The new Russian Roulette/ Hot PotatoFollow

Edited, Mon Nov 7 14:29:59 2005 by Jophiel

I'm more curious as to why they keep referring to 19 and 20 year olds as "youths"...

It's just that the writing is bizaare. I usually look for certain key words in articles since that'll tell you what opinion the writer is trying to bring his readers to. One of the most blatant "tells" is how writers use different words to refer to people under the age of 20. When they are referred to as "youths", "youngsters", or "children", it's always to make them appear to be innocent (and generally victims if it's that kind of story). When the same exact people are referred to as "teens", or just "men/women" (if they are between the age of 18 and 20), it's usually to denote that they are troublemakers and somehow at fault in whatever the story is about. The term "young adult" will be used when talking about people between 18 and 22 or so, and denotes a degree of responsiblity.


I find it interesting that they're using the word "youths" to refer to them, yet they are all adults. Doubly strange since they were tossing a hand grenade around at 2 in the morning. The writer of the story clearly wanted to make the readers feel that this was an accident (which it was), but also that those playing with the grenade were not dangerous or threatening, or anything to be worried about, but merely the victims of bad luck. They were good kids, even though they were tossing a hand grenade around late at night...

In the UK when we refer to youths, it is usually in a menacing "gangs of rampaging youths" type of way.

Interesting...

Social difference then. In the US, they'll use the word "teen" for that. As in "a gang of marauding teens attacked a woman today...".


Ok. All is right in the world then. :)