Teenagers are incapable of deep thought.

[SarriMule]

Adults who claim that all teenagers are stupid/incapable of intellectual thoughts, etc, are actually insulting themselves more.
A persons formative experience, before they far through their teens, usually make up the basis of the way they view the world. And who do they learn from? The adults who are nurturing them.
If a teenager shows no interest in 'deep thought', is it not, thus, logical to wonder whether their parents have encouraged them to do so? Let's face it, if you hear your parents, or other adults, talking about important issues (or just acting in a vaguely intellectual manner) a lot, wouldn't you have a greater likelihood of doing the same yourself.
I realise this is not always the case, and there are plenty of other things which affect the way you think (someone else mentioned advertisements - I swear those things are responsile for a ast number of lost braincells!). But the number of stupid, stereotypical teenagers is equaly matched by adults who exhibit identical behaviour.
E.g. A friend of mine worked in the City (London finance) for a time, got about 4 hours slee a night, did stressful work, then went out to parties pretty much every single night. For adults, this is called 'making-contacts'. For teenagers, it's a sign that society is going down hill and the apocolyse is a-coming.  

[flavored pencils]

your teacher is definitely wrong!!! alot of teenagers today are incredibly smart and full of talents, im a teenager, and i think about deep things all the time.
and i think the reason why so many adults say that is because nowadays, so many teenagers are stupid, all they think about is boys/girls and nothing else, so no wonder adults think low of us, but not all of them are stupid, so your teacher should sit back and take a look at the world before she says anything offensive.  

[xx the bad man xx]

Has anyone ever said this to you? I'm a teenager in England, I like to think about things like reasons for life, the universe, and whatever hot debates I’ve seen around (racial issues, abortion etc.), unfortunately, most of this takes place in my RE lessons.

My RE teacher likes to yell at me for it, and once i replied 'I’m thinking of a reason for being' and she actually said to me 'you teenagers are incapable of deep thought!', now, i will let that she may have been being sarcastic (I can't tell if somebody is being sarcastic or not, and I get confused if metaphors are used, too) but it still offended me that she fitted the entire class under that stereotype.

Why do you think alot of people today think like this about teens?  

[Vakna]

Volucris Ego

Here's a story:
One class aquaitance was super lazy when it comes to school work. Since his grade in English class was really lacking, the teacher let him to a paper. Little did the teacher know, the kid was a super good writer. He loved writing, but he usally half-assed his work just so his grade won't suffer too badly. On this essay assignment, since it was his last chance and his grade depended on it, he actually spent time on it and wrote a super good paper! When he gave it to the teacher, she read it over and gave the paper a ZERO! She said it was greatly done and he couldn't have done this, he probably got it off of the internet or had a lot of help. He told the teacher, and us, many times that HE wrote it, and him alone. She still didn't believe him. DX

Did he ever beat the s**t out of her, or at least take it to the principal/school board?
Or at least search the web for his story to prove that it wasn't there?  

[akuxroku813]

Yea, I've heard this before, so I challenged said adult to a religious debate and totally stomped her retarded a**. Ahh, how I love revenge... twisted  

[RiziN-ergeez]

It's really become a stereotype for adults to think that teens are air-headed and all. I believe that, as mentioned in previous comments, children and teenagers are actually at the best point in their life for deep thought. Besides, weren't they teens at one point too? stare  

[Nilly Tsegrah]

I don't really know if I've ever had any specifically profound thoughts, but I've been known to go into thinking stupors where people can actually sneak up on me and scare the living bejeesus out of me. O_o I come up with weird theories and come up with detailed scenarios in my head; just part of me being a wannabe writer I guess. xp

But I think teenagers are capable of it. The problem is that it is discouraged; we are told not to think test answers through too much, not to take the standardized testing too seriously. And I see part of the point, I've failed tests thinking the answers through too deeply. burning_eyes

But what we need is a course in high school and middle school (ages 10 to 18 and 18+ in some cases depending on where you live) where we are allowed to think and ramble and just come up with something that nobody else has.

Whenever I come up with something I think is profound though, I am told it makes no sense and am given no chance to explain. Pisses me off.  

[ScardyG]

XxCubeZxX

Has anyone ever said this to you? I'm a teenager in England, I like to think about things like reasons for life, the universe, and whatever hot debates I’ve seen around (racial issues, abortion etc.), unfortunately, most of this takes place in my RE lessons.

My RE teacher likes to yell at me for it, and once i replied 'I’m thinking of a reason for being' and she actually said to me 'you teenagers are incapable of deep thought!', now, i will let that she may have been being sarcastic (I can't tell if somebody is being sarcastic or not, and I get confused if metaphors are used, too) but it still offended me that she fitted the entire class under that stereotype.

Why do you think alot of people today think like this about teens?

I think every generation has believed this or something similar about teens.
Scientists have found that our frontal lobe (which governs logic and reason) is not fully developed until our early twenties. (If this is true, then I'm screwed. I'm 22!)

Compared to a forty-year-old, a 16 year-old really isn't that mature, but it doesn't mean they are incapable of deep thought. Teens are less capable of expressing "deep thought", whatever that means. Part of it is that as you get older, your world gets bigger. You are exposed to more, you've had more time to learn and consider things, evaluate and judge the world around us, etc.

To say that a teen is "incapable" of these things is ludicrous. Anyone who ca still remember their teen years and what it was like should know this. At age five I was considering the meaning of eternity and the size of space (it made my head hurt). Our understanding of philosophy, logic, science religion, what have you... these deepen and mature with time and consideration, and vary within age groups depending on the individual. Teens and children are not stupid, and it would be unwise for any adult to forget this.  

[White Tiger Akutare]

I am a teenager, and i love a good debate, but the factor that undermines my words is the response.

I think this is an appropriate example of responses ruining things.

There was that professor (I forget his name, i think it started with "ba"....) that claimed that we weren't causing global warming.
He was of course wrong, so a scientist emailed him and said "The data in your programme is, to be frank, wrong." his response was "You big daft c**k"

Now, see how that sort of ruins the whole point of the debate?  

[Zariah Khi]

That's definitely not true ok maybe some teenagers r not that mature enough for deEp thoughts but most of the teenagers are really capable of having deep thoughts the problem is we don't know how express it properly that's why older people tends to misunderstand us....

just like what always happen between my family and I...lol