn to the things they think teenagers are supposed to do.
I honestly believe they think adults are incredibly boring. I used to talk with the lead singer of the band Panic! a the Disco when he lived around the corner from me and he would say "I don't want to be the bald guy in the bishopric who sits up on the stand every Sunday" It made me think that that guy on the stand may lead an incredibly fulfilling life, but from the pews at the back of the chapel, he looks pretty boring. I don't know how to fix that other than being satisfied with my own situation and using any influence I may have to perpetuate whatever is good about me. Then there are geniuses like you out there that understand how to do this kind of thing. And you are cute too.