Study Tries to Say Teenagers Are Liars, Thieves, and Cheaters

• “American teens lie, steal, cheat at ‘alarming’ rates: study” from Google News.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — American teenagers lie, steal and cheat more at “alarming rates,” a study of nearly 30,000 high school students concluded Monday.

I’ve really grown to like bad news stories: it sets an example for the legitimate. This article preserves the standard of bad news reporting, starting with the first sentence — quoted above.

Not only is it offensive to an entire group of people, but it is also a terrible interpretation of science and could successfully put fear or thoughts of some kind of social apocalypse in the minds of people who could easily believe it. So in other words, mainstream society could be tricked into believing that this new study somehow spells the end for our young people. As a matter of fact, the article tries to suggest it in the paragraph after the above quote:

The attitudes and conduct of some 29,760 high school students across the United States “doesn’t bode well for the future when these youngsters become the next generation’s politicians and parents, cops and corporate executives, and journalists and generals,” the non-profit Josephson Institute said.

And people think teenagers sound stupid when they make “You just don’t understand” statements! Now, to explain this so I don’t sound like I’m advocating lying, stealing, and cheating, I’ll offer you a revolutionary and yet simple explanation: adults do all these things, too.

Teenagers may be the world’s future, but that doesn’t change the fact that lots of people lie, steal, and cheat. I should know, because I’m a teenager and I’ve done all three. Here are some thoughts I have about lying, stealing, cheating, and why my fellow teenagers do these:

1. Lying: I think I will have the easiest time with this. People lie because they don’t want to get in trouble, and teenagers aren’t an exception. If you’re at work and they have a rule against cell phones, would you admit to someone with authority that you text at work, even if this person saw you and asked you if you were? Of course you wouldn’t, because you don’t want it to be taken away or to be given overtime just for having it! I haven’t been caught texting in class before — I text with my phone over my crotch, where teachers shouldn’t be looking if they value their jobs — but it’s not hard to understand with that simple little bit of perspective. How about a more universal example? Suppose you’ve done that stupid thing that your parents always told you to not do: don’t touch this, don’t roughhouse in this room, etc. Your first reaction? Lie, obviously: getting the belt is pretty bad–and unreasonable–but getting off with a simple “I’m disappointed with you” is annoying in itself, too. It’s that easy: the generation gap makes teenagers very different from adults — rebellious versus temperamental, respectively — but young people are criticized in almost every situation where they do something stupid, even if it’s an accident. Just last Monday I was given as special talk about driving in the winter because I had come towards a sharp curve near my house, and it happened to be iced over. Sure, I did manage to get it into the ditch, and it was my first time driving in winter, but the car was completely undamaged. The towing cost $75.00 USD, but the insurance on my car covers that cost by 80%, meaning we paid $15.00. If I do it again I’ll have to pay, but that’s fine because I’ll probably be out of the house by then. They then switched the topic to the fact that I forgot to bring a coat on that particular day, and if I would have been somewhere in the country and it were freezing I’d be helpless. Not a bad suggestion, but it’s too much like a fear-mongering criticism.
2. Cheating: Mostly, cheating in schools is a product of the mainstream educational model. Testing is frequent, studying is very important, classes mandatory, and if you do so much as get one bad grade it becomes a matter of your competence as a person: if your parents feel you aren’t doing as well as their expectations say you should, they can take what they want from you until you live up to them. So, why not just share answers every now and then? In my case, my friend and I have the same after school activities, which make it very difficult to get homework done. We share a technical geometry class together, so she tells me to do a side and give her the answers, and she does the same with a different side. We both understand the material, we simply need a lighter work load. It’s the same for consumer education, which happens to be earlier in the day, but we can’t share answers in that class because the teacher arranged us too far from each other. Some students do it in desperation, others to simplify their lives. What’s so hard to understand?
3. Stealing: This is clearly the third because it will be the most difficult. The explanation before this list — that both teenagers and adults both do this — still applies, but it’s not just that. As odd as it sounds, and this may be a pretty out-there leap in thinking, teenagers might mostly be doing this just to experiment. Last summer I was in a great chinese resteraunt, but for some reason I was infatuated with the chopsticks there. Like all tourists, I asked if I could buy them. They said no, but for some reason I had to have them. So I took them, but I have never felt right about it since. My heart was beating like crazy just getting out of there, and I have to find a way to return them someday. I mean, really, everything is made in Asia these days! Still, they’re a great reminder of how I really couldn’t commit a serious crime like stealing. Experimentation isn’t uncommon at a young age, so it’s only natural that teenagers might try something stupid just to see if they really like it. Or worse, if a young person isn’t allowed to have a job, and they can’t get money from their parents, wouldn’t it only make sense to steal it if you really wanted it?

So there we have it: things aren’t always as bad as they seem. Sure, no argument here that lying, cheating, and stealing are bad virtues to idolize, but perhaps teenagers aren’t doing them just to cause harm?

Still, the article insists on making an attack on the collective self-esteem of the teenagers in the study:

“Despite these high levels of dishonesty, these same kids have a high self-image when it comes to ethics.”

Some 93 percent of students indicated satisfaction with their own character and ethics, with 77 percent saying that “when it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know.”

What were you expecting? In spite of all the stupid things people have done, would anyone really devalue theirself? Of course not, because everybody makes mistakes, and that’s most likely what the teenagers in the study were thinking as they filled out the survey, not that they were being judged on their life performance.