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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

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Discussion

Kendy 2y ago

Well said 👏🏻

To add, I think it’s gross how often I see disagreements reduce to ad-hominem almost immediately. I think another major factor of the low quality interactions is minimal-to-zero immediate consequence for saying ugly things to each other. Many keyboard warriors send stuff that would get them punched in the face on the street!

emily 2y ago

So true, putting aside the fact that in the real world a 30-something year old would never be in a situation to argue w a 13 year old in the first place. It's certainly strange!!

MrSoloDolo 2y ago

You sound like the church when they wanted people not to read books from the printing press. Do you know how lack of efficent ways to communicate hindered us as a species? Boomers are so dumb because they had to go to libraries to learn and their selection was very limited, censored, and not always available. Now we have all the information we can imagine at our fingertips and it gets bigger and better every day. And every day millions of humans get on the internet for the first time and get access to all of the worlds answers. If they are stupid they will fall in to the social media trap. If they are smart they will learn and use social media as a tool. Then the smart prey take advantage of the stupid peoples stupidity and leverage it to their advantage. It is the parents job to make aure their kids aren't stupid and teach them how to be smart

emily 2y ago

I'm talking about mainstream conventional social media - specifically IG and TikTok - and how they've set up an environment where children/teens and adults interact as peers. Most people use them daily and don't think twice about this weird reality.

I'm also not really thinking about access to information or the internet in general. I'm talking about the way the majority of millennials spend their time, and the implications it has on larger life lessons. Typically humans have looked to elders to guide personal growth, but on these platforms all older adults are written off as politically incorrect dinosaurs with no wisdom to share and meanwhile we share trends with teenagers, literally talking about love and sex with them - I just think it's both weird and interesting to notice

Baker 2y ago

Very well thought out. I couldn't agree more.

Troy 2y ago

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

emily 2y ago

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

Troy 2y ago

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.

emily 2y ago

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..