When Life is On Fire
Teenagers are rash and emotional (I would know, considering I am one). This comment is bestowed upon because of a recent article I read for class. The article is written by Gloria Hochman called Teens' immature brains pose all sorts of dangers. She briefly explained that teenagers' prefrontal cortex (the decision making part of the brain) is not completely developed yet and that's why teens can make idiotic choices. I, myself have done some idiotic things, but at the time, it hadn't seemed like a bad idea. Gloria points out that teens tend to follow emotion more than logic when they make decisions. This is also influenced by teenagers wanting to fit in among society and their friends. Sadly, we teenagers want to separate ourselves from our parents, wanting to go down a path of "self-actualization" and "individuality." It is harder for teenagers to connect to parents and that doesn't help us make good decisions, seeing as we refuse to be guided by those who have raised us. Just because we make bad decisions doesn't mean we're dumb though. Gloria mentions that primitively, there are centers in our brain that deal with emotion and risk-taking. Meaning we are more to make risky decisions based on our emotion instead of plain logic. It's similar to the trill of poking the sleeping bear and wondering if it will awake (seriously, don't be dumb here). We, the teenagers, are also on our way to being adults. We barely look like children anymore and people expect us to "act our age." They expect us to make smart choices and force us to be independent. However, just because we look like adults on the outside, we've yet to develop all the way on the inside. There have been adults (mainly my dad) who made extremely idiotic and dangerous choices and miraculously come out unscathed. Not many adults are so lucky and they themselves are astounded/ horrified at some of the risky things they have done when they themselves were teens.