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Our brains are largest and fastest around age 13.

So somebody had to go looking for some way to say that older brains are better.

They discovered that white matter gradually increases with age (but the initial studies had no subjects over 25 so the data stopped at that age)... bombastic clickbait bullshit then claimed that you're still a child until 25 when your white matter is complete. Everybody wanted to believe this, so the idiotic oversimplification went viral.

and the difference is minuscule. At age 26 you have about 2% more white matter than at age 16.

and the white matter keeps growing... all through your 30s and well into your 40s. If that's the measure of adulthood we are children until our 50th birthdays.

Here are a few examples of really dumb clickbait based on the very common myth that white matter is what truly makes you an adult.

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Discussion

kate 1y ago

Slate is not exactly a scientific authority but I think we can agree that not every person fully matures at the same rate. Mental and physical growth can end sometime between one’s teens to mid to late 20s. But there is no way that you can get me to agree that a teenager has the maturity to be a parent.

Heather_860 1y ago

Yes, we agree that "not every person fully matures at the same rate"

but the reason for that is not biology.

The main reason people mature faster or slower is their environment. People who are sheltered, protected, locked up, prevented from experiencing things grow up much slower. Young people learn by doing. When their under constant supervision and not allowed to take any risks they don't learn much and they don't grow up. They kinda end up being terrified 20-year-olds, who suddenly have to do their own laundry (a skill most 8 year olds can learn in a few days).

Many hunter-gatherer tribes have average age of first child birth around 16. Those new mothers and fathers have been preparing to be parents their whole lives. They've been baby-sitting younger siblings and cousins etc for as long as they can remember. Given the right experience, the right opportunity, and the right motivations teens can be great parents.

We don't do any of that in our society. We raise our kids differently, so at 16 no one is ready for parenthood. But that is a choice we made. That has nothing to do with mother nature, science, or evolution.

kate 1y ago

Even in societies where girls get married and have children at 14 or 15 they are unprepared and immature. Generally, their husband’s mother or older wife will take over. That’s not to say they are incapable- just that motherhood at full maturity would be preferable. I’m not sure what you are trying to prove or what your agenda is - but tbh it’s kind of disturbing and I’d like to end the conversation. ✌️