“In my generation we went outside to play.”
“We didn’t have cell phones and all of this technology.”
“We sent letters, not text messages.”
Do any of these statements sound familiar?
If you’re a millennial they should sound pretty familiar. After all, our generation is the generation that has really been immersed in technology.
But, while we still grew up with things like paper fortune tellers, landlines, and fruit rollups, today’s generation of teenagers is growing up with things like IPhones, Snapchat, and sexy Halloween costumes.
This video by Youtube creator Alexa Mae highlights a few of the most obvious changes between the current generation of 20 somethings and the current generation of teenagers.
Mae highlights the differences in communication tactics, entertainment interests, and technology.
When I was younger, my friends and I thought it was the coolest thing ever when we were finally old enough to have e-mail accounts.
The content of our e-mails looked similar to that of a text message. We would ask each other what we were doing that day, if we could hang out together that weekend and if we saw the latest episode of That’s So Raven or Phil of the Future. (And, don’t forget that we had to have a unique font, font color, background color and symbol in our e-mails!)
An argument with my friends when I was 13 meant we were arguing over who got the last cherry popsicle or chocolate chip cookie—not which one of us hooked up with the other one’s boyfriend.
I overhear kids all of the time who can’t be more that 15 years old talking about topics that I’m pretty sure most of my friends didn’t even know about at 15. It’s startling, and quite frankly, it’s concerning.
It’s easy to blame this solely on the rise of technology, and while technology does play a critical role in this ever changing society the rise of technology is not the culprit…the way we have chosen to use technology, though, is.
Think about it: kids are now being exposed to sensitive topics at a much younger age with Ipods, tablets, and smart phones all at their fingertips. My first cell phone was a flip phone, and it was a privilege to go on the super slow Internet to buy a new ringtone because it cost a couple of dollars just to load the Internet on my phone.
I couldn’t just hop on the Internet at my leisure, which meant I wasn’t going to be constantly exposed to the sex, fame, and fortune based culture that we live in as a society. There are advertisements everywhere promoting products and people that emulate at least one of the abovementioned topics.
Think about the last time you went on the Internet for any reason.
Why were you online?
Maybe, you were online shopping.
Maybe, you were reading the news.
Maybe, you were catching up with your friends on social media.
I’d be willing to bet, though, that the reason why you went on the Internet ended up becoming clouded by the countless advertisements that are thrown at us the second we hit the online scene.
Let’s take a look at some of the advertisements being thrown at children when they visit the Internet.
Here is an advertisement for New York Fries. (And trust me, the advertisement is for New York Fries—or at least that’s what they’re telling everyone)
If you ask me, this so called advertisement looks like more over sexualized propaganda put out by companies. While it may increase their French fry sales, this advertisement has little (if anything) to do with what the company is actually trying to promote.
See, the potential increase in French fry sales stems from nothing other than the strategic focus on a model in the photo shoot instead of the French fries.
“Real Fries In A Fake World.” If that’s what you’re trying to sell maybe you should focus a bit more on the fries and a little less on the fake.
Unfortunately, though, the focus is on the fake—and the fake sells.
Today’s teenagers are having stuff like this thrown in their face constantly, which is a big influence on their minds. When something is presented as a “societal norm” it can greatly influence the expectations that people, especially teenagers, put on themselves.
This leads to the IPhone, Snapchat, sexy Halloween costume culture that is the reality for a lot of teenagers in today’s society. Check out the other advertisements below to get a more in depth look at what technology has put right at everyone’s fingertips.
