Our Adolescent Culture: Where are the grownups?

“There was a time, literally, when there were no teenagers.”

What Diana West is suggesting in The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development Threatens Western Civilization will undoubtedly sound ridiculous to thousands of youth pastors, family therapists, and advertising gurus whose livelihoods depend on entertaining, counseling, and selling to teenagers.

Nevertheless, West argues that adolescence didn’t always exist. In fact, it is a quite recent phenomenon. The word “teenager” wasn’t really used until 1941, after all. In virtually every other culture in the history of the world prior to late 20th century Western culture, kids became adults. Not so anymore. They now become teenagers, or, to put it in more sociologically acceptable terms, they become adolescents.

THE CREATION OF THE TEENAGER

What happened to bring about this new stage in human development? The sexual revolution and political upheavals of the ‘60s are, of course, the most obvious suspects. However, West suggests a number of other things, some earlier than the ‘60s: a generation of disconnected fathers trying to deal with what they experienced during WWII, factories which once produced necessities for war began producing non-necessities for consumption, new marketing engines selling these goods to people who didn’t realize they wanted them, Chubby Checker’s Twist, Elvis’ hips, the Beatles’ hair, automobiles—perhaps more than one—in every home, the growth of Hollywood, and the recognition by the marketing engines of the fortune to be made from this brand new segment of the population.

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Teens Texting and Driving

When I first saw a New York Times photo of a teen texting while driving, I had assumed it was just a photo illustration. The picture showed the driver texting with both hands — a youth in the passenger seat was steadying the wheel. The spedometer visible in the photo suggested the car was moving at 60 miles per hour. It was too crazy and too horrible to be real.

But I learned this weekend that the photo is real — captured by coincidence while a Times photographer working on an unrelated story was riding in the back seat.

Public Editor Clark Hoyt explored the origins of the photo in his latest column, A Dramatic Photo: Was It Real?

The photographer, Dan Gill, a freelancer, took the picture last November while on assignment for The Times for an entirely different story – an H.I.V. scare at a St. Louis high school. He said the picture was not staged and that he was just doing what Times editors asked: recording the lives of some students at the school.

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Life Hurts God Heals

I realized that I had overbooked the fall schedules of myself, the volunteers helping me out, and the students, so we're moving LHGH to Wednesday nights from 6:30-8:30 beginning Wednesday, September 16.

This study will conclude Wednesday, December 9, with a party which all parents are invited to attend.

Also, High School students need to turn in their permission slips by this Sunday, August 30, along with $5 to participate in the in-home study on sex and sexuality that begins Sunday, September 13 and concludes Sunday, November 22. Guys will be meeting from 6-8p at Darvin and Karen Green's house and will be led in discussion and bible study by Dustin and Jared. Girls will be meeting from 6-8p at Dustin and Rachel's house and will be led in discussion and bible study by Rachel and Lacey.

Teens losing sleep to electronic distractions

To many parents, text messaging is an enigma -- a practice their children engage in when they could just make a phone call or walk down the street to their friends' houses. It seems to be a strange but harmless means of communication.

What most don't know is that too much texting can be detrimental to their teens' health. That's because new technologies, such as cell phones and social networking sites, give teens easy access to their friends 24 hours a day.

"The more technology we develop, the more we rely on technology," said Dr. Myrza Perez, a pediatric pulmonologist in California. A specialist in sleep disorders, she says "before technology, we went to sleep when the sun went down. Now, with all these distractions, teenagers alone in their rooms stay up to extremely late hours on their cell phones and computers. Their parents have no idea."

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Pregnancies & Sexually Transmitted Diseases on the Rise Among Teens

More teenagers and young adults are having sex, sparking an increase in teen births in both 2006 and 2007, and putting an end to more than a decade of significant decline. In fact, nearly three quarters of a million pregnancies occurred among American females under the age of 20 in 2004 that reversed the downward trend from 1991 to 2004.

To make matters work, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among young Americans are also on the rise. The annual rate of AIDS cases among boys ages 15 to 19 has almost doubled over the past decade, while the number of syphilis diagnoses are up among both teens and young adults. In addition, almost a quarter of teen girls aged 15 to 19 were infected with a human papilomavirus (HPV) from 2003 to 2004, as were almost half of young women between the ages of 20 and 25.

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Did Miley Miss the Mark?

Would you say that Miley Cyrus was overtaken by a fault with her performance at the Teen Choice Awards? In my opinion...yes. That outfit/dance is not something I would put in the whole "honoring God" category - especially for a pre-teen role model who openly said to a fan, "I sing, dance and act for Jesus! ... Now that I think about it, I do everything for Jesus..."

What is interesting when stuff like this happens (i.e. big-time Christian hits big-time controversy) is that it usually reveals what kind of Christians we are.

What do I mean? Well, if you noticed, there have been three basic reactions to the Cyrus situation - and I believe only one of them honors God.

The first is a 'whole lotta judging' going on. You know - 'How could she?' and "I don't think she's really a Christian' and much more superiority-sounding "blah blah blah."

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Think digital cheating is something only other parents’ kids do? Think again.

Common Sense Media’s groundbreaking new study, conducted in partnership with The Benenson Strategy Group, reveals that cheating via cell phones and the Internet is more widespread than parents might assume. More importantly, many students don’t consider what they’re doing to be cheating.

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Fall Ministry

Here's a (not-so) short summary of what we've got going on for this fall.

Sunday nights, starting September 13th, the high school students can participate in an in-home study on sex and sexuality. Letters were sent home to all parents of High School students informing you of this opportunity. If you haven't seen the letter, we have copies of it downstairs in the Crash Room. We are asking that parents sign the permission slip and give permission for their students to participate. The book that we'll be using is $5. Guys will be meeting on Sunday nights from 6-7:30 at Darvin and Karen Green's house on the corner of Union Road and 725. Girls will be meeting at Dustin and Rachel's house in Germantown, same night and time. Permission slips need to be turned in by Sunday, August 30, so we can order the books and have them come in in time for our study.

Wednesday nights are planned out until Christmas. We will be doing a series of 3 separate Bible studies throughout the fall, punctuated by service projects and game nights.

Our mentoring program, Life Hurts God Heals, is also in the works. This counseling ministry is designed to help students who are dealing with pain in life from abuse, cutting, addictions, anger, etc...There are several caring Christian adults who are being prepared to lead small groups of students through an 8-step recovery process that will span 13 weeks, beginning September 14. This ministry is available to middle and high school students, and the small groups will be divided according to age and gender. Monday nights are tentatively scheduled as the night that these groups will meet, but we are still working to make that a sure thing. We will be sending out a letter to parents informing you of this ministry which we are praying God will use to bring healing and stability into the turbulent life of teenagers.

Ok. That's all for now. We are scheduling the normal monthly activities for the fall too and will post them on here as soon as they are set in stone.

Winter Trip details are also coming soon, so check back in...

LG Translates Teen Texts For Parents

Parents who are having trouble understanding what their teens are saying to each other via text messages have a new resource for translation. LG Mobile Phones has set up a new Web site, www.LGDTXTR.com, that gives the meaning of more than 2,000 popular text abbreviations, such as MOS (mom over shoulder), PRW (parents are watching) and RUSOS (are you in trouble).

"Teens are constantly creating new ways to communicate, and while texting is not a new phenomenon, the unique shorthand phrases that have been created as a result are growing daily," stated Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of product strategy and marketing for LG Mobile Phones, in a statement. "LG DTXTR (detexter) is a tool to keep everyone -- young and old -- current with the language, and as it grows, it enhances our understanding of what's important to teenagers."

LG Will update the ever-expanding site glossary through user-submitted terms and translations and other means.

Setting Computer Limits Tips

How much is too much time online?

Computer addiction is tough to define. When your child spends a large amount of time at the computer, are they addicted or do they simply enjoy being online? Perhaps it’s easier to frame it like this: Can your child enjoy himself – and all those things that aren’t online – when he’s away from the computer? If you’re not sure, just start observing his computer habits and moods.

What is it?

All kids have trouble turning off the computer. Instant Messaging with friends seems so important, games like Runescape and World of Warcraft capture players’ attention and time, a lot of it. And virtual worlds like Club Penguin orTeen Second Life can be equally engrossing. But some kids go beyond procrastinating – they just can’t turn the computer off. You can tell the difference in how a child acts when the computer is taken away – withdrawn, moody, and uncommunicative. (Not the usual teen sulk, but a condition that goes away when your child is back online.)

Why it matters

The part of kids’ brains that contain mental off-switches aren’t fully developed until kids reach their early 20s. That means they need rules and structure to help them turn off the computer. Developing children need to be able to have real lives independent of their cyber ones to fully develop socially, emotionally, and even physically. While some kids may blossom in the freedom and anonymity of online lives, they also need the interpersonal skills that online life can’t provide.

Computer dependency can also mask problems kids are having in the real world. Dr. Maressa Hecht Orzack, director of the Computer Addiction Study Center at Boston’s McLean Hospital, says she sees concerned parents – and their kids, mostly boys 11 to 19 – who think their kids are addicted. These kids aren’t developing the coping mechanisms they will need to live life happily and successfully.

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For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’

There is so much hugging at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, N.J., that students have broken down the hugs by type:

There is the basic friend hug, probably the most popular, and the bear hug, of course. But now there is also the bear claw, when a boy embraces a girl awkwardly with his elbows poking out.

There is the hug that starts with a high-five, then moves into a fist bump, followed by a slap on the back and an embrace.

There’s the shake and lean; the hug from behind; and, the newest addition, the triple — any combination of three girls and boys hugging at once.

“We’re not afraid, we just get in and hug,” said Danny Schneider, a junior at the school, where hallway hugging began shortly after 7 a.m. on a recent morning as students arrived. “The guy friends, we don’t care. You just get right in there and jump in.”

There are romantic hugs, too, but that is not what these teenagers are talking about.

Girls embracing girls, girls embracing boys, boys embracing each other — the hug has become the favorite social greeting when teenagers meet or part these days. Teachers joke about “one hour” and “six hour” hugs, saying that students hug one another all day as if they were separated for the entire summer.

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