Conversation

Why do so many teenagers go through an overly dramatic dark stage? I don't mean that they don't genuinely feel it, but I'm reading this Reddit thread on old cringe and it's basically everyone remembering being embarrassingly emo. I was homeschooled and the bug bit me too.

Aella

@Aella_Girl

Aug 15, 2018

Is it like a stage in human progression where you learn how to feel long term sadness and then cause it's the first time, you go overboard?

Aella

@Aella_Girl

I remember feeling deeply misunderstood. Is it because society chronically misunderstands teenagers? Is the teenagers darkness phase an adjustment to lack of empathy in society?

3:21 PM · Aug 15, 2018

Replying to

Id say hormones from puberty also play some role in the emotional response

Replying to

Teenagers believe they are the center of the universe but are suddenly constantly reminded that they aren’t

Replying to

Contributing factor: at that age an ideal picture of the world is being replaced by a darker but more realistic one. Eventually we accept and adjust (some more or less) to this new picture and come out of the phrase.

Replying to

I guess its a mix between hormones, the individual becoming self aware of its likes and dislikes and religion not being as important as it once were on youngsters, which brings several cliché existential questions and agony/boredom

Replying to

Its just the time kid beginning to understand that everyone and everything dies and he will one day die too

Replying to

The human brain is not fully developed until the early to mid 20s. The prefontal cortex, where more rational judgement takes place is not in full use or fully developed in teens. They have full-on emotions but not the capacity to analyze or temper them.

Misha Gurevich, Photographer, VC, Wives 0/1

@drethelin

Aug 15, 2018

Replying to

@Aella_Girl

In the ancestral environment you would’ve already been a parent or at least a valued member of the tribe by that age so of course your animal mind thinks drastic actions are required and tries to spur you on with powerful emotions of rebellion and despair

Replying to

The generational gap is getting wider as we, as a species, rapidly advance. Young people aren't meant to be understood by the old. They're meant to create the future.

Replying to

symptoms of a sedentary post agricultural society with shit nutrition and no real rites of passage

Replying to

Raging hormones is the more logical explanation. Unless you think that all societies across thousands of years lacked empathy. Remember all adults were once teenagers, no teenagers were ever adults.