How Mature is Mature?

How Mature is Mature? Society, as a whole, automatically assumes that all eighteen year olds are mature enough to be considered adults. If this is the case, why are eighteen year old adults not considered old enough to go to a bar and drink. How is it that eighteen year olds, fresh out of high school, are mature enough to sign up to get sent away from their families to fight in wars. Eighteen is not mature: but whos to say when someone is actually mature? People develop at their own pace, it does not make sense to put everyone into categories by age group because not everyone in that age group is at the same maturity level. Studies have proven that the current drinking law in the United States does not prevent underaged drinking, currents drinking laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking across the country. Forty percent of college students, ages eighteen through twenty three have shown signs of alcohol abuse and/or alcohol dependence (College presidents seek debate on drinking age.). That does not include every college across the United States or all of the teenagers (eighteen through twenty three) that did not enroll in college at all, the number of young adults and drinking problems is much higher than what researchers have found in a small quantity of teenagers throughout America. Society has drilled into our minds that twenty one is when people are mature enough to drink but research shows that twenty one year olds still drink just as irresponsibly as an eighteen year old high school student does. There is actually not much of a difference in maturity between eighteen and twenty one. There are actual federal records that prove this statement. One hundred and fifty seven people ages eighteen through twenty three drank themselves to death proving there is not much of a maturity difference. You would assume the older and more mature the person is the more responsible when they drink which is obviously not the case. Recently there have been five hundred thousand injuries and one thousand seven hundred deaths in just one year due to people drinking between the ages eighteen through twenty one ( College presidents seek debate on drinking age.). Approximately one hundred eighty thousand eighteen year olds enlist in the American Armed Forces per year (joining the military). Why does society assume that an eighteen year old is mature enough to understand the life or death decision of going to war? These soldiers have no control over where they are to be sent to or for how long. Young soldiers do not see the future consequences to joining the United States military. Few soldiers never see war while they are serving but for the ones that do it causes lots of psychological disorders such as post traumatic disorder, or traumatic brain injury. Post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a failure to recover after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. Most veterans that suffer from PTSD experience night terrors, flashbacks, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Veterans with post traumatic stress disorder also have the tendency to avoid certain situations that could possibly bring back the trauma they desperately are trying to forget. More than three million veterans are diagnosed with PTSD per year and will have to suffer with this disorder for the rest of their lives. Traumatic brain injury or TBI is a brain dysfunction that is caused by an outside force such as a nearby bomb explosion or a violent blow to the head. Veterans that suffer from TBI often have headaches, seizures, dizziness, ringing in their ears and speech difficulties. These veter ans often times have problems that are not easily noticeable because it is all cognitive. TBI sufferers have sleep and visual disorders that are irreversible and these veterans will never get a break from this very harsh and very unmerciful brain dysfunction. More than two hundred thousand united states veterans are diagnosed with traumatic brain injury per year. How is it that Americans thinks it is okay to send our youth to a foreign country to defend our freedom and put themselves in a life or death situation with a gun in hand but can not be in their own native land that they risked their lives for with a beer in their hand? Americas youth does not realize that enrolling in the military regardless if they go to war or not makes them more vulnerable to mental disorders not including PTSD and TBI. Not only does it does it make their more vulnerable to mental disorders but they are more likely to commit suicide because of the harsh conditions they are put in and because of the awfu l things they have to deal with. They often become dependent on alcohol or drugs to try and cope with the memories and images permanently engraved in their minds. In conclusion, I feel that America as a whole should reconsider the age of maturity. Not saying that all eighteen year old teenagers are incapable of making wise decisions but that the majority of our youth, ages eighteen through twenty one, are expected to be mature and are sent off into the real world; most of them not having a clue what they are getting themselves into. Some teenagers are desperate to join the military for the free education and the benefits but do not understand the consequences that come along with it. If eighteen is too young to drink a beer then eighteen is too young to sign up to risk your life. Works Cited Alexander, Caroline. Blast Force. Blast Force | National Geographic, National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/healing-soldiers/blast-force.html. College presidents seek debate on drinking age. Modern Brewery Age, 25 Aug. 2008, p. 1. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPSsw=wu=j020902v=2.1id=GALE%7CA209904006it=rasid=cf0f93f12265d8dcdf0dea9c8a628d9e. Accessed 27 Jan. 2017. - Joining the Military. Joining the Military Military.com, www.military.com/Recruiting/Content/0,13898,062006-who-joining-marines-today-myth-fact,,00.html?ESRC=recruiting.nl. Accessed 20 Feb. 2017. Kids today and their negligence to vote. UWIRE Text, 13 Oct. 2016, p. 1. Educators Reference Complete, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=PROFsw=wu=j020902v=2.1id=GALE%7CA467440428it=rasid=b7706d28fe36ae9a650061919ef11777. Accessed 7 Feb. 2017. Raloff, Janet. The dangers of vaping: teens are falling for flavored e-cigs, but the vapors they inhale may be toxic. Science News, 11 July 2015, p. 18+. Research in Context, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=MSICsw=wu=j020902v=2.1id=GALE%7CA421769268it=rasid=68c8c2598405c9859f34e25925b2bf3d. Accessed 9 Feb. 2017. Masturbation: Prevention and Treatment | Article Review Masturbation: Prevention and Treatment | Article Review Jamie Burden Scholarly Article on the Prevention of Masturbation: The scholarly article under consideration is Masturbation: Prevention and the Treatment written by A.Shekarey, M.Sedaghat Rostami, Kh.Mazdai, A.Mohammadi first published in Procedia (A.Shekarey, 2011) as a peer reviewed scholarly article. The article investigates the topic of masturbation thoroughly. The author’s goal was to provide authentic evidence showing the ill effects of masturbation and the article is focused on providing a solution to the sexual addiction called masturbation. Within the articles they have discussed various scenarios that can be put to implementation in order to prevent masturbation. According to the authors a study conducted in Iran showed that Iranian men and women, ninety-two and sixty-two percent respectively, have masturbated during their life and no sexual activity is as controversial but common as masturbation (A.Shekarey, M.Sedaghat Rostami, Kh.Mazdai, A.Mohammadi, 2011). This study attempts to investigate the most important and the commonest s exual threat, masturbation, to teenagers and the youth, especially among the university students and to provide some information about physical, mental, spiritual, moral and ethical damages of masturbating (A.Shekarey, M.Sedaghat Rostami, Kh.Mazdai, A.Mohammadi, 2011). Further in the studies, the article explains the possible causes of masturbation. According to the journal there can be several reasons that can and will lead from sexual frustration and develop in to masturbation. They also discussed the ratio of masturbation among men and women, according to the journal men are more addicted to masturbation than women. They further state that teenagers are more than likely to start puberty when they are in high school, so they should be provided with enough knowledge of sexual harms and procedures (A.Shekarey, M.Sedaghat Rostami, Kh.Mazdai, A.Mohammadi, 2011). Masturbation is an action equally condemned by both the female teenagers and male teenagers. Although, there are several purposes a teenager will participate in this practice such as to avoid depression and tension in daily life. Authors highlighted the negative effects of the masturbation on the physical and mental health of the teenagers. Symptoms were also mentioned along with their social damages. Coming to the main aim of the paper, author gave enough ideas to treat and prevent the act of masturbation (A.Shekarey, M.Sedaghat Rostami, Kh.Mazdai, A.Mohammadi, 2011). In the conclusion the authors state that there can be several ways to satisfy the sexual desires; some are deemed acceptable and some are not. According to the journal masturbation is considered to be an unacceptable way of satisfying ones sexual desires. Teenagers should be better educated concerning the mental and physical damages that can be expected from masturbation when they begin puberty. Sex education should be provided through many scientific programs and therapies. It should be noted that a mentally and physically healthy teenager can become a resourceful youth. The guidance of parents and teachers should be there in order to clear all their doubts about a healthy sexual behavior. In short the authors tried to prove the ill effects of the masturbation through the statistics and primary sources. The study mainly targets the teenagers and children near puberty. According to them sexual education is the best way to prevent masturbation and other ill sexual habits (A.Shekarey, M.Sedaghat Rostami, Kh.Mazdai, A.Mohammadi, 2011). Popular Media Article on the Prevention of Masturbation: The popular media article that was chosen in regards to the prevention and the treatment of masturbation is How to Stop a Masturbation Addiction written by Gary Wickman this was first made available online from the website of the Healthy Guidance. In this article the author shows support in regards to the act of masturbation. According to Wickman masturbation is good for your sexual health in certain ways, but one should be moderate when it comes to the act of masturbation. Too much masturbation can affect your daily life and it can become highly addictive (Wickman, 2014). It is really important to control the addiction of masturbation, if not controlled even the slightest stimulation can cause sexual arousal. There are people that use masturbation as a form of self-medication with the intent of treating their various daily life issues. It is almost impossible to control daily issues, but remains imperative to control the addiction of masturbation, as excessive masturbation can be da maging in many ways (Wickman, 2014). The author Gary Wickman provides various techniques with the intent to control masturbation; he explains how one can be their own doctor and should have the knowledge of how to control ones desires. One should create rules and follow them strictly; such as masturbating only once a day. Along with that setting a time limit and strictly following this criteria will help with self-control. One of the most imperative things is to focus on the negative effects of masturbation; by teaching one’s self that time is valuable and should not be wasted by becoming addicted to masturbation and that becoming a person of self-control and the rules should not be broken. There are certain parts of the day, when one wants to masturbate or the desires for masturbation become stronger, by becoming involved with activities or hobbies during that time of day will help maintain self-control (Wickman, 2014). By determining the underlying causes of obsessive masturbation, whether it stems from sexual frustration or the physical vulnerability. Regardless of the reason, the opportunity allowing one to address the addiction directly rather than suppress the issue of masturbating will show to be more beneficial. In this article the author Gary Wickman targets the male and female audience whom are addicted to masturbation; his main focus was to provide addicts with various techniques to avoid over masturbation. Wickman did not use any scientific data or the public data statistics to prove his point and address the issue. He also used general methods as the remedy, not the medical and the psychological techniques. Critique: Both the scholarly article and the popular media article deal with the issue of the masturbation and provide different techniques to control or prevent the addiction of masturbation. According to both, the addiction of masturbation can be harmful for your mental or physical health. In the scholarly article, several statistics and primary references were given to prove the point. While in the popular media article no such types of references were given. Audiences are found to be different for both the articles; scholarly article is a journal published paper and addresses the teenagers hitting puberty on the other hand popular media article is for people with the addiction of the masturbation. Though, they both include the female and the males in their audiences. The greatest difference is found to be in the support of the actual act of masturbation. The scholarly paper clearly expresses disapproval of the idea masturbation and explains how it considers masturbating to be a great threat to the physical and the mental health of a person. While the Healthy Guidance article by Gary Wickman clearly states that it considers masturbation to be a healthy sexual activity. But does find that excessive masturbation can be dangerous for one’s health. Due to the published paper standard, scholarly article can be used as the primary source for the further research while the popular media article can only benefit the online audience. The main difference of presentation is the lack of the references in the popular media article. This makes it weak source for the further investigation. The scholarly article is beneficial in many ways for the audience in the similar religion country, but the popular media article is helpful for the population across the world with the masturbation addiction issue. Conclusion: The main aim of the paper is to investigate the outcomes of the sexual learning through popular media and the peer reviewed journals. There is a huge difference between the two. It is very much obvious that scholarly articles are based on a lot of research and the statistics and they usually deal with all type of problem in a particular discipline while the popular media articles only address the issues that are common and frequently asked for. One provides the formal sex education while the other provides general sex ideas. Sexual issues are sensitive issues and it is very much necessary to consult the article with the authentic views, popular media articles can be easy to find and access but they do not always provide all the necessary information that is pertinent to address the issue. By comparing both of the sources, there is one thing that can be highlighted effectively and that is the thoroughness provided. Scholarly articles are thorough in their findings and will always provide enough support to validate their point while the popular media article can be based on one’s assumption or the hypothesis. Scholarly journals are not usually accessible and are difficult to hunt down, popular media articles can be found on all the platforms. Therefore it can be concluded that both of the articles are an excellent source of knowledge, but scholarly articles prove to be more authentic; popular media articles are easily available but they usually speak of the general issues and favor general point of views. References A.Shekarey, M. R. (2011). Masturbation: Prevention and Treatment. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1641-1646. Wickman, G. (2014, October 18). How to Stop a Masturbation Addiction. . Retrieved from Health Guidance: http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15619/1/How-to-Stop-a-Masturbation- Addiction.html