adolescent

“Defendants know children and adolescents are in a developmental stage that leaves them particularly vulnerable to the addictive effects of these features. Defendants target them anyway, in pursuit of additional profit.”

A 2023 study from the University of Cambridge found that American adolescents who spent more time reading for pleasure when they were younger had fewer mental-health problems and scored higher on cognitive assessments.

But beyond George Carlin’s seven dirty words, I can think of at least a dozen other words—mostly adolescent playground insults—that we’re all forced to think twice before saying.

Not only do fears of exclusion affect the well-being of adolescents, but so does the comparative culture perpetuated by social media.

Like a child with a gun, their relative weakness — the performative masculinity of an insecure adolescent — should not blind us to the harm they can cause, nor assure anyone that their failure is inevitable.