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by sethhochberg 523 days ago
Much has been written about Gen Z having a tiny appetite for risky behavior, and the causes are attributed to all sorts of stuff. But my entirely unscientific bet is that there is a real chilling effect to growing up as the first generation that had entirely digital “permanent records” and zero tolerance policies for their entire lives. Very little room for error when, regardless of whether you learned anything from it or not, your mistake is recorded forever and searchable by anybody. And because the rest of society didn’t grow up with that level of retention, they’ll still judge you for it being documented.
2 comments

I have to admit I kind of inflicted this on my own child. She has her paper diaries, which are sacred, not to be touched, and a box for putting any artifacts she doesn't want me to see. But for any interaction with electronic devices, the rule is "don't do anything you don't want your parents to see. Just assume we can."

But the thing is, her permanent record exists, and I do not control it, so inhibiting her from entering things into it is somewhat called for.

young people today are definitely policed way more heavily than in the past