A Solution to the Looming Crisis of Anti-Social Teenagers
Recently, in a tweet by economist blogger Noah Smith, the person I'd say is most responsible for my pursuit of becoming a writer, Smith posted a graph of teenagers and how the percentage of 12th graders going out with friends two or more times a week has declined writing, “Such a depressing chart.”
Examining the graph and having a personal awareness of the issue, I commented on Smith's tweet, asking if there are any solutions to this cultural issue. A handful of the replies to my tweet from users were borderline fascist, with suggestions such as banning social media for children, banning phones, banning short-form video, and even going as far as to banning the internet. There were a few good replies, and those more thoughtful replies sparked my creativity and desire to propose a solution.
A core cadre of the respondents spoke about walkable cities, urban planning, cycling and biking, housing policy, and walkable neighborhoods. Many of those replies made me quite fulfilled because I am a walkable city fanatic. Having the opportunity to go to school in a walkable city, as I do now in Boston, is a great blessing, and it is a key catalyst for why I decided to publish this piece.
I could go to great lengths extolling my appreciation of and interest in walkable cities, but I pasted an excerpt of my views to understand how I was led to be so interested in walkable cities in the first place. In response to someone asking how I became so interested in urban planning, housing, and transportation I responded with the excerpt below. (You do not need to read this to understand my views outlined in the post)
That's a tricky question because it comes from years of formed experiences, but I will do my best to convey it. I grew up in a suburban town close to New York City. As I matured into middle and high school, I felt isolated at home. I couldn't walk anywhere, and without an Uber, I couldn't go anywhere outside the street I grew up on. When the pandemic came to a halt, and I finally got my license, I had more independence, and over time, as I explored the NJ, NY, and CT roads, they became stale and repetitive. I then decided to venture out into NYC, giving me a true sense of freedom to walk the streets, ride bikes, and utilize public transportation. I took every opportunity and free time to venture into New York because the city represented freedom. After graduating high school, I lost a desire to engage with conventional social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. I found refuge in Twitter because it was where people shared their ideas and words with the world. As I spent lots of time on Twitter, I saw that the most brilliant people in society were on this website. The academics, journalists, and substack writers all spent time here engaging about their ideas. Over time, exposure to the smartest people in society led me to start understanding the issues of housing, public transportation, and urban planning. More and more, I started learning about issues regarding housing and transportation, a deeper analysis of cities, and what makes them work and not work. I was then exposed to the ideas of suburban isolation and why modern-day America feels so "depressing." When I became aware of this cultural phenomenon, I reflected upon my childhood when I was trapped at home. I developed an innate awareness to look more into how the US was designed. How has our urban planning led to our memetic fast food culture with fast food chains scattered across the country? How Gen Z and their social isolation directly reflect parents raising them in isolated suburbs. Eventually, I spent a lot of time researching this stuff and then took it upon myself to get involved with advocacy and volunteering work, which brings us to where we are now.
A core component of my interest in walkable cities is my advocacy and volunteer work, especially my efforts to promote pedestrian safety. I had the opportunity this past semester to spend Friday nights volunteering at public schools in the Boston area, teaching kids about bike and pedestrian safety. These experiences reveal why I deeply admire Boston - because Boston feels like what an ideal society should be. Everywhere you go in this beautiful, walkable city, you come across the components of a true society - middle schoolers, high schoolers, undergrads, grad students, people working their first job, parents, grandparents, etc. - Everyone interacts with one another and works to benefit each other. My contribution to Boston is my work to make housing more affordable for priced-out residents and helping to provide middle schoolers with safer streets to get to school, and, more fundamentally, providing kids in Boston with the childhood I wish I had.
Boston represents exactly the opposite of my childhood; it represents the one I wish I had. Unfortunately, I cannot go back in time, so I can only work to ensure that the children of Boston can enjoy a safe, mobile childhood I wish I had. My childhood was a modern-day, stereotypical, car-dependent American suburb experience. The people behind the Twitter/X posts mentioned above share the same sentiment as mine: that the suburbs isolate children and deprive them of social contact. There is a lot to be said about modern-day American society proving to be hostile toward youth (including my local mall, which does not allow teenagers without a chaperone after a certain hour… however, that is a post for another day.)
When I present my childhood and development, my work on Friday nights as a college student, and my reflections on the city of Boston, they come together to present a solution to the issue of teens' declining time spent with each other. I appreciate the time I had volunteering this past semester with Boston's middle schoolers. I have now been presented with the opportunity to take on an even more significant role within my nonprofit organization regarding pedestrian safety for school aged children. But as I thought about what is on the horizon for me with my nonprofit work and what I have presented to you here about the issue of teens becoming more isolated, it occurred to me that college students, and better yet more advanced high schoolers, are a possible solution to this problem. Having college students partner with local high schools, serving as chaperones that take high schoolers struggling out for social activities, and fostering friendships and support networks is a great solution to this crisis.
College students are more mature and have the ability to monitor and take care of the younger students. I really liked one of the replies to my comment: "Walkable neighbourhoods, more communal areas (third spaces) or community events and probably the most important - get off your phone/social media." Changing the attitudes of an already hostile society towards the youth would be daunting. Still, we can consider where teenagers desire to be, and one of those places is college campuses. A college campus is a great third place for current college students to host community events with high schoolers to combat this statistic of declining time spent amongst one another. A group of college students can hear directly from people younger than them and offer advice to high schoolers. An environment where high schoolers feel comfortable talking about their issues can lead to more developed friendships among themselves. In a society where parents are so busy, and kids are trapped at home without a car, it can often feel like this may be one of the only viable solutions. Now, a college student can only spend so much time with high schoolers as a chaperone, but it allows for these teenagers who would otherwise be trapped at home to have the opportunity to develop or advance their social skills, providing a pathway to developing friendships.
High school can be challenging for people, especially for men and women transitioning from middle school and focused on future goals. During my high school experience, we were assigned a 'Peer,' a high school senior meant to guide us first-year students. I remember these experiences because my Peer fostered community with my actual peers, allowing me to become more social and develop friendships I still maintain. The key downside of Peers was that meetings were only held in school, and we only met maybe once or twice a month. But, even with a Peer, I still went home after school to find myself alone, isolated with no friend's house to walk to and no ability to have more social interactions. I would have loved for a peer to take us out, sacrificing a few nights of their senior year, allowing younger people in high school who aren't as skilled in making friendships and who often are very lonely, the ability to go out and not have to feel trapped at home.