[Sentialia]

As someone who is under the age of 18, I would respectfully have to agree with the statement in question. The Smartphone -- or more specifically the internet -- has provided us, adolescents, a powerful platform to learn anything we want and develop into technically literate and ethical adults. Unfortunately, this has and will continue to not be the case.

The internet has evolved from being a source of knowledge into a cancerous entity that craves complete and utter assimilation of any decency humans might have. While adults might be capable of avoiding the raw, seductive power of the evil this medium permits, I think I speak for the majority of teenagers when I say that we cannot.

Constantly and persistently we are using the internet to perform heinous deeds unimaginable to our guardians. We have been raised in a bubble where our role models are Youtubers who have dropped out of high-school and where the names of famous scholars are annoyances of reality. We no longer look at the stars curious of the natures which lay beyond them, for we believe we have already witnessed and possess any great magnitude of beauty in our phones. We are mostly guided by the one and ever consuming belief that the internet is not an extension of our minds, but rather our minds themselves.

It is a terribly sad revelation that something considered so revolutionary and representative of human ingenuity is actually something wholly malignant to the young of our species. We are mentally and emotionally undeveloped and we have been given a powerful tool without guidance on how to use it.

I say these things not to bandwagon or provoke, but because I despise the creature the internet has given birth to -- me. I am a product of this vile creation and I want this cycle to stop. I do not know how many other teenagers have come to this realization or how many are still wasting away on Snapchat speaking of pointlessly obscure thoughts. But what I do know is that the internet has not enriched our lives but has rather regressed it to the point where we do anything for a couple of minutes on our phones. We are young and have been taken advantage of by political powers which want to advertise and indoctrinate; we hold unrestricted power in a domain of our own making; we are independent only in face when enslaved in heart.

Destroy the internet and free us.

[striking]

As someone who recently grew out of his teens, I would respectfully have to disagree with your comment.

I'm a product of the internet too. The internet helped me keep friends that would otherwise not stay in touch, helped me make new friends, helped me learn and grow and become my own person. I've had jobs and internships, and I owe the vast majority of the knowledge required in those to... the internet.

If you choose to waste your time mindlessly watching empty YouTube videos, if you choose to spend your time at social events finding the optimal selfie position rather than enjoying yourself... then that's on you. But there are many adolescents that choose to use the internet responsibly.

And that's what a responsible parent understands. That their child is not just an extension of them but an entirely new and different person. Good parents don't bubblewrap their kids when they play on the playground. They educate their kids on how to play responsibly, and deal with the fallout when their kids get hurt.

The internet is not an irresistible and all-corrupting force. It is a tool, and becomes only what you make of it.

[Sentialia]

There are various 'tools' which parents do not allow children to use unsupervised simply because they are cautious of the negative effects. For example, would you allow a child to operate vehicles, kitchen utilities, or weapons alone?

I agree with your point of educating kids to play responsibly, but this does not mean allowing them to do whatever they want in a dangerous territory.

[striking]

Dangerous tools like knives or vehicles can cause instantaneous wounding or death when used improperly. Comparing those to the internet is wrong. Especially since your argument started with

> The internet has evolved from being a source of knowledge into a cancerous entity that craves complete and utter assimilation of any decency humans might have.

Is this about decency, or about instant death? You can't move the goalposts like that.

Additionally, I believe we were talking about adolescents, which are entirely capable of operating vehicles or at the very least kitchen utilities. I would indeed allow a teenager to use a kitchen knife unsupervised, with the proper education.

I'm simply not convinced that the so-called "dangers" out there on the internet are so bad you must ignore all the good that the internet can bring. I'm sorry you find the internet indecent, but "the majority of teenagers" you speak for might not really need freeing. Rock and roll and weed and premarital sex still exist, and somehow kids still seem to grow up fine.

[dictum]

I'm not old enough to school the youngs but I'm old enough to take delight in sounding like a curmudgeon, but your comment would be recited nearly verbatim at some poetry slam of decades ago, except replacing "the internet" with such things as

- tv

- mass culture

- the suburbs

- the city

- small town/rural life

- sexual activity when everyone is having it, except you

- the written word

[Sentialia]

Are you arguing that my comment alludes to nothing more than platitudes and is thus not relevant?

[dictum]

Sorry for the snarky tone. I don't mean to discount your experience.

It's relevant, but on a certain level so were the complaints of previous generations.

People like me lamented all sorts of contemporary phenomena. Except for passing fads (which seem to get the brunt of overthought lamentations), those changes didn't destroy mankind.

As you get older, this stuff just becomes funny. Young people rediscover the age-old need for self control and adaptation to problematic environments/cultural contexts. Older people discover the joy of misguided, unhelpful arrogance.

[Sentialia]

I understand that your reply was well intended and I apologize for sounding offended. I only wanted some clarification because I was confused.

While I can't really speak for previous generations, I would like to quote one of the replies above:

"The difference being that you're not engulfed in all of that for hours/days at a time like you are with today's technology. It doesn't constantly follow you around to the dinner table, to your school, to the toilet. 15 years ago, most people had a family computer and you'd go on it and if there was something you weren't supposed to see, you'd still do it but with the added fear of looking back over your shoulder hoping your parents wouldn't catch you."

To the best of my understanding, previous generations also had several interactions with technology and culture (i.e. radio, pop media, television) but they were not as intrusive as the internet. The internet is everywhere and is used by almost everyone unconditionally. This may have been the intention behind its eventual design progression but it has resulted in exposing very young kids to terrible content. This has serious implications, which I attempted to unsuccessfully convey in my original comment by recounting my own experiences.

I was very recently like one of the adolescents I mentioned: uncaring, naive, addicted to the stimulus of receiving an empty text message accounting for nothing. When I detached myself from these technologies, I began to instantly feel more empowered and tried to get some of my peers to stop as well. However, their reactions ranged from being bewildered to even being upset that I would suggest such a thing. They are essentially zombies being swallowed up by an ever pervasive force that they themselves don't fully comprehend.

With television the actors were some idealized figures that were polished by an entire marketing team, but with Youtube or Twitter we have regular people holding no reservation when doing stupid things for attention. Children are witnessing and practicing the words of these people who themselves have no clue what they're doing.

Tangentially, I'd like to point out that social media in particular has degraded our abilities to face confrontation and provide rational refutations. Just yesterday I was discussing some matters with a few peers and the moment a controversial topic sprout up half of them went on glancing at their phones apathetically and the other half just blurted out their opinions without any defense. Questioning their beliefs, I realized that they were mostly superficial and held only because some guy on Facebook or Snapchat had posted something about it.

Here's an example conversation:

<person 1> What do you guys think about insert name

<person 2> That's a horrible person!

<person 3> Absolutely despicable!

<person 1> Why?

<person 2 and 3> I don't know, everyone on the internet says they are, so they must be

I am aware that this type of mentality is intertwined with our evolutionary inclination to 'fit in' with the crowd, but the internet is abusing this behavior.

[7622872923]

As someone who's also under 18, I relate very strongly with this. I'm watching myself, and everyone around me get caught up in the virtual world. I find myself spending hours on a computer/my phone and feeling sick and upset afterwards. Whenever I'm in a group of kids my age, 90% of the time we'll instinctively go for our phones. This behavior is scary to me.

That's not to say that technology is 100% negative. I'd be the last to deny the benefits of it. But, seeing myself and everyone else in my generation getting sucked into devices that just bring discontent is concerning to me.