I feel like we’re constantly posting all these articles about (not) growing up, but here’s another one from New York Magazine that a friend sent to me. It’s kind of a long piece, but it could actually be read as a series of mini articles.
>> Why You Never Truly Leave High School <<
I highly recommend reading through the whole thing, so I’ve included some highlights to whet your appetite:
Pg. 1 – The “reminiscence bump” suggests that memories made between the ages of 15 and 25 are the most vividly retained.
Pg. 2 – Your height, weight and attractiveness at the age of 16 are correlated with your adult success and earning power.
Pg. 3 – This part has two interesting proponents. The first is that when they incited fear in adolescent mice, this fear was vividly recalled in the mice even after reaching adulthood. The analogous experiment in adults and children did not have the same result; these mice forgot. Second, high school and other teenage social environments are a fairly modern idea. Just a couple of generations ago, many teens didn’t graduate from high school and instead worked alongside adults. Maybe sequestering teens amongst themselves isn’t the most successful idea…
Pg. 5 – In studies where teens were asked who their best friends were, only 37% of them were reciprocated. When asked by high school students to categorize their classmates into groups (Popular, Smart, Jocks, Outcasts…) only 27% and 37% (in two separate iterations of the study) of the thought-to-be-Popular kids thought of themselves as Popular.
Pg. 6 – In 2000, 10th graders were asked to align themselves with a character from The Breakfast Club. When evaluated 8 years later, these earlier characterizations proved predictive… EXCEPT for the ones who had identified themselves as princesses at 16. These women – now 24 – had lower self-esteem than the women who had identified themselves as brainy.
What do you guys think?
– Sandra
Curious Catalog 