Teen Brain Development - 2 articles
Read both articles below. Study the charts and pictures too, and combine their information with what you read to further your understanding. Compose a response of 130-200 words.
Remember to read, think, and respond critically. You may read others' comments, but do not copy them. I want original reactions and thoughts.
Think about the author's intents in these articles too. WHY would they write these? Likewise, why would your teacher pick them for you?
Infer, infer, infer! Grow big brains! :) Big brains make smart, successful adults - Yay!!! :)
http://www.actforyouth.net/documents/may02factsheetadolbraindev.pdf
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122765890
This blog is due FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7th.
I agree with both authors because I think that our brains are still developing while we are still in our teens. The brain also needs positive interactions or the brain will not take in what it needs to develop properly. Also the fact that the authors were saying, if teens consume alcohol that it will affect the way the brain develops properly, is a very good point. Because if you consume something that kills brain cells, while your brain is developing then there is no possible way that the brain will properly develop how it is suppose to. If you look at how adults act when they consume alcohol, you can tell it will effect a young teenager who is not fully done growing and developing into their body. So why if you had the knowledge that alcohol will affect your brain developing correctly. Why would you consume it and hurt yourself? (152)
ReplyDeleteI believe the authors are correct in their analysis of the brains of teen drinkers. They did studies on teenagers who drank alcohol and did not drink alcohol. I think this is a great article for them to write. I believe the authors purpose of writing it and our teacher’s purpose for picking this article for us to read is the same. They want us to realize how dangerous it can be for us to drink. Our choices while we are under the influence are dangerous but the affects it can have on our brain can be even worse. Even though the kids in the study did not drink much, their brains were still affected. This shows us as teenagers that even drinking just a little bit can greatly affect the rest of our lives. (WC: 137)
ReplyDeleteI agree with both authors. Our brains are still being developed and substance abuse will cause nothing but harm. Plus, if you do it now, what do you think you will do in 20 years? If you train your brain to do positive things while it is developing, that is what it will do when it is fully mature. If you destroy brain cells now, while it is developing, there is no way to get them back. Making the effects long-term. They highlighted destroyed matter in the pictures, and that was just from drinking a couple times a month. I wonder what it would look like if you drink every weekend like some people do. Why ruin the rest of your life for one night out with your friends.
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 131
To begin, I will criticize the Act For Youth article. This article may not be the most up to date facts on brains, but the information given is all old news.
ReplyDeleteThe author probably copy and pasted "You are hard-wiring your brain in adolescence. Do you want to hard-wire it for sports and playing music and doing mathematics or for lying on the couch in front of the television?”
I do believe as an adolescent people pick who and what they want to be, but those hopes and dreams don’t last forever.
The brain is constructed as an adult as well. For example: My uncle was 40 years old. He was in a very high ranked position at a prison he worked at. He decided that one day he would be “sick” and “forget” to call in. He was fired, he retired at the age of 40, and now at the age of 50, he plays world of war craft, has no job, and eats and watches television all day.
Now for the Teen Drinking article. It is difficult to describe the benefits of alcohol for teens. It must be good if our parents all gave us a little sip as a child.
Honestly, both articles are–alright–and I must say they wrote both to make teens aware of the effects of alcohol. Likewise to keep us safe and healthy is the reason for our teacher picking these articles.
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I agree with both articles. I do think that drinking at en early age could result in long term effects on the drinkers. I believe that it is very interesting the actual tissue effects that drinking has on the brain. I thought that both of these articles did very well in explaining that even though an adolescent may stop drinking the damage is still there. This, I feel, is needed information. In the second article they said alcohol effects both boys and girls, but in different aspects. Girls have trouble with mathematics. Boys on the other have more trouble staying engaged in situations. They have trouble focusing on situations and are more likely to become bored. When they showed the differences between a teen drinkers brain and a teen who abstained from alcohol it really opened my eyes to how crippling alcohol can be. Word count 144
ReplyDeleteI agree with both authors that the teenage consumption of alcohol has adverse effects on the brain. The fact that most teenagers believe that it does not effect the brain adversely, especially in a time when it is still developing, is shocking to me. Another interesting fact for me is that even if the drinking is discontinued the damage to the drinkers' brain that has already accrued is there. I find the fact that the alcohol affects the male and female brains in different ways is very surprising, so much for "all brains are the same". I find it odd also that girls have trouble with more specific cognitive functions, while boys have more difficulty with less specific situations. I have trouble wrapping my head around the idea of drinking for "fun" when all it is doing is making long-lasting damage to the one organ I the body that doesn't regenerate cells very frequently. Word count 154
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with the lesson that each author is trying to portray, and while the information is scientifically backed, I do not agree with what the authors say in their articles. In the article by Michelle Trudeau, the heading "Teenage Tendency To Experiment To Blame" shows the prejudice against teens in most of society. While these articles, and our teacher, are trying to protect us from the effects of alcohol on our brains, they should also tell the readers of the effects that drinking has on the brain even in the years of adulthood. This would give the whole story behind drinking and its effects, and would prevent the feeling of prejudice in the writing. While the developing brain will be adversely affected by alcohol, the age at which this affect takes place holds no ground, for any negative affect is still relevant. (144)
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with the article--saying that drink for teens is a bad thing. The first most-common sense reason is the drinking age is 21, which helps out a lot on not letting teens drink. Secondly, they did research on teen drinking and non-teen drinking and it showed that even when the drinking teen was sober its brain was still affected. Teens have a higher percentage rate of getting brain damage because there brain is not fully developed. This article just proves why drinking can be dangerous to people and ruin there life’s. Also when you train your brain to be smart and do good things, like not drink all the time, your brain will develop better and you can be a better person. Word count 125
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of our authors. I feel like today as a society we are to descenzatized by television and videogames. I feel that our authors are telling us not to stop watching tv and playing videogames but to regulate it for we are in a time period of great brain developement. We should be filling our mind with logic and knowledge. Spend more of our time studying or reading books to help push us along and to become more intelligent people. I am no saint when it comes to this topic I myself spend too much time on the tv or playing videogames when I should be doing schoolwork or reading. Also I agree with author number two for in no way shape or form should a teen be consuming alcohol and especially not in the form of binge. Alcohol can have long lasting impacts on not only your brain but on other parts of your body as well. Teens are in a very important part of their lives with their body and mind becoming the developed product that they will be so why damage it. I feel our teacher is having us read this to help try and protect us from these situations and to think twice about what we are filling our minds with.
ReplyDeleteWord count:196
I agree with the authors' point that teens should not drink. It is scientifically proven that the use of alcohol by a teenager or adolescent can hinder the development of their brain. It was especially surprising that a lot of the binge drinkers they observed only drank 2 or 3 times a month, even though when they did they drank a lot. I'm curious to how bad the effects are on the teens that drink even more than that. They said in males it caused poor attention and in females it affects their ability to do math. I personally wouldn't want any of those to affect me during college. My complaint about the articles is that they seem to only target the young teenagers and not the college kids who are notorious for drinking. They said the brain develops into someone's twenties but only stated problems with students in the lower teens.
ReplyDeleteWC:152
I think that these Authors are on to something big. To do a long study on this like they did, they wanted to prove a big point and they did. I don’t think this article is so much of a informative paper as it is a warning message for teens. I think they did this to help show us teens the bad effects alcohol has on our Power Plant of our body. I think that our teacher picked this article for the same reasons: to show us how bad this chemical is for use body. They also want to keep it out of teenagers’ hands as much as possible. The more that you stay away from alcohol in your teen years the smarter you will be. Therefore, you will be more successful in life.
ReplyDeleteWC 134