Oh, those darned teenagers

This photo appears on the cover of The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager, by Thomas Hine (305.2350973 H588r):



Hine makes the point that the whole idea of "teenager-ness" is a social construct, that it was more or less invented during the first half of the twentieth century when teens became an object of interest "to marketers and social reformers." Prior to that time, teens were considered merely not-quite-formed adults. Youth used to describe a person who was anywhere between twelve and thirty-five. In this fascinating social history, Hine concludes that perhaps it's time to retire the concept, that the label does more harm than good. "As we've seen, teenagers bear an inordinate share of the blame for society's failures, while they're given too little responsibility for its improvement. Teenagers are people of whom too much is asked and too little is expected."