|
At the dawn of civilization came the Stone Age, followed
by the Iron Age, Bronze Age, Industrial Age, and most recently, the
Information Age. This is basic human history, but what comes next?
Let me suggest the “Study Age.” In the old days everyone knew that
if you ate too much you gained weight, drank too much you got drunk,
or neglected your kids they grew unruly. Men and women were
different, muscle tone came from exercise, television rotted your
brains, and you were tired because you didn’t get enough sleep. But
those were simpler times, an era when people relied on their own
senses.
Today we know that nothing is true until confirmed by a study. The
latest flash comes from the University of Rochester, where
researchers have discovered that teens with body piercings are more
likely to be involved in risky behavior than their unkabobbed
peers.
The study found that junior high school and high school girls
with piercings (other than ears) are twice as likely to use tobacco,
play hooky, and be sexually active. No tie was found to grades,
drug and alcohol abuse, or violence.
Only 1.7 percent of boys choose the perforated look compared to 7.1
percent of girls, so less is known about their appetite for risk.
Researchers did note that holey boys are more prone to alcohol and
truancy than intact kids.
The same
university released a report last year on tattoos, which, it
concluded, are even bigger danger signals than piercings. Junior
high and high school kids who make murals of themselves are more
likely to use alcohol and tobacco and be sexually active than the
pierced; they also struggle academically and are more inclined to
violent behavior than teens in general.
Neither study applies to adults, nor do they suggest that piercing
or tattoos cause antisocial behavior. Rather, the researchers
concluded that kids with rebellious tendencies tend to get skewered
to advertise their angst. According to one, “Piercing is one way
that teenagers paint a picture of how they choose to present
themselves to the world.”
No kidding.
Do we really need a study to know that kids who poke holes in
themselves do it for the effect? Don’t expect them to admit it; the
standard teen explanation for every “extreme” fad, from zoot suits
and ducktails to Mohawks and nose rings, is “I just like it.” And
in a way, that’s true. Specifically, they appreciate the
entertainment value that comes from getting a cardiac blip out of
their elders. Those so inclined can probably find more than one way
to do it, thus the other “risky behaviors.”
I managed to reach this conclusion without benefit of a research
grant, yet many observers of human behavior need a study before
they’ll accept anything. I’m not sure why this is, but it might be
that the rest of the world has become so complex we don’t understand
much of it without a professional, making it easy to slide into
thinking people are somehow more complicated as well.
Case in point: As I write this I am within arm’s reach of a digital
telephone, a cell phone, a laser printer, and, naturally, a
computer. I have no real understanding of how any of them work.
This doesn’t bother me much, though I do find myself increasingly
attached to the stapler.
I don’t know when multilingual owner’s manuals were invented, but
they probably didn’t come with stone axes. It could be that
technology-induced overload has led us to believe we need experts
for everything, that we’ve lost the habit of trusting intuition or
anything unseen in favor of faith in science and the judgment of
others.
Of course this is just speculation on my part. Maybe someone should
study it. |
