Risky Teen Behavior Today: Less Smoking, More Texting While Driving
LatestThe kids-today version of Dazed and Confused is going to roughly as exciting as watching paint dry: Teen drinking and smoking have dropped dramatically, but high schoolers are pretty damn likely to text behind the wheel and spend long hours parked in front of the computer.
Go ahead and place your bets re: the amount of time before we get a back-in-my-day think piece about the glorious days when teens ran wild and free.
The AP reports on the results of the CDC’s National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which updates everyone on the latest trends in teen endangerment. Apparently, they’re turning into a bunch of health nuts.
The big news: Teens barely smoke cigarettes anymore. (There’s always college!) (Do not smoke.) In 1991, when the CDC began keeping track, 27 percent of teens smoked. As of 2013, just 15.7 percent smoked. Of course, zero percent would be better, and these numbers don’t mean they’re not smoking hookah or (ugh) puffing on e-cigs. But it’s major progress. Drinking fell slightly, too: 35 percent said they’d had a drink in the last month. In 2011, it was 39 percent. Hell, they’re even drinking less soda—consumption fell from 34 percent in 2007 to 27 percent.