Ya'll just ain't wired right!

CHECK THIS ARTICLE OUT!

Sorry.  Didn't mean to shout.

What do you think?  I'm not gonna argue with science, but I don't think this is the full answer to all a teen's problems either.  How you guys react to the things going on around you are definitely influenced by the physiological growth of the brain, but it's so much more than that.

I've included the beginning of Chapter 6 of my book to help show what I mean.  Let me know what you think - am I whacked?  Does this make sense?

**** EXERPT FROM DEALING WITH DUDES AND CHICKS ****

Chapter 6 – Building Truth One Brick At A Time

Now we get to the heart of the matter. The point at which you get to tell your parents “You don’t know what it’s like to be a teenager today!” Because they don’t. And here’s why.

Input. Data. Points of information. When your parents were teenagers, like me, we had three channels of television, newspapers, and radio. No no, don’t roll your eyes, this is NOT going to be another “when I was your age” story. Ok, maybe a little. But it’s relevant and important to point out because this goes to the heart of today’s teen issues.

So settle in for a nice long fatherly old-fart lecture.

Just kidding. I hate the look Cara gives me when I start in on that.

*It is interesting learning about the STONE age. Except, the video games kinda sucked.

They were exceptional for the times, thank you very much!

Anyway, yes, the method and means of receiving data for today’s teenagers were completely and utterly unfathomable fifty years ago. Thirty years ago! Hell, when I was sixteen 1996 was the basis for a Sci-Fi movie! 2001 was a hit movie about exploration of space. When they wanted to do a sequel they jacked it up to 2010. And in those movies the computer HAL took up an entire room! Today, the processing power of your friggin’ iPod is greater than HAL.

Ok, so yes, we get it. Things were a lot different then. So what?

So what? Where do you think your sources of truth come from?

I’ll let that sink in a minute.

My parents' primary source of truth were their parents and their teachers. They didn’t read the papers much, and when they read books and comics they knew they were reading fiction (they didn’t really think Superman was alive and well in Metropolis). Two main points of data input. That’s it.

Me? I got into computers a bit, had cable when it first came out, so my sources of data increased a little bit, but it was still primarily Mom and Dad and Ms. Greely, my junior year history teacher. So my truth was based on that input. Which means when my dad spanked me, which he did on occasion, I had no reason to think that he wasn’t completely and utterly disappointed in me and thought I was a complete failure. Why wouldn’t I? He was my main source of data! If he was happy with me I was a good boy. If he was angry with me I was a disappointment. It was that simple.

Not so simple anymore.

The amount of input you’ve received in the first fifteen or sixteen years of your life probably exceed the amount I’ve received in forty-one. All at an age when you are like a SPONGE. All teenagers, regardless of the era they lived in, go through growth spurts and thought spurts and puberty and changes at such a quick rate that their voices crack while they grow three inches and get their first vividly sexual dreams. That’s a lot to handle in three months of a summer!

Now add on top of that hundreds of channels of cable (or satellite), thousands of songs, instant messaging, texting, tweeting, and face-booking of opinions from hundreds of thousands of people telling you how to act, think, look, talk and dress. Man, I’m pooped just thinkin’ about it. No wonder you guys want to explode!