The Rise and Fall of The American Teenager

In response to Hine, i felt that the book, though long and sometimes confusing with its spouts of factual data, had many good and interesting points about the American Teenager from beginning to present.

One of the points that we touched on in class that I feel is a large influence on why there is such tension as a teenager is the impression "teenagers" have on the elders of society. The people who have gone through adolescence sometimes give off the impression that they are above it and never had to experience what today's youth has to. I know many adults who feel that today's youth "has it easier than they did" and that we should appreciate that we never had to do the things that they did. Though I know today's youth does take advantage of the things that they do have, I feel that there is a mutual lack of respect and understanding for the older and younger generations.
It doesn't help that today's parents feel like they are in competition with the youth of today. Adult women constantly criticize their aging bodies because the youth of today is attracting more attention from all ages of men. In Hine, he writes, "their physical and intellectual power makes their parents at once proud, painfully aware of their own mortality" (11). Adults may treat teenagers as competition and therefore be incapable of supporting them in a time in their life where they need the direction and support of adults. Like Hine says at the end of his novel, "we were young once too" (304). To help the youth of today, adults must try to understand them and that they need their help. The youth will hopefully see that adults are not the enemy and that because they are taking time to unedrstand them, the youth may try to understand their adults too.