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Well a teen today doesn't have a social role, except as a vehicle for future potential, to put it dryly. My grandfather took care of domestic animals while they
by dmos62 7y ago
Well a teen today doesn't have a social role, except as a vehicle for future potential, to put it dryly. My grandfather took care of domestic animals while they were grazing (not sure what that's called) before he was 10, so economically that's a different world to what I was doing when I was that age. So a teen today can't really define himself in terms of social roles. We also have a culture of performance-based social-worth, so kids will be openly evaluated "you're good at riding that bike" or "throwing that ball" or "doing schoolwork", and the child's inner dialogue will be like that as well: "Joe is better at this competitive thing", "I am better at this", etc. The only thing that kind of baffles me is that the article says that teenagers mostly define themselves in positive traits, as if it's implied that they're being honest: it's quite counter-cultural to bad mouth yourself. I dispute that we have a significant bias toward defining the self positively, examples are too banal to list.
- NikkiA 7y ago> My grandfather took care of domestic animals while they were grazing (not sure what that's called) before he was 10 'husbandry' probably.
- maxerickson 7y agoHerding.
- kosievdmerwe 7y agoNope "shepherd" (EDIT: shepherding is only for sheep, herding is the general term via maxerikson). I've never seen husbandry used for individuals, shepherding however is a part of animal husbandry.
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoHerdsman or stockman and there's an old English name that completely eludes me at the moment. Then also the species variations of shepherd: goatherd, swineherd and cowherd. Edit: Most herdsmen in the UK had their own number system - 123: yan, tan, teddera etc. I wonder if that's the case elsewhere.
- ipsi 7y agoIt looks like it was a slightly different system in various regions of the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Tan_Tethera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Tan_Tethera
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoWow, I knew it varied widely across the country, but not between places only a dozen miles apart. Nor that it tracks back 1,500 years or more - which presumably explains the many variations!
- captainredbeard 7y agoStocking
- jhanschoo 7y agoI think that adults realize that one is put through so many contexts through life that one's "traits" and strengths changes as the wind blows them. To that end, social roles are a more reliable measure as to what they can give or experience; they are what one has to provide, or has provided, after all.
- dmos62 7y agoMy train of thought is similar, but couldn't you say the same about social roles? Similarly to having different strengths in different contexts, you'll also take up different roles.
- mntmoss 7y agoThe difference that adults have figured out is that announcing your current role is usually a better option than boasting your talents, both in terms of inner psyche and how it sounds to others: "I am a researcher" = oh, so you must spend a lot of time in the lab. "I am good at research" = how many papers have you published lately? But one role we do not know how to deal with well is "unemployed", and likewise we are hesitant to accept the spectrum of roles that are generally unattached to institutions, from "musician" to "entrepreneur". It's much easier for everyone if you say "PhD student".
- fulafel 7y agoI think you are talking about economic roles now. Teens have lots of social roles within their own groups, all over urban/pop culture in general, as family members, and of course they're still part of the economy and labour force in a big way in many places.
- dmos62 7y agoThat's an interesting interpretation, which I hadn't considered. How would you define social roles, economic aspect excluded? And where is the line between that and traits?
- fulafel 7y agoSocial roles are roles that an individual has in a social context, right? So a role cloud be a friend to someone, a child in the family, the clown of the group, the poor kid, member of choir, a character in an online game community, etc.