by Max Benson

Created on: February 16, 2007   Last Updated: February 04, 2008

It is true that Teens are usually more rude than the average person, but how high can standards be for kids going through tough stages? Every teenager wants two things: to be set apart from adults and to fit in with their peers. With polite parents and rude friends one can only assume that the teen would become rude too.

Now like all stereotypes, teens are not as bad as one may think. Not every teenager takes old ladies purses, not every teenager takes the 500 dollars they find on the floor, not every teenager does drugs, not every teenager cheats in school. Teenagers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and maturity levels. There are some teenagers who open doors for old ladies, who turn 500 dollars into the police, who think drug free is the way to be, and get straight A's in school purely from being a good student.

I'd be lying if I said the average teen wasn't more rude than the average 40 year old.. But that's not something that one can necessarily help. Being polite and nice in teen culture can be viewed as being dumb and a kiss-up, creating feeling of becoming a social outcast. Nobody wants to be left alone with no friends, no matter what your age; you do what you have to do to fit in. In the land of teenagers that would be being rude and uptight.

Reviving politeness would only be possible if teenagers change there image as a whole. If the teenage image on places such as MTV were changed to nice behaving kids instead of the rebellious, smoking teens, then polite would be considered cool.

So without serious help from the media, and about 10 years, reviving politeness is like giving CPR to a dummy.

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