Replying to Avatar emily

I think a lot of adults on conventional social media (esp since TikTok) forget how much we share the space with teenagers. No where else in history have adults and children sharing spaces to this extent, on a peer level - it's not natural. Even if you only follow people your own age - you're likely still engaging with their comments and observing/participating in the viral trends that they invent. Millennials need gen-z approval/clicks to go viral, so it makes sense that we regress back to using our teen-brains online. And it makes us collectively less mature. I've been noticing lately how IG is full of 30-something year olds that are just full-time regressing back into teen-brain things like celebrity worship (which we do before we learn what real success is), rating people and being overly focused on body types/physical features (which we all do before we fall in love and learn that it transcends so so much), slut-shaming, gender wars, bullying (which we do before we grow up and realize everyone is just scared and/or angry). It's honestly super WEIRD how millennials spend so much time on the internet engaged at a peer-level in conversations led by 13 year olds (incapable of nuance). And I think it hinders a lot of people's spiritual(for lack of better word?) development. I could see how it's a bit of an escape - to steep in this lower consciousness - but it seems like it's at the expense of growing up and finding stability and being more real and free and open and genuine. And like I said, it's weird...

#thoughtstr

Does this mean that you believe that in all the villages throughout history that "adults" kept separate from younger humans?

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Definitely not! But I think historically if an adult was spending THAT much time around children it would have been as like an authority figure or mentor of some kind - just a different kind of engagement . Adults wouldn't be participating in teenage-coded inside jokes (memes) and they certainly wouldn't be doing their viral dances (there were no adults doing cha cha slide and Soulja boy with us when I was a kid...) . Any conversations about sex and love would be led by the older generations and not the younger . The reverse is true on conventional social media right now

I think that in the past "teens" didn't have a separate culture. Communities were tight (compared to the bare resemblances of community we have now), and younger humans were more focused on becoming a part of the community's culture.

I think what you may be describing is how interacting on the Internet has allowed some immature adults to use the lack of connection in communication (eye contact, body language, voice inflections, etc) to behave like children. I think this is a product of recent culture, which, I hope, changes direction.

That's probably a part of it too! Although I do think it effects the collective and our culture as a whole, not just some immature people. Either way, I hope it changes too but I don't see that happening until more people start developing critical thinking skills or start awakening 😅 it is not clear to me how that will happen..