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Is it hard being a teenager?

S

Shadow Conception

Golden Member
Today in English, we were discussing Catcher in the Rye and its universal appeal because of how people around the world can easily relate to it. Our teacher said one of Salinger's main messages was that being a teenager is difficult. When he asked us if we shared Salinger's view, almost everybody in my class strongly agreed.

This message didn't resonate with me at all. Is it really that hard being a teenager? Sure, stuff gets low sometimes and it feels as if every existent force in the universe is your adversary... but really? It's THAT hard to be a teenager, when juxtaposed with the lives of adults? I don't mean to sound pompous, but I don't think so...
 
Don't teens commit suicide at a higher rate than adults? (I could be wrong, it's just the perception that I have) If so, that would seem to me to indicate that it's harder being a teen.

I guess everyone has different experiences, but my teenage years were much more difficult than my adult years.
 
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Teenagers only think things are harder for them. They think that because they are stupid. I know I did. Things mostly just keep getting shittier until you die, unless you win the lotto or something.
 
Only because teenager's agonize over every aspect of their lives. Life usually gets harder after the teen years are over. People are just better prepared to deal with it by then. I don't think teens should be awarded bonus points for stacking things against themselves.
 
I don't think so, but me as a teenager = didn't give a fuck about anything.

It was/is easy to not care and make life easy 🙂
 
Only thing that was hard about being a teenager was school. Now that I have a full time job, it is so much easier then school was. Less stress, and the rest of my life does not depend on silly tests and exams. As long as I show up for work every day and do my job, things go well. Not saying it's perfect, but the stress I do get at work, I can leave it at work when it's 4:30. Not so much with school.

If I could choose to go back to teen times, I'd probably not want to. I find now there's just less things to worry about, I have more control over things in my life such as if I want to buy or do something etc. There is more responsibility, but it's worth it. Of course, I'm single, that makes things easier.
 
Teen life may seem hard at times, there certainly are sources of stress and pressure to perform (school, sports, relationships, so many new things, uncertainties, etc...). Still, I'd say that's mostly due to emotional immaturity and lack of perspective. When you look back on those "hard" times as an adult, you'll see them as largely inconsequential (barring any real tragedies).

It also depends on the experience.

Some kid growing up in a broken household, caring for younger siblings, trying to avoid negative influences and get any kind of meaningful and trustworthy direction...yeah, that's hard.

Growing up in a mid/upper class neighborhood, with a solid family structure, where your only real worries are your grades and which college you're going to attend...cry me a river.
 
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at the time it can really BLOW but when you look back on it, it was great lol.

once you can do what you want ALL the time, it loses some of its fun
 
3,971 teen suicides in 2001, 132,000 attempted teen suicides in 2002.

vs.

11.1 suicides per 100,000 total population in 2005 (I'm going to guess that the population was close to 300,000,000.)

So about 30,000 total U.S. suicides, and a little more than 13% of US suicides are teens. Remarkable, but even more so to me is the 132,000 attempts. I would imaging that adults are far more succesful, though I couldn't find statistics.

Suicide is not the only measure of a groups' struggles, but I think these numbers are pretty interesting.
 
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Blackjack200 said:
3,971 teen suicides in 2001, 132,000 attempted teen suicides in 2002.

vs.

11.1 suicides per 100,000 total population in 2005 (I'm going to guess that the population was close to 300,000,000.)

So about 30,000 total U.S. suicides, and a little more than 13% of US suicides are teens. Remarkable, but even more so to me is the 132,000 attempts. I would imaging that adults are far more succesful, though I couldn't find statistics.

Suicide is not the only measure of a groups' struggles, but I think these numbers are pretty interesting.
Click to expand...

I always wonder about that, how can you fail at suicide? Like does the person's life suck that much, that they actually fail, at failing? There are way too many ways to guarantee death, some are even quite painless.
 
Shadow Conception said:
Today in English, we were discussing Catcher in the Rye and its universal appeal because of how people around the world can easily relate to it. Our teacher said one of Salinger's main messages was that being a teenager is difficult. When he asked us if we shared Salinger's view, almost everybody in my class strongly agreed.

This message didn't resonate with me at all. Is it really that hard being a teenager? Sure, stuff gets low sometimes and it feels as if every existent force in the universe is your adversary... but really? It's THAT hard to be a teenager, when juxtaposed with the lives of adults? I don't mean to sound pompous, but I don't think so...
Click to expand...

It's tough being a teenager because you know so little about the world, your place in it, how much power you have...on and on and on. I work with troubled teens for a living and so talk about these issues with them all the time.
You couldn't pay me enough to be a teenager again now that at 37 I finally understand just a little about the universe and my place in it. I was a huge party animal and drug user at that age who thought he was having a good time. Little did I know. Life was extremely difficult for me as a teenager but today by the grace of God I love life.
 
I'm almost 20, so it's not been that long since HS, and I'm not really a full fledged adult out in the world yet, but it is much harder than 6-18 already. It's def manageable, but teens have it easy
 
Being a teen can be hard, but in a totally different way from being an adult. Adolescents have very strong and volatile emotions that fuck with their heads, and they don't have any experience to draw on in order to deal with things. Oh, and while their basic needs (food, clothing, etc.) are generally taken care of by their parents, it's easy to feel like your parents are controlling your whole life.

If the only measure of easy vs. difficult is getting the bills paid and putting food on the table, then sure, being a teen is easy. But as an adult, you don't have the emotional roller coaster that many teens have to deal with. I'm surprised how quickly the adults here have forgotten what that was like.

P.S. I'm 25 and I actually had a very easy adolescence, and I have a strong distaste for personal drama. Still, judging by the way many of my friends went through their teen years, I know not everyone is like me.
 
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