Eveline
EvelineFinal Draft – Psychological Response
“Eveline”
I agree to the fact that a teenager gives adults an opportunity to change their habit patterns but do not agree that the invitation encourages them to break their habit patterns. Instead, the invitation allows adults to redefine their established habits, perspectives and opinions. This not only allows adults to establish a better understanding of teenagers, but also encourages the teenager to grow and mature at an acceptable rate, by participating in the growth, by themselves. For example, my mom used to discourage me from sitting on the computer for hours and thought of it as a useless activity. However, when I showed her how it would ease her difficulties as a teacher, she started to do her office work, such as recording marks, printing her resume, and surfing the web for hints and tips on teaching. After she got used to it, she found out why I spent hours working on it. This is evidence that teenagers allow adults to redefine their boundaries, limits and beliefs for their benefit and the benefit of the teenager, as well.
Another very common phenomenon in adults is that they tend to divide their lives into stages, based on how society expects them to behave, and live their life. Teenagers, on the other hand, do not divide their lives into stages due to their youth and independence. Furthermore, society’s expectations do not apply to teenagers as strictly, or to the extent, as they are applied to adults. This results in teenagers having more freedom. For example, if I was to ask my dad to come and play basketball everyday at the park, it would sound completely ridiculous to him and he would, most probably, pass the opportunity off saying that he much too old for such a sport and it is my turn to experience this playful adolescent stage. However, by constantly encouraging adults to participate in their activities or just by participating in their own activities regularly, teenagers propose ideas to adults and reveal to them new choices in their lives that they never knew existed. Therefore, teenagers allow adults to make their vision of life broader and allow them to expand their habitual modes of perception and relation. In addition, it also allows teenagers to function as a growth catalyst in this manner.
Such concepts and philosophies allow us to realize that every category of people in our society, whether adults or teenagers, contributes, in some way, to the well being of each person in society. This philosophy created a new perspective for me, as a teenager, of how all teenagers play a vital role in influencing, not only our younger ones, but also adults who need to update themselves and rethink their views, habits, and lifestyle.