Beyond the Surface: Exploring the Depths of Teenage Identity

 Beyond the Surface: Exploring the Depths of Teenage Identity

Teenage years are one of the most exciting years of our life, as they are a process that allows one to head on an onward journey of self-discovery, and find out who they truly are and what they want to be. 

Even as our identities are shaped by a lot of factors, including sociocultural and familial dynamics, as well as our engagement with media and our friends, teenage years help shape the personality of an individual, in terms of helping individuals figure out their preferences and desires. 

Towards this end, teenagers make a variety of active choices, with varying degrees of autonomy, which help them develop a sense of an autonomous self. Examples of this include, what music and movies they watch, the kind of friends they make, the hobbies they pursue, and the environments they place themselves in. Based on their engagements with and experiences of these contextual factors, teenagers begin to condition themselves. Herein, feedback and response play a huge role in fleshing out the identity of individuals.

Some of the pressing questions that teenagers navigate to help them develop an identity for themselves include interrogating their desire to assert themselves outside their family, forming kinship relations with peers, and forming a cluster of personal values to help them make their decisions.

As teenagers augment their cognitive skills and become capable of abstract thought, they move beyond shallow attractions. Often, this development is marked by a desire for authenticity. Teenagers navigate this quest by experimenting with different interests and expressions, not just in a superficial way, but in a way wherein they seek to engage intellectually with these different areas and interrogate them using their burgeoning critical thinking faculties. It is thus that teenage years can often feel empowering, because individuals begin making, at least some, decisions for themselves, instead of their parents making all their decisions for them.

As social media introduces new dimensions to the contours that form teenage identity, teenagers are exposed to an unlimited degree of new experiences, avenues, and opportunities. While social media can pressure teenagers to emulate their idols and their seemingly perfect lives, there are also pervasive counter-narratives that inspire students to seek authenticity and depth.

Precisely because teenagers are on the cusp of their development, these years can be convoluted and challenging. This is precisely why it is important for us to develop holistic structures of support to enable them to develop a unique personality through sustained self-reflection. 

Sources

https://parentandteen.com/developing-adolescent-identity/

https://pdx.pressbooks.pub/humandevelopment/chapter/identity/

Taking the Roads Not Taken: Traversing Your Turbulent Teenage Years

 Taking the Roads Not Taken: Traversing Your Turbulent Teenage Years 

The period of teenage is anxiety-inducing for not just teenagers but those around them, particularly the ones who take care of teenagers. A primary source of this anxiety stems from teenagers’ increased likeliness to take risks, often without a careful evaluation of what is best for them and what is not. After all, for every individual, what makes the teenage years the most memorable period is the recollection of the myriad of adventurous experiences that taking unfamiliar roads and exploring new terrains provided them with. The tendency to take risks, to a large extent, comes as an inevitable part of being a teenager, and with ample care and attention, these adventures can be made less intimidating and more fun-filled. 

Why are teenagers more likely to take risks? While there is no single answer for this, part of the explanation lies in how stepping out of one’s comfort zone is an essential aspect of finding one’s identity and becoming an independent young adult. Researchers, particularly those who dive into the psychological underpinnings of human development, highlight how during adolescence, there are certain changes in one’s brain that make teenagers more focused on the reward they feel from social situations, and this positive reinforcement often leads to one wanting to explore new spaces to expand their understanding of themselves and the world. 

As every growth-related phenomenon has underlying scientific explanations, there is one for the teenage tendency to take risks too. The areas of the human brain that handle impulse control and planning do not completely mature until about age 25, making teenagers quicker to make decisions than adults. Therefore, it is safe to say that the hormonal and psychological aspects of being a teenager make risk-taking natural. This is where one must dive into the importance of positive risk-taking, which is nothing but learning new things and exploring unfamiliar territories. This is a positive approach because fundamentally, it evokes a feeling of uncertainty or fear, along with developing a new skill and a positive long-term outcome. 

A few common examples of positive risks are sports, arts, volunteering, and even new choices in education. As peer pressure and lack of ample certainty about one’s life are indispensable aspects of being a teenager, it is easy to lose direction and be misled. Therefore, by gaining a comprehensive knowledge of the healthy ways to take risks and new roads, one can make the best of the teenage years, by avoiding any instances of confusion and harm.

Sources: 

1. https://parents.au.reachout.com/common-concerns/everyday-issues/risk-taking-and-teenagers   

2. https://www.teachingtimes.com/ecj-55-teens-taking-risks/ 

3. https://grandrapidstherapygroup.com/guide-teens-through-risk-taking/