IF YOU HAVE EVER WONDERED WHAT HAPPENED TO THE POPULAR
KIDS IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL, RESEARCHERS ACTUALLY LOOKED INTO
THAT QUESTION TO DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT THEY ACTUALLY BECOME
SUCCESSFUL AFTER GRADE SCHOOL IS OVER.
THIS IS REGARDING A TEN
YEAR STUDY THAT WAS RECENTLY PUBLISHED IN THE JOURNAL OF
CHILD DEVELOPMENT.
WHAT THE RESEARCHERS FOUND, AFTER
FOLLOWING PEOPLE AROUND FROM THE AGES OF 13 TO 23 IS THAT, IT
TURNS OUT THAT THEIR LIFE OUTSIDE OF GRADE SCHOOL IS THE
ANTITHESIS OF WHAT THEY EXPERIENCE WHEN THEY WERE IN
HIGH SCHOOL.
BUT HE GIVES
EXAMPLES.
THEY SPECIFICALLY LOOKED AT SOMETHING THEY REFER
TO AS ADOLESCENT PSEUDO-MATURE BEHAVIOR.
THAT MEANS THAT YOU
ARE SO OBSESSED WITH LOOKING MATURE, TO APPEAR COOL, THAT YOU
WILL INDULGE IN RISKY BEHAVIORS LIKE TAKING OR SMOKING.
WHEN
YOU ARE IN GRADE SCHOOL, YOU ARE COOL WHEN YOU DO THAT, BUT
WHATEVER THE YOU GRADUATE?
IT'S A LITTLE DIFFERENT.
ADOLESCENT
PSEUDO-MATURE BEHAVIOR DESCRIBES YOUNG TEENS WHO WANTS TO LOOK
AND FEEL MATURE BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY ARE.
THEY HAVEN'T
RECEIVED ñ REACHED THE EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL MATURITY
THAT COMES WITH AN ALTERED.
TO LOOK AND FEEL MATURE, THESE TEENS OFTEN BEHAVE IN WAYS
THEY CONSIDER MATURE, LIKE DRINKING, ALCOHOL, SMOKING,
PARTYING, AND HAVING SEX ñ
OTHERWISE KNOWN AS HAVING A GOOD TIME.
. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MODERATE INDULGENCE AND GOING OVERBOARD.
IN THIS CASE, THE TEAMS WENT OVERBOARD.
LET ME GIVE YOU SOME
INSIGHT INTO THE METHODOLOGY.
THE TEAM SPENT TEN YEARS
FOLLOWING THE BEHAVIORAL HABITS OF 184 SUBJECTS, IS EXPELLED AND
ANYTHING ELSE.
MISTAKE AGAIN, ALL SUBJECTS WERE THIRTEEN YEARS
OLD AT EITHER IN THE SEVENTH OR EIGHTH GRADE.
WHEN IT ENDED,
THEY WERE 23.
WE'RE GOING TO NOW SHOW YOU AN AMAZING GRAPH
THAT HELPS YOU VISUALIZE WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM.
LET'S TAKE A
LOOK, AND IF YOU CAN SEE IN THE BLUE LINE, IN THE BEGINNING THEY
ARE UP THERE WITH THE POPULARITY AND THE COOLNESS, AND THEIR
LIGHT IS GREAT.
THEN, ALL OF A SUDDEN, IT DIPS DOWN, BECAUSE
WHEN I ENTER ADULTHOOD AND THEY ARE IN THE REAL WORLD, THEIR
RIDICULOUS ANTICS DON'T BODE WELL.
ALL OF A SUDDEN THEY ARE
DRINKING TOO MUCH AND TAKING DRUGS, THEIR DESPERATION TO
APPEAR MATURE OR COOL DOES NOT RESONATE WELL WITH OTHERS, ONCE
THEY HAVE GRADUATED.
THE BIGGEST GET THE EXPERIENCE IS
FROM THIRTEEN ñ FIFTEEN, BUT CONTINUES TO DIP INTO ADULTHOOD.
THE MOST POPULAR KIDS IN SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADE
THEN GO TAKE A NOSEDIVE?
YES, HUGE NOSEDIVE, AND IT ONLY GETS WORSE.
I KNEW I SHOULD NOT HAVE PEAKED IN SEVENTH GRADE.
ALL THE PSEUDO-MATURITY WITH THE PING-PONG ON MY LONG, THAT
WASN'T COOL WHAT IT?
WHAT?
HE WAS A PING-PONG CHAMPION.
WE WERE DORKS, WE PLAY PING-PONG.
THAT IS WHY I WENT UP INSTEAD OF DOWN.
I LOVE THAT GRAPH BECAUSE IT SHOWS YOU WHAT HAPPENS TO THE
PEOPLE WHO WERE NOT INTERESTED IN THE PSEUDO-MATURE BEHAVIOR.
THEIR POPULARITY, OR "COOLNESS," WENT UP AS THEY ARE OLDER.
IS AN INTERESTING STUDY, BUT THERE ARE A LOT OF "MMM'S"
IN THERE.
I WAS ADORED IN SEVENTH GRADE, I WAS AT WORK IN TENTH GRADE.
I DO MY HOMEWORK, I WAS DILIGENT, BUT THE DORKS WHO
WERE DILIGENT OR MORE MATURE, THE BRAINIACS, NERDS,
LOSERS, DORKS, WHAT EVERYONE CALL THEM, IT IS NOT LIKE
ALL OF A SUDDEN MY ELEVENTH GRADE WE WERENíT LIKE, NO, WE
SHOULD BE HAVING SEX WITH THE KIDS IN THE HONORS CLASSES.
NO ONE THOUGHT THAT.
YOU'RE RIGHT ABOUT THAT, BUT WHAT IS INTERESTING IS, I'M SURE
YOU GUYS ARE WONDERING HOW THE RESEARCHERS DETERMINE WHETHER OR
NOT THEY ARE COOL, RIGHT?
THEY RELIED ON SURVEYS FROM THEIR
PEERS.
THEIR PEERS AND STARTED
UP BY REPORTING THAT, YET, THIS THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD IS THE SHIT,
WE WANT TO HANG OUT WITH THEM, BUT THEN BY FIFTEEN MORE AND
MORE OF THEIR PEERS WERE LIKE,
THEY ARE FULL OF SHIT, WE ARE NOT INTERESTED.
THAT CONTINUED
TO ADULTHOOD.
I EXPERIENCED SOMETHING SIMILAR WHEN I WAS IN
GRADE SCHOOL.
WHEN I WAS THIRTEEN I WAS NOT COOL, I WAS A
HUGE DORK.
I REALIZED, AS I BECAME OLDER, I GOT MORE
POPULAR.
EVEN KNOW I DID NOT CHANGE MY HABITS, I WAS ALWAYS
INTO ACADEMICS.
THE KIDS YOU WERE DOING THE RISKY BEHAVIOR
WITH THE PEOPLE THAT EVERYONE
ELSE WANTED TO STAY AWAY FROM, AS WE GET CLOSER TO GRADUATION.
I THINK ROVE AND GUYS HAVE A LITTLE DIFFERENT.
GIRLS, AT
THAT AGE, DEVELOPED BREASTS.
JUST A RANDOM LITTLE SLIVER OF
WHAT HAPPENED IN SCHOOL, BUT IT'S A REALLY INTERESTING STUDY,
AND THEY SAY THAT BY THE TIME HE
GETS TO TWENTY-THREE, DOING COKE, IT TURNS OUT, IS NOT A
GREAT IDEA, AND IT CATCHES UP WITH YOU, AND I JUST THINK THAT
IT IS MORE NARROW THAN JUST COOL
VERSUS UNCOOL.
IT IS KIDS THAT ARE TRYING TO ACT COOL BY DOING DANGEROUS
STUFF.
DEPENDS ON YOUR DEFINITION OF DANGEROUS, BUT AT THIRTEEN I
WOULD NOT WANT MY KIDS DRINKING AND DOING DRUGS AND STUFF.
I SMOKED AND DRANK AS A KID, SO I WAS ONE OF THE
PSEUDO-MATURE KIDS, BUT I THINK I STRAIGHTENED OUT.
I WENT TO
CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL.
ALL MY BROTHERS WENT TO PUBLIC SCHOOL,
I WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL, SO IT WAS DIFFERENT.
I WENT OUT TO
BINGE DRINKING TOO, AND ALL THAT, BUT WHEN I GOT INTO COMEDY IT ALL
STOPPED.
I WAS THINKING ABOUT THE KIDS WERE THE COOLEST WHEN I WAS
IN SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADE, AND YEAH, THEY ARE ALL LOSERS.
ANOTHER CLARIFICATION I WANT TO MAKE.
WHEN YOU ARE IN HIGH
SCHOOL OR MIDDLE SCHOOL, GRADE SCHOOL IN GENERAL, AND YOU HAVE
ALREADY BEEN DUBBED THE POPULAR KID, THAT BECOMES YOUR IDENTITY.
BEING A PEOPLE PLEASER, AND BEING OBSESSED WITH BEING THE
COOL KID, IT IS YOUR IDENTITY.
YOU ARE LESS FOCUSED ON DOING
THINGS TO MAKE YOURSELF SUCCESSFUL, AND MORE FOCUSED ON
THE THOUGHTS AND FEEDBACK OF OTHER PEOPLE.
WE ALL KNOW THAT
IF YOU ARE OBSESSED WITH THE FEEDBACK FROM OTHER PEOPLE,
YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET ANYWHERE IN LIFE.
TO DEVELOP WHAT YOU ARE SAYING, ANA, FURTHER, IF YOUR
IDENTITY IS CENTERED AROUND BEING SMART, YOU WANT TO GET
PEOPLE'S APPROVAL BY CONTINUING
ALONG THAT PATH, BY DOING WELL.
WEATHER IN ACADEMICS WERE
OTHERWISE.
YOU WANT TO BUTTRESS THAT IDENTITY.
IF YOU IDENTITY
IS PEOPLE LIKE YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE THE COOL GUY WHO DOES CRAZY
SHIT, THEN YOU ARE GOING TO WANT TO SUPPLEMENT THAT IDENTITY BY
DOING CRAZIER AND CRAZIER SHIT.
I AVOIDED, EVEN THOUGH I DID SMOKE CIGARETTES AND DRINK
AT A YOUNG AGE, I WAS THE CLASS CLOWN, SO I WAS NOT
CONSIDERED POPULAR.
EVERYONE LAUGHED AT ME, I WAS ALWAYS MAKING JOKES,
ANYTHING FOR A LAUGH AT THAT AGE.
I WASN'T CONSIDERED ONE OF THE COOL KIDS, MAYBE THAT'S WHY
I'M NOT A LOSER.
THE CLASS CLOWN IS A SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE.
CLASS
CLOWNS HAVE THEIR OWN
POPULARITY.
EVERYONE WANTS TOTO LAUGH.
IT DOES GET YOU TO THINK ABOUT WHAT THE DIFFERENT
FACTORS ARE THAT LEAD TO THE WRONG WERE RIGHT RESULTS,
AND IF YOU ARE NOT POPULAR NOW IN HIGH SCHOOL, IT GETS BETTER.