6 Things Teenagers Say To Sound Smart But Really Just Makes Them Sound Stupid
1) I forgive, but I don't forget.Then you don't actually forgive.
2) Respect goes both ways. I don't just give you my respect. You have to earn it.Yeah, that's actually not how respect works. And also, very few adults are going to purposefully go out of their way to "earn" a teenager's respect or trust. And those who do are usually ones you need to be suspicious of. See: Pedophiles, Narcs, Army recruiters.
3) I don't trust people easily. I've been hurt before.That's called life. Getting dumped by your 17 yr old girlfriend and saying that it made you "more jaded" does not make you special. It makes you a cliche.
4) I question everything/ all authority. No, you don't. You question the guy who's making your life a real drag by assigning you actual homework. Here's what it really means to question authority: When MTV tells you that something's cool...think about it. Is it really cool? Did Twilight really deserve to win an award over Inception? Should I just accept these things that someone on TV is telling me to believe? Or should I think about them, do my own research, formulate my own opinions? Maybe the iPhone is not the coolest smartphone. Maybe it's not so awesome because you just did a little internet reading that made you realize that they make technology that's incompatible with other devices and then shut out pioneering apps that didn't cave to their shitty-ass pricing models and that it kind of fucking sucks that Apple asks you to pay hundreds of dollars every other year just to get in on the next brand new game. See - that's what it means to question everything. It means to think critically about the sources of information that you're tempted to just automatically believe. If you were a person who questioned all authority, you would participate more in your local government. You would actually know how voting works. You would organize and lead a group of your peers to protect natural resources, or rally them together to help build parks, or join forces to investigate illegal dumping of waste or use of laboratory animals. You would read stuff, like books, that tell you things that will make you more smart, instead of more dumb. You being a smartass to your parents or teachers makes you an asshole, not someone who "questions all authority."
5) Yo, just because someone's an "adult" that doesn't mean they know everything.No, it just means that they know more than you do.
Listen, I get it. You're constantly taking in all of these things and new experiences and it feels like you have all of these feelings that no one else has and you pick up on stuff so much faster than your parents and the adults around you... But you know why that's happening? It's happening so that one day you can be 30 years old and standing in front of a teenager and remember exactly what it's like to be him and then realize that now your life is so much better than when you were him because now you actually know some stuff. See, that's the tradeoff - you get the teenage body and the cockiness that goes along with it (otherwise none of us would ever lose our virginity until we were 40) and adults get the smarts that comes after we no longer have that to fall back on. You're probably really super smart. You probably know a lot of stuff that the adults around you don't. But the thing is...it doesn't matter, unless you actually do something with it. And you, standing in the middle of a convenience store spouting off this platitude to your easily-impressed friends does not qualify.
6) It's better to burn out than fade away.Yeah, you have to actually do something with your life first before either of those can become actual options for you. And first rule of life? Using quotes from rock stars as your own personal mantras doesn't make people think you have a lot in common with rock stars. It makes them think you're a douche who can't come up with something original to say.
2) Respect goes both ways. I don't just give you my respect. You have to earn it.Yeah, that's actually not how respect works. And also, very few adults are going to purposefully go out of their way to "earn" a teenager's respect or trust. And those who do are usually ones you need to be suspicious of. See: Pedophiles, Narcs, Army recruiters.
3) I don't trust people easily. I've been hurt before.That's called life. Getting dumped by your 17 yr old girlfriend and saying that it made you "more jaded" does not make you special. It makes you a cliche.
4) I question everything/ all authority. No, you don't. You question the guy who's making your life a real drag by assigning you actual homework. Here's what it really means to question authority: When MTV tells you that something's cool...think about it. Is it really cool? Did Twilight really deserve to win an award over Inception? Should I just accept these things that someone on TV is telling me to believe? Or should I think about them, do my own research, formulate my own opinions? Maybe the iPhone is not the coolest smartphone. Maybe it's not so awesome because you just did a little internet reading that made you realize that they make technology that's incompatible with other devices and then shut out pioneering apps that didn't cave to their shitty-ass pricing models and that it kind of fucking sucks that Apple asks you to pay hundreds of dollars every other year just to get in on the next brand new game. See - that's what it means to question everything. It means to think critically about the sources of information that you're tempted to just automatically believe. If you were a person who questioned all authority, you would participate more in your local government. You would actually know how voting works. You would organize and lead a group of your peers to protect natural resources, or rally them together to help build parks, or join forces to investigate illegal dumping of waste or use of laboratory animals. You would read stuff, like books, that tell you things that will make you more smart, instead of more dumb. You being a smartass to your parents or teachers makes you an asshole, not someone who "questions all authority."
5) Yo, just because someone's an "adult" that doesn't mean they know everything.No, it just means that they know more than you do.
Listen, I get it. You're constantly taking in all of these things and new experiences and it feels like you have all of these feelings that no one else has and you pick up on stuff so much faster than your parents and the adults around you... But you know why that's happening? It's happening so that one day you can be 30 years old and standing in front of a teenager and remember exactly what it's like to be him and then realize that now your life is so much better than when you were him because now you actually know some stuff. See, that's the tradeoff - you get the teenage body and the cockiness that goes along with it (otherwise none of us would ever lose our virginity until we were 40) and adults get the smarts that comes after we no longer have that to fall back on. You're probably really super smart. You probably know a lot of stuff that the adults around you don't. But the thing is...it doesn't matter, unless you actually do something with it. And you, standing in the middle of a convenience store spouting off this platitude to your easily-impressed friends does not qualify.
6) It's better to burn out than fade away.Yeah, you have to actually do something with your life first before either of those can become actual options for you. And first rule of life? Using quotes from rock stars as your own personal mantras doesn't make people think you have a lot in common with rock stars. It makes them think you're a douche who can't come up with something original to say.
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