Kids and social media today: I'm happy I was a teenager in the 80's and 90's

There's an old saying that goes something like "I'm very pleased that I was able to get into all sorts of stupid and embarrassing situations when I was younger and there is no photo or video evidence of it anywhere."

This cannot be said in today's world at all and while I am distanced from it where I live in the countryside, I do hear about how basically everything is recorded and uploaded to social media and this is especially true in the politics that exist in schools these days.

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I run the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man with a "back in my day!" attitude when I say this but I really think the world as it exists now might be psychologically damaging teenagers. There seems to be so much emphasis on establishing followers on various platforms like TikTok and Twitter that this becomes the kids' entire lives. Also, and this is much worse, there seems to be some sort of incentive to post humiliating stories or video of other people, their classmates, and put those situations online in an attempt to go viral and gain followers. I can't imagine anything worse that you could do to a classmate than to make them internet famous for something really unfortunate like them having really bad acne or a really bad haircut one day. Even worse there are stories about people intentionally trying to set up certain kids in "first kiss" situations where the idea is to make the already socially-challenged kids look and feel terrible in really embarrassing situations such as a hot girl tricking them into thinking that they like them.

There are also the stories and short videos where kids will get into fights in the hallway but only after their buddy has started filming it. Once again this is an attempt to gain internet fame, as small as it is, at the expense of another student.

We did things like this when I was in middle and high school as well but the audience extended only to that particular part of the hallway and in a few days, the entire situation was forgotten, people were punished, and life moved on. These days a truly humiliating video that gets uploaded ends up staying there forever and the really heartless students could quite easily torment another student with that evidence for the rest of their time at that school or maybe even beyond.

It doesn't happen to me often, but anytime a self-proclaimed "journalist" approaches me in public with a mobile phone and some BS tiny microphone I just walk away from them. I think there is very little chance that these people are actually interested in anyone's comments but they have a script and an agenda and they will even go so far as to edit the video in order to get the desired result.

I'm an adult so this has never happened to me at the hands of teenagers but I would imagine that it happens to other teenagers all the time and a lot of that time it is likely done without their consent.

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_{Careful Markus, this could all be a setup!}

I'm a big believer that almost all people are going to be as mean as they are ever going to be in their lives between the ages of 13 and 17 and to me anyway, I am extremely happy that I grew up in a time where almost nothing was recorded. I also think that social media and various apps like TikTok are actually making kids more cruel than they normally would be.

I don't have any children but if I did I would be afraid of what could potentially happen to them if they all of a sudden became a target of some other student's attempt and getting some internet fame.

I guess I just don't get it. I don't understand why someone would actually want to be known online as an antagonist or someone who torments other students, but that does seem to be the case. Thank God I grew up in a time when rumors were spread via tiny pieces of paper that were handed off between classes!