617: The Invention of Teenagers: A Life Stage That Didn't Exist?
About this episode
The episode explores the historical emergence of teenagers as a distinct social category and the cultural implications of this development.
Were there always teenagers, or did modern society invent them? Pigweed and Crowhill explore the surprising history of adolescence and the emergence of the modern teenager. For most of human history, young people moved directly from childhood into adult responsibilities. They worked on farms, served on ships, fought in wars, and contributed to family life from an early age. So what changed? The conversation traces the rise of the teenager as a distinct social category in the 20th century, examining the effects of compulsory education, child labor laws, postwar prosperity, automobiles, rock and roll, advertising, and mass marketing. Along the way, they discuss powder monkeys in the age of sail, Shakespeare's view of life's stages, James Dean, Elvis Presley, the generation gap, and the creation of a youth culture unlike anything that had existed before. Pigweed and Crowhill also consider the unintended consequences of teen culture: peer groups replacing families as primary influences, prolonged adolescence, changing expectations about responsibility, and the modern tendency to celebrate youth rather than maturity. Was the rise of the teenager an inevitable result of prosperity and…
People in this episode
Hosts: Pigweed, Crowhill
Topics covered
- history of adolescence
- teen culture
- compulsory education
- youth culture
- social change
- cultural phenomenon
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Heavy Seas
Books & works: Shakespeare
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