Elizabeth Korbert The Terrible Teenagers Essay

Teenagers. People find them to be absurd just by looking at the way they dress and act. They are often times stigmatized and stereotyped, called “millennials”, and written off as a reckless, thoughtless generation. In modern days, they dress provocatively, consume pop culture, and constantly judge and get judged by their peers. They behave in the craziest ways, 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 accumbens are augmented, and primate ancestors were also impetuous.
The frontal lobe of the brain is “responsible for planning, for self-awareness, and for judgement” (84) and it is the last part of the brain to fully develop.

According to neurologist Francis Jensen:
The brain is still busy building links between its different regions. This process involves adding myelin around the axons, which conduct electrical impulses. (Myelin insulates the axons, allowing impulses to travel faster.) It turns out that the links are built starting in the back of the brain, and the frontal lobes are one of the last regions to get connected. They are not fully myelinated until people are in their twenties, or even thirties. (84)
The deficiency of myelinated axons causes the impulses in the brain to travel slower, which means that their thought processes do not have time to process and lead teenagers to execute their rash decisions. It may be the reason why there is a long-standing debate about raising the drinking age. Because alcohol has lasting effects on the brain and may slow or damage the process of myelinating axons, raising the drinking age from twenty-one to an age where the brain is fully developed could lead to healthier, more intelligent adults. The thought processes of teenagers are not at their full potential, however, Jensen also mentions that “this is where parents step in. ‘You need to be your teens’ frontal lobes until their brains are fully wired,’”(84) even though the amount of nagging and scare tactics may not amuse or encourage your teenager.

Kolbert brings in another authority to support her argument even further that teenagers have something wrong with their brains.
Kolbert’s second authority, Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor, argues that teenagers are reckless, in part, because the nucleus accumbens in adolescents are augmented:
During childhood, the nucleus accumbens, which is sometimes called the “pleasure center” grows. It reaches its maximum extent in the teenage brain; then it starts to shrink. This enlargement of the pleasure center occurs in concert with other sensation-enhancing changes (84).
Steinberg says that children and teenagers are having the time of their lives, owing to the fact that: “As kids enter puberty, their brains sprout more dopamine receptors” (84). The neurotransmitter, dopamine, stimulates the brain’s pleasure centers, which leads to teenagers’ desire to make rash decisions, since their senses are being clouded by dopamine. Steinberg uses a metaphor to best contrast between adults and teenagers:
One afternoon, you’re sitting in your office with wads of cotton stuck up your nose. (For the present purposes, it’s not important to know why.) Someone in your office has just baked a batch of chocolate-chip cookies. The aroma fills the air, but, since your nose is plugged, you don’t notice and continue working. Suddenly you sneeze, and the cotton gets dislodged. Now the smell hits, and you rush over to gobble up one cookie, then another.
According to Steinberg, adults spend their lives with wads of cotton in their metaphorical noses. Adolescents, by contrast, are designed to sniff out treats at a hundred paces (84).
Teenagers are aware of the consequences, however, “It’s just that the potential rewards seem—and, from a neurological standpoint, genuinely are—way, way greater.

‘The notion that adolescents take risks because they don’t know any better is ludicrous,’ Steinberg writes” (85). It is inevitable that teenagers will perform reckless activities to receive the pleasure and rewards they want, but “The leading cause of death among adolescents today is accidents; this is known as the ‘accident hump.’” (85). This ‘accident hump’ accounts for large numbers of teenagers doing drugs or drinking alcohol, crashing cars, or making rampant sexual advances; however, that is only one part of the

problem.
Humans’ evolutionary ancestors are, according to science, primates. Our primate ancestors are a big part on how modern-day humans behave and look, since genes are passed down through generations of Darwinian evolution and natural selection. As claimed by Steinberg, “To find mates, our primate ancestors had to venture outside their natal groups. The reward for taking chances in dangerous terrain was sex followed by reproduction, while the cost of sensibly staying at home was genetic oblivion” (85). Modern day teenagers get out of their comfort zone, and soothe their psychological urges, by using dating apps and posting inappropriate, racy photos on social media to appeal to the opposite (or same) gender. They behave this way because promiscuity is in their genes, and they have only limited control over their basic instincts.
What can adults do to control these reckless teenagers? A good way to prevent children from turning into thoughtless teenagers is to teach them responsibility, and foresight; however, monitoring them closely and placing strict restrictions is a much more immediate way to keep teenagers from going astray. It is the reason for curfews and harsh charges for incriminating acts under the age of eighteen, even if they are less than adult sentences. There are many examples of these within Kolbert’s article: Jensen locking the liquor cabinet, and Steinberg’s point about “allowing sixteen-year-olds to get a license in return for sitting through lectures and doing some practice driving completely misses the point” (86). However, Steinberg comes up with a solution to possibly prevent some of teenagers behaviors simply by spending money “on sports or arts programs that keep adolescents busy and under adult supervision” (86). As of now, most of the money is spent on negative advertisements and programs to try to decrease the amount of teenagers having children, doing drugs, and other thoughtless activities. Flooding electronic media, like television and the Internet, with more positive messages and programs, rather than scare tactics might do more to curb these problems.
Teenagers. Their frontal lobes are underdeveloped, and their bodies are riddled with hormones and genes influencing every moment of their lives. While they are no less responsible for their misdemeanors, parents and teachers can learn from these biological impulses, in order to better understand the teenage demographic. These “millennials”, however, are not as homogeneous or as stubborn as one might think; teenagers, for their part, are having the time of their lives, all while learning valuable lessons which will help them in the future. Hopefully, these lessons will someday enrich the lives of the next generation of teenagers.