What’s happening

The teen years pose “some of the most difficult challenges.” They are a period of “disorientation and discovery” and can be “ripe for producing conflict.”

Those are psychologists’ descriptions of the teenage years of human development, but they could just as easily describe the decade that just passed. Over the last 10 years, humans have dealt with the growing pains of a changing world: rapidly advancing technology that suddenly connected everyone, political upheaval, rising social movements, sweeping demographic changes and the escalating effects of climate change.

In adolescents, all that turbulence is part of a process of physical and emotional maturation that ultimately results in a more stable adult. It’s not clear, however, whether the world’s tumultuous teen years have been a bumpy road toward a better society or if they represent a step backward for civilization.

Why there’s debate

To some observers, the 2010s were a decade in which the optimism of the early century disintegrated and the problems facing the world worsened. Little progress was made, some argue, in addressing some of the most pressing issues, such as climate change, unrest in the Middle East and global inequality. Technology was wielded by malicious actors and authoritarian governments to undermine democracy. Populist politics, fueled in part by racism, took hold in many Western nations, fueling an erosion of international alliances. Read more

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The teen years pose “some of the most difficult challenges.” They are a period of “disorientation and discovery” and can be “ripe for producing conflict.”

The teen years pose “some of the most difficult challenges.” They are a period of “disorientation and discovery” and can be “ripe for producing conflict.”

The teen years pose “some of the most difficult challenges.” They are a period of “disorientation and discovery” and can be “ripe for producing conflict.”