The Horrible Teens By Elizabeth Kolbert

They are figuring out who they are and who they want to be. Their bodies and brains are constantly changing and developing. Their brain will not fully develop until their 20s and they are expected to lack some skills, such as decision making skills.The area in the brain that controls the decision making skills is the last to develop meaning teens have a reason to naturally lack in making decisions. “That’s because the nerve cells that connect teenagers’ frontal lobes with the rest of their brains are sluggish. Teenagers don’t have as much of the fatty coating called myelin, or “white matter” that adults have in this area. (Knox) This quote explains the frontal lobes and how they aren’t developed, and this is the reason for their flawed decision making skills. They do have some ability to make some quick and mature decisions, but not as much as an adult can. Shakespeare shows us this in Romeo and Juliet when Juliet says “ If that thy bent of love be honorable, Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,” (II.II.143-144) Romeo had to leave and they weren’t ready to say goodbye, so on impulse, Juliet decided they should get married. Juliet gave no thought to this and was set on her decision, and it happened, they got married after knowing eachother for only 5

The article Are you raising an Internet bully? Here’s how to end that behavior by Monica Leftwich written in The Washington Post, is a discussion on how parental behavior can affect kid’s social behavior and attitude towards others.

Teenagers are often seen as impulsive, emotional, and erratic. Recent discoveries have shown just why this is not only normal but unavoidable because of the way that teen brains develop. Teen brains develop and process in an entirely different way than adult and child brains. There is an incredibly plasticity of the brain that is the most prevalent in adolescence. This encourages open mindedness, exploration, curiosity, and huge strides in development but also increases susceptibility to mental illness and risky behaviors.

Teenagers. People find them to be crazy just by looking at the way they dress and act. In modern days, they dress with pop culture and most of the time, it’s provocative, but it is what all of their peers are wearing. They act in the craziest way, from “hooking up with strangers, [to] jumping from high places into shallow pools, [to] … steering a car with … [their] knees” (83) it is a wonder that they grow up to become “civilized, intelligent adults” (83). In Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Terrible Teens,” she asserts that teenagers take risks because of their brains. Teenagers are known for making impulsive decisions that may lead to tragic events. Kolbert believes that teenagers make rash decisions because their frontal lobes are immature, nucleus

They are less likely to think before they act, they won’t stop to consider the consequences of their actions. (The Teen Brain, 2011) Teens do have the ability to tell the differences between what is wrong and what is right. They have the abilities to make the right decision but just don’t always consider what can happen when they make the wrong ones. They should still be held accountable for their actions but there must be an awareness of differences in how their decisions are made.

Steinberg uses an increase in gas and a decreases in brakes as an example. Abigail Baird, a brain researcher, suggests that adolescence is much like a second toddler hood. The out-of-control actions that occur during adolescence are actually very critical to pre-adult learning. The neurotransmitter dopamine paired with the pre-frontal cortex is what makes risk-taking come out in the adolescence. According to B.J. Casey, areas of the brain involved with reward processing are much more active in teens than in younger children or adults. The teen brain reacts differently than adults when making decisions with the help of the amygdala and the insula. Adults rely on these parts of the brain, while studies have shown that teens insulae weren’t as active as adults while being asked “good or bad idea” questions. It took teens twice as much time to answer these questions. They were showing a frontal lobe response which impairs your decision making causing accidents and deaths all the time. The prefrontal cortex doesn’t begin to mature until the age of 25 which enables us to be better at inhibiting influential

Teenage brains are distinct from adults. The teenage brain is still developing and will continue to develop until the age of 25, so they can not fully make decisions. In Understanding the brain from the University of Rochester Medical Center, it states that “ connections between the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making center are still developing.” This shows that the connections make teens combine their feelings and emotions with thinking and decision making so when it's time to vote for a president they do not fully think about it and let

I know that there are so many issues that can influence the adolescent’s ability to partake in the decision making process such as age, knowledge, and development. If you compare an adult to an adolescent, the adult brain is already developed and capable of making rational, careful decisions. For example, if an adult were to make a decision on abortion, they would carefully weigh all their options, talk about it with close family, friends, and decide what to do next. Where as an adolescent, their brain is still “premature, ”which can effect their decision on abortion. The prefrontal cortex is located in the adolescent’s brain, and it is the area of the brain that’s not fully developed. This part of the brain controls reasoning, impulses, emotions, forms judgments, and helps people think before they act. Therefore, it plays a huge role for people, especially when having to make such crucial decisions. More often than not, adolescents are less likely to think before they act, and they normally don’t consider the consequences of their decision. Whole –heartedly, I believe that adolescents are not mentally prepared to make a decision on getting an

Gayle Forman is a fairly known author, but mostly in the world of teens. Gayle Forman is now known mostly for writing young adult fiction, but that isn’t where she began her career. Gayle Forman got her start in writing as a journalist, where she got her first job at Seventeen magazine. She began her work there by reporting what was going on in the world, and telling the stories of people she had crossed paths with. She remained at her job at Seventeen until she decided to start a family with her husband, and decided that being a journalist was too hard to juggle when you are also a mother, because journalism requires traveling. She began writing her novels while she was expecting her first child, and has been writing novels ever since.

It is speculated that teens are careless for their actions, irresponsible, and do not think about consequences of their actions. Many adults expect teens to make poor decisions and take careless actions, which numerous teens do. Some may say that all teens are careless and do not care about what they do, but the majority of teens do care. Firstly, the brain of a teen can explain the decisions and actions they make, including bad ones. Secondly, there are many cases of peer pressure and stress on teens. Finally, teens have trouble conveying facial expressions and emotions, as well as trouble with understanding others emotions. Therefore, teens are not careless due to the way their brains function and pressure of others.

In adolescence, the brain still has much capacity for growth, and may indicate that troubled teenagers can still learn restraint, judgment, and empathy (Glueck). Adolescence is a time of great change in the brain.

Many psychologists have stated as to how adolescences’ brains have not fully matured, which indicates that children are not fully responsible for their actions. This may be due to their risk taking behaviour and their irresponsible behaviours. (Zuckerman 2006)

Surviving the Teenage Brain was about the development and curiousness of adolescent’s brains in adapting, decision-making, and addictions. Adolescents are extremely curious. This allows them to be able to adapt much quicker, absorb new information, and push the barriers. The reason for this curiosity at this stage in life is the brain has now grown to its full size and adolescents are just on the verge of learning how to use it. Biologically the brain is now at its total mass. Adolescents are constantly learning to use their full brain, which leads to such curiosity. This makes adolescents curiousness their greatest characteristic. It allows for questioning such as “What if I do this? What if I do that?” and also allows them to be in the very

One of the factors regarding physical development is that the juvenile brain is not mature enough. The prefrontal cortex, “the judgement” region that reins intense emotions is not fully developed until emerging adulthood. Therefore, a teenager may have poor decision-making skills when it comes whether or not to break a law.

To begin with, poor judgment and decisions in teens lead to accidents and fatalities. Research shows that the teenage brain has not yet fully developed. Teenage brains have not yet developed fully according to Elizabeth Landau in a CNN article called “Why teens are wired for risk. The article states that Neuroscientists confirm that teenagers do have brains, but they’re wired differently from those of adults. According to the CNN article called “Why teens are wired for risk” by Elizabeth Landau, it states that Institutes of Health has shown, the prefrontal cortex, region of the brain associated with inhibition of risky behavior, doesn’t get fully