this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Most of the time when people say they have an unpopular opinion, it turns out it's actually pretty popular.

Do you have some that's really unpopular and most likely will get you downvoted?

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[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 19 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Teenagers Are Adults

(not sure this is an opinion. it's biological fact. but peeps get VERY Angry when I write it)

[โ€“] Squirrel@thelemmy.club 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Physically yes (at least in late teens), mentally no. Their brains have not finished developing.

From a less biological standpoint, they're also still (typically) living with their parents and attending school, largely insulated from the real world.

But it's really the brain development that kills the argument. Any argument about whether a teenager is an adult is almost guaranteed to revolve more around the mental/emotional aspects of adulthood than the physical.

Let's stick to unpopular opinions, not incorrect facts.

[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

"finished developing" is a stupid red herring. Our bodies and brains never stop changing. There is literally no point of "finished developing"

Our brains are largest around age 13. We get adult brains along with our adult bodies during puberty. This is a well-known scientific fact.

If anyone is "insulated from the real world" that was a choice society made. Was it the intentional infantilization of young adults? Keeping them locked out of adult society means they stay mentally children. We created this problem. We can remove it.

[โ€“] foo@programming.dev 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Parts of our brains don't finish cooking until your early to mid twenties. By the time you are 18 19 you are mostly cooked but a 16 year old still has a lot of developing to go

[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Brains don't "finish cooking"... they change continuously throughout our lives (just like our bodies do)

and even if there was some magical point of "finish cooking" that wouldn't make people below that age mentally incompetent.

you are jumping thru tons of illogical hoops in order to justify demeaning and degrading young adults. Stop it.

[โ€“] foo@programming.dev 2 points 2 years ago

arguing semantics to win an argument must make you great at parties and nothing I said was illogical. Just because you feel you are right doesn't automatically make other points illogical.

Simply put your "constantly changing" is as much a hand wave over complex topics as my cooking metaphor and allows for significant development of cognition and decision making.

frontal and parietal cortices aren't developed until mid to late teens with maturation continuing for another decade. Maturation is an important part to consider because just because it's developed doesn't mean you are capable of using it effectively.

The frontal lobe is generally where higher executive functions including emotional regulation, planning, reasoning and problem solving occur.

[โ€“] wischi@programming.dev 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

So a 13 year old person is an adult? I can see how that opinion is unpopular because it's just wrong.

[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Many 13 year olds are still pubescent. None are children. Nature turns children into adults. There is lots of individual variation.
What turns a kitten into an adult cat? Puberty. What turns a puppy into an adult dog? Puberty. What turns a child into an adult human? Puberty. This is not difficult.

[โ€“] wischi@programming.dev 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's not how any of this works.

[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's exactly how all of this works. It is in fact #BasicBiology

You can do all the #ScienceDenial you like. Won't change the facts.

[โ€“] AnarchoYeasty 1 points 2 years ago

Doesn't matter how many #hashtags you use you are still a #pedophile

[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I wrote "Teenagers Are Adults" and you respond by moving the goalposts to make a strawman. I never wrote "All of the youngest teenagers are always adults" You made that up so you could knock it down.

The vast majority of teenagers are adults. That's just science. The median age of reaching Tanner 5, adulthood, is 14 now. So most of us are fully adult before our 15th birthdays.

[โ€“] wischi@programming.dev 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

So now you are trying to use the Tanner scale to determine if somebody is an adult? There is no strawman here, you are writing those ridiculous comments yourself.

[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 6 points 2 years ago

The Tanner Scale is the only determinant :-)

[โ€“] Misconduct@startrek.website 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's not unpopular that's just gross unless you're a teen yourself. Then it's like whatever because of course you think you're grown. There's no acceptable reason for an adult wanting a teenager to be considered an adult.

[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Except recognizing basic scientific facts :-D

[โ€“] DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

LOL

That has been completely debunked :-D

[โ€“] Dr_Cog@mander.xyz 7 points 2 years ago

No it hasn't.

  • Neurology professor
[โ€“] wallmenis@lemmy.one 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

They are not mature enough adults though...

Edit: What I mean is that we should talk to them like they are adults so that adulthood sets in more smoothly. I do not think they should have the same rights as consent and stuff like that. They should learn about this stuff but not be able to do them and participate since they are not mature enough to make these descisions. For example, they can take sex ed classes but not consent to actual sex.

[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Everybody has tons of opinions on what they are mature enough for or not mature enough for

but as a matter of simple fact, they are adults.

[โ€“] wallmenis@lemmy.one 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I am scared as to how consent is being implied here... I don't think they have the life experience and maturity to consent to sex and maybe drinking alcohol.

[โ€“] TealDragon@lemdit.com 7 points 2 years ago

If you lock people out of adult society they gain no life experience.

Strictly keeping youth out of bars because they have no "life experience" means they'll never get the "life experience" you think they need to be considered adults and allowed into bars. It's a system for maintaining child status permanently.

[โ€“] diannetea 2 points 2 years ago

I mean I'm gonna be 40 in a couple of years and I am not a mature adult. I think maturity might be a lie we tell the young adults tbh.

[โ€“] argv_minus_one 1 points 2 years ago

In my opinion, some adults aren't even adults, let alone teenagers.