Constructing a teenager

What do you think Coontz’s claim/thesis is?  Find a passage from the text that summarizes her claim.

Evidence:

3. What evidence does Coontz provide for her claim?

Application

4.  Can you think of examples from your own life that support Coontz’s thesis?  If you can’t think of examples that apply directly to you, perhaps you can think of examples that apply to siblings, relatives, or friends?

We read an excerpt from sociologist Stephanie Coontz called "Parent-Teen Conflicts."  Hopefully the article helped you see that the idea of a "teenager" is a social construction.  The idea of a teenager has only been around since the 1940s.  Before that, individuals went more from childhood to adulthood very quickly.  Now, the process of childhood has a long drawn out middle period.  This encompasses the "teenage years" but it also includes what sociologists call "young adulthood."  Sociologists estimate the average age of independence in the United States  to be 27.  That is when (on average) individuals can be self-sustaining financially and emotionally and socially enough to have a family and residence of their own.  So this leaves a long middle period between the age of puberty (10) and independence (27).  And throughout that time, there are many mixed messages being given to young adults.  This results in "rolelessness," or a feeling of not knowing what is expected of you during those years.  One example was the lack of meaningful work.  Teens generally have jobs that society deems as unworthy or meaningless.  This can leave teens feeling like they don't matter.  Can you see how Coontz makes that point?  Do you see how that can be true?  Can you see how being a "teenager" is a social construction?

What should be the marker for independence?

For more on the difficulties of determining adulthood, see this November 2016 Contexts article, Growing Up is Harder to Do.2 - After the Great Recession.

What are some of the ways teens feel when dealing with adults and expectations whether it's parents, school, work, laws or rules?  How are these feelings a social construct?

And this follow-up from Contexts about research showing different routes to adulthood depending on one's race, social class and other factors.

Imagine this...with Sociology

As you enter, please take out your gold Framework guide and read this post:

We have been talking about a how sociologists view the world.  Another way to understand how to have a sociological perspective is through what C. Wright Mills calls a "sociological imagination".  Mills described the sociological imagination as the "connection of biography to history".   Biography is who a person is.  History is when and where you live.  So, a sociological imagination is the understanding that people are shaped by when and where they live.

One example of sociological imagination is through the Beloit Mindset list. Every year, Beloit College publishes a list of how the current year's freshmen will experience and have experienced the world differently.

Click on the link above and think about how your world is different than the one in which your parents grew up.

Data/example:  How is this an example of the sociological imagination?

A couple examples of this are from the NY Times:
Here is an article about students not writing in cursive.
And, this link is about the changing role of the wristwatch.

Both show that being born in a different time means students will experience the world differently.  This might sound obvious, but there is a tendency for people to think that they are simply who they are regardless of time or place.


Conclusions and inquiry:  How might kids being born today experience the world differently than you have?  Or, how might kids being born in 2013 be influenced differently than you have?  And yet another way to think about this is, how might you have been different if you grew up somewhere else?  Especially for those of you who have moved, try to imagine what your life would be if you still lived somewhere else.


Another example is this video of a child who is trying to use a magazine like an ipad:



This is a great post from the Everyday Sociology site that explains how a sociological imagination can be used to analyze how individuals are affected by where they live.

Student Notes:

What is a sociological imagination?
What does it mean to be the intersection of history and biography?

What is does SI have to do with personal troubles and public issues?

Refer to Ferris & Stein (textbook) pgs. 9-13, 17 for more info.