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The Coddling of the American Mind

WakeandBake said:
taking digital photos that could embarrass you is also an elective act that is fucking stupid as shit. I get what you're saying and would hate that for her, but I have a hard time working up much sympathy for that scenario, young stallion.
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OK. Hit me up in 14 years when mean girls are passing around d-pics of Wakefield Anderson Baker, Jr.
 
WakeandBake said:
But you have to go to school and face other students.
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You have to go to school and face other students who are on social media and reading what anonymous people are saying/posting/sharing about you.

Turning something off doesn't make it disappear.
 
PhDeac said:
OK. Hit me up in 14 years when mean girls are passing around d-pics of Wakefield Anderson Baker, Jr.
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posrep for remembering his name.

Yeah I get it, I just shake my old bald IT head when people assume that the inevitability of their usage of technology and the internet means that they are absolved of any responsibility when they make poor choices and then cry victimhood.
 
TenaciousKory said:
You have to go to school and face other students who are on social media and reading what anonymous people are saying/posting/sharing about you.

Turning something off doesn't make it disappear.
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right but that happens with or without social media. We called it gossip.
 
When I went to school in the 80s, this stuff was brutal.

The mentality was different. Kids back then were thrown out to the wolves alot more than today. There was less authority and oversight, from parents, school administrators and authority figures. Some of the stuff we did and got away with would get you thrown out of school or in serious trouble these days. It was much more of a jungle.
 
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WakeandBake said:
right but that happens with or without social media. We called it gossip.
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I disagree. They're two distinct mediums of communication. Word of mouth =/= text or photos posted on a website. The speed of transmission and longevity of statements/media are very different.
 
I had to move bus stops in my neighborhood when I was younger because I wouldn't stop making fun of some kids fat mom, not even the kid but his mom. Millennial mom before her time.
 
TenaciousKory said:
I disagree. They're two distinct mediums of communication. Word of mouth =/= text or photos posted on a website. The speed of transmission and longevity of statements/media are very different.
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yeah I guess we can split hairs but the larger point is that there is a pussification happening and people aren't as tough or thick-skinned as they used to be.

I guess you are saying that is false and folks are just as thick-skinned as they ever were, but the internet has made the environment that much more difficult.
 
seems to me we can all agree that getting beat up sucks, in the 80s or now.

It also sucks when a kid makes a mistake because they're a kid, but in the 80s that mistake was basically forgotten in a week or so whereas now, every other kid around has the power to instantly broadcast video of that mistake to every single person in the school district, and keep it alive/use it as leverage essentially forever, to the point that a mistake you make as a minor can impact your ability to get into college or get a job.

I don't think there's any need to minimize either behavior or experience, they're both bad.
 
ChrisL68 said:
When I went to school in the 80s, this stuff was brutal.

The mentality was different. Kids back then were thrown out to the wolves alot more than today. There was less authority and oversight, from parents, school administrators and authority figures. Some of the stuff we did and got away with would get you thrown out of school or in serious trouble these days. It was much more of a jungle.
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And we walked to school! Uphill! Both ways! In the snow!

;)
 
WakeandBake said:
yeah I guess we can split hairs but the larger point is that there is a pussification happening and people aren't as tough or thick-skinned as they used to be.

I guess you are saying that is false and folks are just as thick-skinned as they ever were, but the internet has made the environment that much more difficult.
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I'm arguing that cyberbullying is a distinct issue, not some watered-down form of schoolyard physical violence. It's a fact that some kids are killing themselves after suffering abuse over the Internet. A cursory Google search reveals this to be true. That would seem to make it just as important an issue as the kids getting their ass kicked on the way to school, no? Personally, I think it's worse. Forgive the poetic style, but I think this form of abuse can hang over you in ways that a fist never could.

There seems to be some confusion when we conflate the two forms of bullying/abuse, which leads to this strange view of kids becoming weaker over time. Just because you have a misguided belief that cyberbullying is a third-rate form of abuse doesn't mean that the kids who suffer from it are weaker.
 
Back on the subject of "coddling American minds," I do have hope that future curriculum trends towards not sugar-coating American history, proper sex education, evolution, etc., will have an effect on the electorate, PC language notwithstanding.
 
There is way too much retaliatory neg-repping and butthurt whining about Moonz on here for me to take the Gen X-and-older contributions to the conversation on cyberbullying seriously.
 
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