Teenager

“One in 10 teens in high school drink and drive, young drivers ages (16-20) are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol concentration of .08% than when they have not been drinking” (CDC). Since 1991 teenage drinking has been reduced by more than half, but that isn’t enough, more can still be done. Before 1982 the legal age for drinking was 18, but then when Ronald Reagan became president the drinking age was raised to 21. Because of that change thousands and thousands of lives have been saved, but still thousands have died, and lives are still being lost every day.

In 2011 nearly one million teenagers drank alcohol and go behind the wheel putting their lives and others in extreme danger. Teen drivers are 3 times more likely to be in a fatal crash than experienced drivers, so drinking any alcohol at all increases the risk. “High school students aged 16 years and older who, when surveyed, said they had driven a vehicle one or more times during the past 30 days when they had been drinking alcohol.”(CDC). Drunk driving, especially by teens, is one of the most avoidable threats to public health in America. “1 in 5 teen drivers involved in fatal crashes had some alcohol in their system in 2010″(CDC). Parental involvement, minimum legal drinking age, zero tolerance laws, and graduated driver licensing system are all steps that have been proven by research to decrease the chances of teens drinking and driving, and in the end causing death.

Some types of preventative measures have to be taken soon if we want to lower the percentage of teens that drink and drive. The first step to prevention is having a Minimum legal drinking age (MLDA). This makes it a law in every state for it to be illegal to sell alcohol to anyone under age 21. Research has shown that enforcement of MLDA laws using alcohol retailer compliance checks has reduced retail sales of alcohol to those under the legal drinking age.

Even though this is already in place, we need to crack down harder and have more focus on preventing the sale of alcohol to underage drinkers and being more aware. Also reinforcing Zero tolerance laws in every state make it illegal for those under age 21 to drive after drinking any alcohol. These laws have been proven to reduce the sale of alcohol to minors, and they serve as one step further to push people to not take the illegal actions. The Graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems help new drivers get more experience under less risky conditions. As teens move through stages, they gain privileges, such as driving at night or driving with passengers. This system is enforced in many states and has been proven to show improvement among the youth and helps provided safer driving.

And finally, what I believe to be the number one preventative measure, Parental involvement. This helps keep new drivers safe as they learn to drive, with a focus on monitoring and restricting what new drivers are allowed to do. Parents can consider creating and signing a parent-teen driving agreement with their teens, which would give them more incentive and better understanding of the seriousness of the situation. Research has shown that when parents establish and enforce the “rules of the road”, new drivers report lower rates of risky driving, traffic violations, and crashes.

Works Cited

1. Macionis, J. J. (n.d.). Sociology, 15th Ed. Teen Drinking and Driving. CDC. (2012, October 02). Retrieved May 03, 2016

How has texting affected teen literacy? This is one question asked by many, and not always answered. After doing much research, I have come up with an answer to this question. There are pros as well as cons to texting when it comes to teens. The pros of texting are that texting allows teens to communicate with each other more often. Another pro is that they have the capability to call a parent when in a situation where alcohol or drugs are involved. While texting can have some pros, it also comes with it’s own set of cons.

One con is that texting is leading to anxiety, stress, distraction in school, and sleep deprivation. All of this added together can cause teens to have falling grades in school. Another, con is that texting can distract teens while they are driving. Texting and driving has become one of the most common causes of car accidents. One common thing you can see in schools is texting in class. One other thing you will see is cheating during tests. Some schools have banned cellphones during tests but this has not helped at all.

These rules only affect the teens that are willing to break rules. The amount of teens who own a cell phone in the world is enormous. In 2011, 77% of the teenage population owned a cell phone, which is very similar to the 75% presented in 2009. Due to the unlimited texting plans presented by various mobile carriers texting has increased substantially in popularity. According to the Nielson Company, American Teenagers sent and received and average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008.

This totals to about 80 messages a day. In 2010, this amount of 2,272 text messages in the fourth quarter of 2008, grew to an amount of 6. 1 trillion text messages in 2010. This goes to show how much texting has grown in popularity and is a growing issue that effects teens everywhere. As texting becomes more popular, more and more teens begin to have falling grades in school and also putting themselves in danger while driving.

If parents started to be more watchful of how much their children text, they could help them keep control of their texting. Works Cited Baker,Lisa. “Cell Phones and Their Positive Effects on Youth” eHow 15. April. 2012 Starovoit,Veronica. “How Does Text Messaging Affect the Ability to Write & Speak in English? ” eHow 16. April. 2012 Lenhart,Amanda. “Overall cell ownership steady since 2009” PewInternet 19. Mar. 2012 Hafner,Katie. “Texting May Be Taking a Toll on Teenagers” The New York Times 25. May. 2009

What do teenagers do in their spare time? They are on Facebook! This is Bristol FollowWednesday, November 10, 2010 WHAT do we teenagers do in our spare time? Hang round by shops with our hoods up, knifes in pocket, shouting abuse and getting drunk? Yes, all those grown ups would like to think that but, we normally just go out to have fun – go to the cinema, shopping and places like that! Or we are on Facebook. We will spend our lives, sharing our lives, on Facebook. From posting pictures, writing statuses, and joining funny yet sometimes offensive groups or fan pages.

But, have you ever thought, that maybe, you could get into heaps of trouble from those little comments? Facebook can get quite abusive. With us posting pictures, which, yes, aren’t very modest of ourselves, with skimpy outfits, and slapped-on make-up. But the nasty comments, are where we draw the line. Consider this, once it’s on there, will your digital footprint ever be erased? Imogen Rodgers, Lucy Perry, Bethany Seymour, Year 9, St Bede’s CAN Facebook fight to stay on our favourites or is it time to ignore the friend you don’t like?

It’s most people’s way of life – an addiction. With no less than 400 million active users Facebook is ranked the number one social networking site worldwide but with so many others, like Twitter, Bebo, MySpace, Flickr, Google buzz, Habbo, Friendster, the list is endless, Will Facebook keep its crown or will one of its enemies take over? At the moment 35 million Facebook users update their status each day, this shows how popular it is. The site’s publicity and popularity levels are soaring, but over the past four years another site has had quite a bit of the spotlight too.

Twitter was launched in 2006 and with its appeal of getting to hear what celebrities have to say directly from them and reading their every “tweet” it seemed like there was a new social fish in town. However, even though it may seem like Facebook is starting to slip away, no other site could take over from what stole our hearts first. Elsie Bradley, The City Academy, Bristol DO you have Facebook? Some people feel that entertainment is sitting in front of a computer and watching the lives of others dissolve into this new cyber life.

How many times have you seen a message saying “I’m bored! “? They make me want to scream, “THEN GO AND DO SOMETHING ELSE! ” But the truth is that our lives are now revolving around these social networking sites. Those who don’t have such groups as Facebook are constantly under peer pressure to create an account and get sucked in. Especially if you don’t have an account, you have no control whatsoever of what pictures of you are being pinned up on the internet.

All those pictures that you thought your “friends” deleted – they’re all up on Facebook. Sarah Orr, Amy McGrath, and Evie Gowie, Year 9, St Bede’s I, LIKE many other people really enjoy going home and using the computer maybe to play games, send an email or go on Facebook but are we getting too addicted to Facebook? Do you really need to go on Facebook, when you have just spent a day at school talking to those people? Emily Shiga, Banor Kofi-Ofuafor and Jess Chapman, Year 9, St Bede’s

Anne Tyler’s short story “Teenage Wasteland” illustrates a mothers struggle to understand and help her child. The story takes place in a middle class neighborhood, where the protagonist Daisy, is a mother of two and a housewife. Daisy tries to help her son Donny, a stubborn and misunderstood teenager. Donny is a troubling teen who is rebellious and always causes misfortune. When Daisy gets a call from the principal of Donny’s private school requesting a conference about Donny’s poor grades and immature behavior, she does everything she can to help Donny grow and mature by hiring a tutor.

Unfortunately, Daisy discovers that Cal, Donny’s tutor, didn’t help Donny raise his grade, but instead made his grade drop. Daisy noticed that Donny has showed some improvement in his behavior and attitude in school. Anne Tyler reveals that being a parent is never an easy job, some parents, like Daisy and Matt, have no control over their kids. Throughout Daisy’s life she has tried to get a better understanding of Donny, she wants to be around him and wishes to know what he’s really like. As a mother Daisy is caring and interested in Donny’s well-being, she is insecure because of Donny, and Donny is Daisy’s main priority.

Like all mothers Daisy is interested in her child’s well-being. In this case, Donny’s well-being is all that she cares about. Daisy has gone through so much trouble in the past couple of weeks just for Donny to be happy. Daisy is very curious about Donny, he is very secretive and likes to keep things on the low. “Well? What did you think? ”(Tyler. 260). Daisy asks for Donny’s opinion, she’s wants to know how he feels. Also, it’s as if his decision is the only thing that matters to her, she wants to know what his standards are.

Daisy cares for Donny, she wants to communicate with him and get to know him. Daisy is insecure about herself because of Donny’s behaviour towards her. Because of the way Donny treats her, Daisy feels no confidence even with the way she dresses. In this case, she is self-conscious because she feels that Donny is uncomfortable being around her. She becomes self-conscious over the slightest things that don’t mean anything. “Daisy held in her stomach in and gave Mr. Lanham a firm, responsible handshake”(Tyler. 258). Daisy tries to suck in her stomach when giving a handshake, thinking that she is overweight.

“She wished she’d worn nylons instead of knee socks”(Tyler. 257). Also, she is insecure about the tiniest things like the way she’s dressed, she gets concerned over socks thinking that they make her look unprofessional and ignorant. She tries the cover and hide the parts where she is insecure about, like the things that may embarrass her. Daisy’s main person of interest seems to be Donny. She finds Donny intrigueing, he confuses her with his mixed emotions. In this case, Daisy wants to get to know Donny he confuses her alot, all mothers are curious about their children.

When she picks Donny up from Cal’s he’s having a great time, smiling and laughing which Dasiy has never seen that side of, but when he gets in the car he becomes mute and irritated a bit. Donny is causing trouble which is gaining him attention, shes putting all her care into him. “She had always told Donny he had talent, was smart, was good with his hands”(Tyler. 258). Donny has always been Daisy’s main priority, until his younger sister was born. But even after, he was still her main person of interest.

Daisy puts all her attention into Donny, she tries to figure him out in every way she can, but she can’t break him. She doesn’t understand Donny and the cause of his actions. Donny tries to avoid his parents in any way he can, he ignores them and gets annoyed over everything they tell him to do. The start of all of Donny’s ruckus is what brought Daisy to care about him, and what made him her main person of interest. Throughout Daisy’s life she has tried to get a better understanding of Donny, she wants to be around him and wishes to know what he’s really like.

To conclude, Daisy’s desperate struggle to understanding and getting along with her son, Donny, comes down to them becoming even more like strangers. Daisy’s plan on getting along with Donny fails terribly due to the cause of her hiring Cal, Donny’s tutor. Soon she discovers that the cause of Donny acting rebellious, is because she didn’t care too much about him before. If Daisy would have accepted Donny the way he was, and focused more on other things than him it would have probably turned out differently and he wouldn’t have run away.

I am writing to inform you about how I feel when I see certain articles that have been published in your newspaper. Most of these articles are about teenagers with a lot of negative coverage. I hope through this letter that you will understand what so many teenagers feel when reading the negative articles that YOU publish. Hopefully, after this letter you won’t ever stereotype anyone without full information about them again. It was just last week that I was reading a copy of ‘The Sun’ when my eyes focussed on this one article, it was titled ‘Jeremy’s ‘Happy Slap’ Ordeal’.

My eye then alighted on Jeremy Clarkson’s face, (the guy from Top Gear) and that I think just spurred me on to read more. I didn’t really know what to expect but honestly I had no idea this was about teenagers. Whilst reading this article I realized something was wrong. Usually when you have an article like this in the newspapers there’s always two points of view. Normally the two parties or persons involved have a say, but this particular article shows extreme bias.

We simply hear Jeremy’s point of view and leave the teenagers opinions unheard. Personally I think this is very unfair, when journalists do things like this, it’s not right; it’s actually very sly and manipulative. You instantly portray Clarkson as ‘our man… the victim’ and the others as ‘a gang of teenage thugs’. How are reader’s going to have a balanced view of the situation, when this is how you set the article up? There is one quote in the article about police which I am angry about, which is “the police?

Oh come on they are too busy filling in health and safety forms and processing speeding fines”. This quote irritates me dramatically because frankly it’s not true. The, I see them police are not too busy with speeding fines or health and safety forms. I always see police when I go out dealing with young drunk men or people brawling in the street. This tells me that Jeremy was wrong about the police. Jeremy Clarkson has obviously been brainwashed by the media.

He’s just making assumptions about stuff, like most famous people do, because unlike some people he doesn’t have the decency to go and talk to teenagers and find out the truth, or maybe there aren’t any brains in his head. Either that or HIS parents didn’t bring him up properly. His parents probably didn’t teach him basic manners and he doesn’t know what being polite is. Interestingly enough, as I was reading on I noticed how conceited and arrogant he was when discussing the parenting skills of these teenagers.

Jeremy states that ‘Nothing can be done about the parents because they are too thick’. Yes, he is attempting to be humorous, but there is truth, in his eyes, in what he is saying and it is offensive! I strongly disagree with him because parents have the intelligence to do anything for their kids and help them through their lives. I was actually very enraged at this, I can tell you that my parents are NOT and I repeat NOT thick. Rather they are very intelligent because to raise a baby into a grown female/male with basic manners and high morals takes a lot.

I can understand why he is thinking like this because he didn’t have a very happy ending of the encounter with the teens but common who needs all of the aggression? He starts off by branding teenagers as brutal thugs who love drink a lot of cider and love to stab passers-by. When i read this i feel really outraged that he has the audacity to say such things, I mean how the hell does he know all teenagers are like this. I can confirm to you that i am a teenager and me and my friends don’t drink vast quantities of alcohol or love to stab passers-by as a hobby.

I have to say he is being really ignorant because he’s trying to make teenagers look all violent and what’s really weird is that the teens didn’t touch him but he just thought he’d just grab the ringleader by the scruff of his neck. Now what do you call that? I say that’s what you would call a ‘middle age thug’. Now there is no way you can disagree with me he was the aggressor there, he just assumed it was ok to enforce violence on a group of teens who hadn’t even touched him.