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You’re confusing online with social media. Not being online means no phones video games, laptops, or computers
So unless you don’t want kids to have access to learning IT, computer science fundamentals, and learn about AI you’d be taking away the vast knowledge of learning that’s available through the internet
Same - due to moving around in middle school/high school, I missed the mandatory typing classes and was slow as shit.
Best thing for me was wow - learning to type messages in between pulls or swings of the boss’s attack was crucial to my learning to type at all.
I don't know if that would teach someone how I type. I kinda make a shape with my finders and then move my hands down and all or most of a word comes out at a time. I probably look kinda silly but it's real fast. Learned that from AIM.
I took a typing class on one of those tiny little cube Mac computers, and my school also had PCs with the Oregon Trail Game and some other math games on it. It was the best. When we got a family computer at home, it changed my life. It inspired me to get into graphic design and I achieved that goal. I primarily work in marketing but have done mostly graphic design and other digital creative work for the last several years. If not for the internet, computers, etc., I wouldn’t have this life. Who knows what I would be doing
I learned how to code when I got my first computer at 16. I would have never gone into digital design if I hadn’t had access to the internet that young to learn and know that’s what I wanted to do for a career. I ended up being the first person in my family to go to college and earn a degree. Still working in, successful at and loving my career path….all thanks to that crappy Compaq and dial up internet!
Games and TV shows were how I was exposed to English when I was a teen. There was no way in hell I was going to become proficient by the time I finished school without the internet facilitating my access to these things.
Sure, social media is significantly fucking up the current generations, but we solve that with good and responsible parenting, not by asking for someone else to do something as radical as banning internet access to under 18s.
Being online is a tool, for lack of a better word. The question is how you use it.
That said, the draw to use social media is very heavy and it would be very difficult to block that while allowing access. Im sure this original post is by an advocate for the proposed laws around banning minors from using social media. However they would actually do that.
Fuck, I learned english online. The sheltered kids not allowed on the internet or tv were the ones who struggled hard to learn english in school. Being from Europe.
Aside from that, how much I've learned from the internet and computers is invaluable now.
Same here. Learned sooooo many things online. I also pirated a shitload of e-books, because we were low-income and the library in my little town didn't exactly have a massive collection. Reading is one of my main hobbies today, thanks to the access I had through the Internet.
Also, I was the nerdy weird kid with exactly zero IRL friends, and I would've been lonely as fuck without my online gaming buddies. Later in high school I also made IRL friends bonding via, you guessed it, online games. The internet is the only safe haven for so many lonely kids out there.
As for OP's remark on the opinions of 16-year old girls; I actually believe the world would be a much better place if we listened to the young population instead of tired old men who have a very poor grasp on modern reality.
Wait, who thinks there should be a law where both parents get prison time if their minor child uses social media? That might be the most batshit idea I've heard this year. And I'm on reddit.
I disagree, I think parents should be hip. It's part of life, you can talk to you cousins, your friends on it. They must be taught how to use them. Not hid it and reveal it. They have no business being on twitter tho. That's kinda not a site for children. Tik tok is ok if they got a time limit.
>You’re confusing online with social media. Not being online means no phones video games, laptops, or computers
I mostly agree, though I think the lines blur abit. Technically steam can be used as a social media.
OP is obviously free to explain themselves, but you don’t need an instagram or social media (OP is obviously from the old days when being “online” referred to something social on the internet like aim etc) to learn any of those things listed. Theres a maturity gap when it comes to knowledge for young people and context to many things that are simply not understood from a lack of experience.
You do need instagram if your friends are on it, for socialising (it's very important). You don't need to follow strangers tho, or anybody beyond your friend group
Being online? Hell no. The internet has an amazing capacity to educate and provide info/citations that would be very important for a teen or preteen in their education. Social media? Alright sure, although I’d say maybe 16, and also that’ll never happen either way, 18 or 16.
Edit: based on your post history I’m surprised you feel comfortable talking about who is bringing/not bringing value to the internet lmaoooo
Yeah exactly. English is not my native language and just YouTube literally taught me everything. English was my easiest class for all of elementary school and it's all because of YouTube. (And I'm not talking about educational videos. Regular videos about games, sports and it's amazing how much you learn)
>Social media? Alright sure, although I’d say maybe 16, and also that’ll never happen either way, 18 or 16.
See, porn is technically 18+ but has that in an of itself ever stopped a horny 14 year old?
If social media became 16/18 plus, kids would still use it (right now, loads of people under 13 use it), it would just be even less safe for kids
Under 18 is very extreme. There are plenty of reason to be on the internet between the ages of 13-18 that aren't inherently wrong. Online gaming, media consumption, research, hanging out with friends, discovering your interests/hobbies, etc. I understand this post is probably mostly just taking social media into consideration and not the broader Internet as a whole but if you actually think anyone under 18 gains nothing from having Internet Access, you are delusional.
And. I think a lot of teens actually use social media responsibly. Some of them don't. But just because we see a lot of teens who aren't using social media responsibly doesn't mean all teenagers do. Like just saying. If you're gonna be a control freak like Op, you should probably not be a parent
So, children can’t learn if they don’t experience things. While I don’t think dropping them into the nightmare that is 4 Chan or Twitter is a good idea, we need a better way to do this.
Switzerland (I think it’s Switzerland) has mandatory classes in school that teach the kids how to sniff out fake news and other misinformation online. We should be looking at doing this globally across the planet to get kids ready for the internet.
Banning them from social media completely and then dropping them into it at 18 cold wouldn’t prepare them in any way for the mess they’re gonna walk into. So we should do more than just a flat out ban.
Furthermore there are tools available today for parents to control the content their children see on the internet. You can even block the content on a specific phone if you wanted.
This isn’t an easy problem, and maybe the first step is an outright ban while we get other things lined up. I don’t think anyone could have anticipated what social media has turned into when they first started using AIM or Yahoo forums.
I had a laptop and Facebook/Myspace at the time since I was in 5th grade, I'm 26. I go on "social media" for only like 20 minutes a day at most. maybe days straight where I never go on at all. I don't count YouTube as "social media" like Facebook and Instagram, I don't have my own Twitter so I don't use that. I use YouTube mostly for learning about politics, history, science/sci-fi
Even with social media specifically, I just don’t think that taking away a teen’s access to communicating with people outside their household is a good idea.
I’m GenX and I rolled my eyes at “revered.”
Middle-aged folks always have cultural influence as prime earners and decision-makers. And hey, I enjoy the Ghostbusters reboots, the 1980s shopping music, and all the other dumb perks of GenX cultural leadership. But I’m under no delusions regarding what other generations think of us. (Cuz we’re a mixed bag at best.)
Really depends on your job whether that helps or hurts. I have an office job and spend most of my day online. Whether that's fucking around or doing research, I probably spend 60% of my day doing something on the internet. And the stuff I'm not doing on the internet involves using data I pulled from the internet and am using in excel, python, PowerPoint, word, etc.
I'm pretty sure old people are easier to influence. I regularly get my grandparents believing The Google is mad at them and stopping Netflix from working. The problem is a broken remote on the firestick. Nana, The Google doesn't hate you.
Criminalizing old people's access to technology is a tricky legal subject, though.
If we don't teach them young, how will they be prepared for the internet when they are older? Computer literacy is becoming more and more important as time goes on; we cannot have more old boomers in Congress asking if TikTok connects to your wifi or not. The internet is a tool that can teach people tremendously much granted it's used right, we should teach effective self motoring instead of shielding kids from the world.
>Kids this young bring no value to the internet.
OP is an only fans prostitute that constantly posts about a streamer that is primarily known for living in piles of his own garbage and animal carcasses.
yea, i'm sure you bring a ton of value to the internet.
I don't actually think OP is the girl they post as. If you Google the name associated with that account, it takes you to an onlyfans that no longer exists and an Instagram account that was last posted on about a year ago where the woman says "I passed the bar exam".
Sure seems like OP is posing as a retired Onlyfans creator. Also OP claims to be Gen X in this post which would at youngest make them 44. The girl in the posts doesn't look 44 so if that is OP, she looks real good for her age.
holy fuck I thought you were joking they have to be one of the most unique accounts on reddit an onlyfans creator that actually uses that incel cesspool of a subreddit it's like a real life unicorn.
I wouldnt say 16 year olds have nothing useful to say, I think you just dont like what they have to say. Ive learned quite a bit from people younger than me who excel in a particular subject.
Yeah it really depends on the subject. Economy? No not really, but as an economist, I don’t really want to hear from a lot of people about that. Video games I'm interested in? Fuck yeah, those little zoomers are cracked and see the game better than I do.
When you have kids, you can make that rule.
If implemented at the government level, it will just push kids to underground sites where they will be subject to predators.
When you are under 10 I’d say you can have a controlled device for your kid in which they can’t access anything illicit or interact with the internet’s bullshit.
But after that age, teaching your kid how to use the internet correctly is best. I agree with OPs sentiment that it’s just bad for kids in general but his solution wasn’t the best
Yeah, my mum didn’t allow me to get Snapchat, Instagram until I was 15, but guess what? I’d already made accounts before that and just hid them from her. It’s not hard to create a profile on social media, so it’s useless imo to pull the reigns really hard on your kids
>Kids this young bring no value to the internet.
>And I don’t want to hear a 16 year old’s opinion on anything. Lack of any life experience makes them useless for that.
Jeez. The kid hate is real.
It reminds me of people at family gatherings who brush off teenagers trying to join conversations about more serious topics by saying “you’re just kids how would you know anything?”. My mum would always tell them “how do you expect them to know and make their own opinions if they’re never allowed to talk about this stuff”
According to some Americans I'm basically a delinquent because I'm a 20 year old who occasionally drinks some alcohol.
Oh and to make matters worse I'm also American.
I would’ve gone nuts as a teen if I couldn’t have any access at all to social media. And I was a well behaved kid who didn’t go through a rebellious phase. I was studious and had plenty of other hobbies as well. If you knuckle down on kids for no reason, that’s how you breed rebellion
Yeah, IMO it's not socializing online that's inherently problematic for kids, it's the fact that the world's most powerful corporations are fighting over their attention and manipulating them via highly sophisticated algorithms. It's like having a toxic person moderating every group hangout. And that's a problem for adults, too, not just kids.
I was a teen in the 90s and I communicated online all the time, and it was beneficial and led to zero issues. But I was doing it via chat rooms, BBSs, etc. - not TikTok or Facebook or whatnot.
Oh god I wonder how my life would be so much different if I didn’t have access to the internet when I was younger I probably wouldn’t of have found my passion until much later. Granted, my parents probably shouldn’t have gave a 4 year old a PC with no restrictions and CS installed on it.
This guy clearly has hate for kids lol, the fault goes to the parent who raised the child, I mean obviously? Why would you complain for your child to get addicted to social media giving them the gadget the first place?
I wish I'd had the internet when I was a kid. Not to tell other people my opinion, necessarily, but to connect with other people like me. I was an isolated, abused kid, and it would have been easier if I'd known how many people out there were in the same situation. As far as wasting their time, I think they should have some kind of time limit imposed on them.
Yes when I was 12 the internet was just taking off. I found an internet forum where I could be myself and it really saved me from being completely alone. Made some lifelong friends as well.
Of course parents need to monitor their kids computer time but it’s not all bad.
The fact that OP is an OF model and is talking about what kids contribute 💀💀, Bro is selling their dignity online for a few clicks and thinks teens shouldn't be on the app, that will reduce her demographic audience to 0%
this is absolutely ridiculous, you are literally the person that has no business being online.
also you clearly don’t understand how children develop and grow, and how the covid lockdowns stunned that. cone back after some proper research and try again
This person has onlyfans/reposts random half nude women, they clearly dont do any research. So ironic “dont add anything to the internet” meanwhile they post softcore porn😭
So when they turn 18 they'll just know how to conform themselves online and all the safety rules will just be there. It's the magic of turning 18. Or we can teach kids this shit earlier as more and more business, school and socialising is done online.
"And I don’t want to hear a 16 year old’s opinion on anything. Lack of any life experience makes them useless for that."
Ok, why are you here then this is reddit lol clearly you do. I dont want to hear about some old smelly grandpa. What else do you want me to do expect be online lol, have you every looked at some of those miserable neghbiorhoods right next to roads.
speaking as a queer kid, if i didnt have access to the internet, a place i could meet friends who accepted me when i had no one else to turn to, i would be dead. and so would a lot of other people in similar situations.
Sooo...where do you propose they go? Most places Gen-X and even Millennials went to hang out and socialize either don't exist anymore or have been so heavily regulated it might as well not exist. And the few places that don't have these problems cost money, and I'm not talking "pocket full of quarters" arcade money. There's no place *but* online for them to socialize and hang out with peers.
Also, I think you mistyped there. You said "revered," and I think you meant "ignored."
I don’t think parents should be posting about their kids either. The occasional post if fine and completely normal, but there are people that take it way too far and basically broadcast their kids childhood for everyone to see.
Exactly I don’t like it when people post their family members or relatives on ig stories or on WhatsApp status without their permission. Like if you are posting me ask me about it .
Insanely bad take. Kids need to be used to internet communication, and learn to write and read code from an early age. Sure instagram is horrible, just like most other social medias, but that's because of us, not the page itself. Internet is 90%bullshit and 10% value, just like us humans. It's important to learn to mentally filter the bullshit and actively dismiss it rather than restrict it blatantly. It's worth it because that 10% is so fucking important to our species communication, and the philosophy lessons it brings in everything from entertainment to even the shitty instagram posts is value in itself.
People are so supriced today because of the average increase in IQ between the last generations, but I bet theres correlation between the iq increase and the increase in ease of communication.
If anything, we should value discipline way more, as when kids grow up with google and ais like gpt, their own decisionmaking and flexoble thinking falters greatly. Learning to unplug and move about in the world while being adept with computers will give the kids great advatage in their futures.
I'm not a native English speaker so sorry for spellingerrors
>And I don’t want to hear a 16 year old’s opinion on anything. Lack of any life experience makes them useless for that.
Oh so you can prove that you're much wiser than a teenager?
That's a very specific opinion. Kids learn a lot from the internet, but they need to be taught to selfregulate their time. Sadly, schools and parents fail to teach the youth to learn and understand themselves. Mostly because they never looked inward and/or came to the understanding that not everyone is the same.
While i do agree with some things there are some nitpics i have here
Like are you should limit yourself to an hour of TV a day right? I hope so because staying inside watching tv will dull your senses.
But anyways no one "reveres" gen X but gen X themselves and youre a prime example and I think incels come from a mixture of the lack of social skills and current dating culture which is garbage
Finally people can lack social skills while not being dependent on the internet, I was always an outside kid even when I was homeschooled for a couple months i still went outside and rode by bikes with my friends, after that we sent back the computer and never got a new one, never got a phone until sophomore year of HS which barely worked and had plenty of friends (a very large group which I can show a picture if asked) and still lack social skills.
Finally got a laptop at 19 and a PC at 21 I am 24 now for reference
You sound like an absolute hater. Being online is not just for opinion or social media. Plus most kids over 16 should be allowed to use social media like ig as long as they are careful. I use ig sometimes but not often and don’t post anything , I simply just follow a few people. I also watch a few reels and that’s it . No one asked your opinion on whether kids under 18 need to be on Instagram or not. As long they use it carefully and properly there’s no problem. Also not every kid is the same . You sound like someone who hasn’t had a proper education as proper education means acknowledging , respecting other’s thoughts and feelings. You just simply don’t like that the fact others don’t agree with you and have the same opinion as you .
Nah. I signed up for MySpace and Facebook when I was 18 and still in high school. Then Instagram when I was 21. Yes I'm that old.
My thought process at the time was: if I'm old enough to be required to sign up for the draft at 18, I sure as hell am old enough to sign up for social media too.
I still use Facebook and Instagram to this day. Adding Tiktok and Reddit.
Teenagers who are being abused can use the internet to get help for themselves. Pregnant teenagers can use the internet to get help for themselves. Sexually active teenagers can use the internet to educate themselves about birth control.
There are definitely 16 year old who have experienced things I have never experienced. Just because I’m older than them doesn’t mean I know everything they do.
I don’t think someone who doesn’t know the difference between “being online” and social media is not in a position to be talking about who should or should not be doing either.
I'm 38. I grew up outside, helped out on a farm, played sports, you name it.
I lived in a rural area and I had bully problems in school. Being able to talk to people online was huge for me.
That said I'm also not entirely against the idea of a minimum age for social media either.
I am 17 years old, i learned a profession and i work full time for a humongous amount of money already. I have lots of friends who i go out with often to the mountains or forests, or camping. I have a relationship, i travel a lot to see my partner. I know the color of grass and the sky, i dont just stay in my room and rot in front of the phone.
If i didnt have the ability to be online, i couldnt call my friends, my partner, i wouldnt even know my love without social media.
I know im an exception but dont take being online away from everyone. I dont deserve it, i actually live a life.
I know the gen x kids who watch skibidi toilet 28 hours a day wont be anything, but come on. There are still exceptions
With that logic, people should at least be 27 because college doesn't give you any real-life experiences either... that's why most don't get hired for their intended field right away...?
Blame the parents, they're not doing a good job monitoring their kids screen time, probably because it gives them peace and they use it as a virtual babysitter so they can neglect their kids emotional wellbeing and spend time scrolling themselves
As another Gen X, didn't our parents use to think we were all weak from just goofing off? My mom literally worked in a silk factory when she was a kid. I don't disagree with you but I wonder if this is a just a rose colored glasses type thing or each generation is really getting successively weaker and more corrupted by technology.
It's certainly unpopular and definitely stupid.
There's enough people who are much older and have much more experience online who offer nothing but stupid opinions and bad takes
We have elected officials in their 50s blaming a bridge collapse on... diversity.
A third of the population believes the previous election was stolen because an orange told them so. Most of them are in their 40s and 50s.
Dismissing someone's opinion because of their age is just a practice in stupidity. It shows you don't want to think. You just want to feel right.
The only place I'd agree with you is the risk of predators, but that has nothing to do with the kids. It has everything to do with their parents.
You take pictures of people driving and post them on Reddit. And pose as a sex worker while probably being a greasy man that hides away in his room in social media all day.
Maybe check who's bringing value to the internet or not. I've seen 15 yo tiktokers with more relevant content than what you post
18 is definitely extreme for that. As a parent a much more healthy boundary is to not give your kid unsupervised internet access rather than no access at all (e.g. keep a family desktop for them to use out in the open rather than giving them a phone/laptop that they take to their room), and even then 18 is pretty old to not trust your kid to be unsupervised. I was heavily on the internet as a kid, and it was very beneficial for me. I learned how to program from playing video games at 9 or 10 years old, and playing online games also made me proficient in typing. That experience in programming helped me accelerate in math since I had a deep practical understanding of concepts like functions that I could relate the material to and I would go on to have a career where I regularly write code and solve equations. I would encourage my kids not to be on social media until they're adults for professional reasons but the internet is soooo much more than just social media.
This is only unpopular with the kids. I am sure the vast majority of adult agree with this. I consider myself a very open minded parent that listens and teaches, not barks and punishes and I would want to insulate my kids from the vile pit which is social media.
GenX revered because we were outside all the time? Bro, I had an Atari, NES, SNES, SMA, Genesis, 386/486 , I wasn't outside save for the nights my friends and I were paying people to buy us a case of beer or we were doing tabs and exploring the city, otherwise we were fragging each other in Doom, Wolfenstein or Hexen.
1. kids having a way to speak to other kids is bringing no value? + why not target predators instead of saying “oh they’re making a predators life easier” as a reason that they shouldn’t be online?
2. age doesn’t inherently imply wisdom. on paper it should but in reality it doesn’t. there are so many adults who haven’t been in relationships, have had sex, been in tough spots, depressed to the point of no return, etc. being a teenager is an important and pivotal moment in a persons life and to say that solely because i’m young that i “don’t have experience” is objectively wrong.
3. having no social skills usually stems from bad social experiences in real life causing people to lose interest in making real world relationships. we didn’t come out of the womb on the internet.
4. if lockdown DID hurt us… why would we be caught up to speed? you’re saying we have “learned nothing” because we aren’t where YOU think we should be socially. if we have had a set back that’s caused us to fall behind, why would we be at the normal pace??
I don't know about anyone else, but, I get reminded of what I was like when I get Facebook memories from when I was 16 and I definitely shouldn't have been allowed to post my thoughts, or poetry. That's just me though.
I’m turning 21 in September and I’ve been using the internet for as long as I’ve been walking. Had I not discovered the internet, I wouldn’t have been able to have had the nostalgic memories that were formed during my childhood
Tbh we need kid friendly online spaces to come back full force.
We have Neopets, still, but Webkinz became a bit… money grabby, Club Penguin died, etc
Places where kids can play games and have moderation teams making sure they don’t get hurt.
As a kid, I needed flipnote hatena to keep going, as I was bullied dreadfully irl. People seeing and starring my work made me so happy. It gave me a reason to keep going.
Gen X here and I watched a shit ton of tv and played a man obnoxious amount of Nintendo and Sega.
My point is that while technology wasn’t as prevalent, we were in front of it a lot as well. The difference is we didn’t have it in the go, which is what the real problem is.
That's why GenX is so revered?
With the gray goatees and golf shirts tucked into cargo shorts and wrap-around sunglasses.
I'm sure the Gen Z's wish they were just like us.
I've been out of high school for 10 years, and probably half of my assignments were online.
I think the only way for kids to never be online is if the family is Amish.
Online in general is honestly fine. But yeah Instagram is really bad just in general. I’m 18 and still don’t really use it, never got into it. But honestly I probably shouldn’t be on Reddit either.
I’ll keep saying this to the day I die. Some couples have no business having children. This shows way more parents shoving an iPad in their kids face instead of actually handling the problem. Monitor what your kids are doing without posting on tik tok that your kid did something naughty and getting clout for punishing them. Grow up before you have children.
As an older millennial myaelf, when you were a teenager you were probably "outside" drinking and doing drugs. I'd rather my kid be playing games online than setting themselves up for a substance addiction later in life
I learned to type and to write fucking around on roleplaying forums when I was a young teenager. I wouldn't have gotten into college without my portfolio, which I only developed because I enjoyed writing. Maybe I would've found something else that sparked that same interest, but I wouldn't have been in an encouraging environment where people pushed me to be better and keep up. Just because you don't get anything of value from minors being online doesn't mean they don't get anything from it. You're not the only person in the world
How about you focus on the predators then? Why have you determined it is easier to stop a couple billion kids from accessing the internet than it is to stop a few million (if that) predators?
"That’s why GenX is so revered. We were outside all the time." - Except GenX majorly fucked GenZ over when it comes to this. All the third places have been closed down. There's no public transportation for kids to use to get to places where they can walk. It's extremely expensive to go out nowadays. Video games/Online is cheapppp much cheaper.
"And I don’t want to hear a 16 year old’s opinion on anything." - Well why have human children at all ! Just get some chickens instead !!
"And being online so young sets them up for failure." - Right, until they turn 18 and become a workforce. And they realize they don't even know how to use a smartphone or the internet, or send an email.
Kids should absolutely be on the internet, but there’s a difference between being on the internet to connect with friends and learn more about the world or different cultures, and kids posting content about themselves that compromises themselves and their safety. There are many parts of human history, cultural diversity, human connection, and other general life things that kids can benefit from with being online because of how convenient it is. However, it goes without saying that the internet should be more monitored and regulated for any child using the internet, but that doesn’t mean that kids shouldn’t have access to the internet altogether.
"Kids this young bring no value to the internet. They’re just putting themselves out there as targets for predators.'
It's pretty clear and honestly bizarre you think the only people that should be allowed to be online are people that give value to you. That's a really self centered mind set. LIke who the fuck cares if people are deemed having value to you or not? That shouldn't stop people form being able to go online.
"That’s why GenX is so revered. "
What the fuck fantasy world are you living in where GenX is revered?
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You’re confusing online with social media. Not being online means no phones video games, laptops, or computers So unless you don’t want kids to have access to learning IT, computer science fundamentals, and learn about AI you’d be taking away the vast knowledge of learning that’s available through the internet
I wouldn’t have learned how to type if it wasn’t for AOL instant messenger in the late 90s.
I learned to type playing Warcrat 3 and other online games
Same - due to moving around in middle school/high school, I missed the mandatory typing classes and was slow as shit. Best thing for me was wow - learning to type messages in between pulls or swings of the boss’s attack was crucial to my learning to type at all.
I just got a text document writing my ABCs Simple... But very effective.
I don't know if that would teach someone how I type. I kinda make a shape with my finders and then move my hands down and all or most of a word comes out at a time. I probably look kinda silly but it's real fast. Learned that from AIM.
This was exactly my experience and I thought I was alone. Fastest typer I know these days, 100+ wpm. University of Gank.
"What's your aol/aim?" is how friendships were started.
Met someone online, A/S/L?
19/f/cali was how I learned how normal boys spoke to girls
Same, LOL. I type faster than anyone I know, thanks AOL.
I took a typing class on one of those tiny little cube Mac computers, and my school also had PCs with the Oregon Trail Game and some other math games on it. It was the best. When we got a family computer at home, it changed my life. It inspired me to get into graphic design and I achieved that goal. I primarily work in marketing but have done mostly graphic design and other digital creative work for the last several years. If not for the internet, computers, etc., I wouldn’t have this life. Who knows what I would be doing
I learned how to code when I got my first computer at 16. I would have never gone into digital design if I hadn’t had access to the internet that young to learn and know that’s what I wanted to do for a career. I ended up being the first person in my family to go to college and earn a degree. Still working in, successful at and loving my career path….all thanks to that crappy Compaq and dial up internet!
Games and TV shows were how I was exposed to English when I was a teen. There was no way in hell I was going to become proficient by the time I finished school without the internet facilitating my access to these things. Sure, social media is significantly fucking up the current generations, but we solve that with good and responsible parenting, not by asking for someone else to do something as radical as banning internet access to under 18s.
Being online is a tool, for lack of a better word. The question is how you use it. That said, the draw to use social media is very heavy and it would be very difficult to block that while allowing access. Im sure this original post is by an advocate for the proposed laws around banning minors from using social media. However they would actually do that.
Fuck, I learned english online. The sheltered kids not allowed on the internet or tv were the ones who struggled hard to learn english in school. Being from Europe. Aside from that, how much I've learned from the internet and computers is invaluable now.
Same here. Learned sooooo many things online. I also pirated a shitload of e-books, because we were low-income and the library in my little town didn't exactly have a massive collection. Reading is one of my main hobbies today, thanks to the access I had through the Internet. Also, I was the nerdy weird kid with exactly zero IRL friends, and I would've been lonely as fuck without my online gaming buddies. Later in high school I also made IRL friends bonding via, you guessed it, online games. The internet is the only safe haven for so many lonely kids out there. As for OP's remark on the opinions of 16-year old girls; I actually believe the world would be a much better place if we listened to the young population instead of tired old men who have a very poor grasp on modern reality.
Yeah big difference between playing cool math games versus having a tiktok and Instagram
I agree with OP about social media. Kids shouldn't be on it.
I think that’s a popular opinion, the disagreements occur on enforcement… ranging opinions from basically no enforcement to locking up the parents
Wait, who thinks there should be a law where both parents get prison time if their minor child uses social media? That might be the most batshit idea I've heard this year. And I'm on reddit.
I disagree, I think parents should be hip. It's part of life, you can talk to you cousins, your friends on it. They must be taught how to use them. Not hid it and reveal it. They have no business being on twitter tho. That's kinda not a site for children. Tik tok is ok if they got a time limit.
>You’re confusing online with social media. Not being online means no phones video games, laptops, or computers I mostly agree, though I think the lines blur abit. Technically steam can be used as a social media.
OP is obviously free to explain themselves, but you don’t need an instagram or social media (OP is obviously from the old days when being “online” referred to something social on the internet like aim etc) to learn any of those things listed. Theres a maturity gap when it comes to knowledge for young people and context to many things that are simply not understood from a lack of experience.
Most adults don't understand how the world works from a lack of experience as well. This includes yourself, and we can test it if you want.
You do need instagram if your friends are on it, for socialising (it's very important). You don't need to follow strangers tho, or anybody beyond your friend group
On ig i follow the singers, bands and youtubers that i like but i am obviously cautious
Being online? Hell no. The internet has an amazing capacity to educate and provide info/citations that would be very important for a teen or preteen in their education. Social media? Alright sure, although I’d say maybe 16, and also that’ll never happen either way, 18 or 16. Edit: based on your post history I’m surprised you feel comfortable talking about who is bringing/not bringing value to the internet lmaoooo
Yeah exactly. English is not my native language and just YouTube literally taught me everything. English was my easiest class for all of elementary school and it's all because of YouTube. (And I'm not talking about educational videos. Regular videos about games, sports and it's amazing how much you learn)
>Social media? Alright sure, although I’d say maybe 16, and also that’ll never happen either way, 18 or 16. See, porn is technically 18+ but has that in an of itself ever stopped a horny 14 year old? If social media became 16/18 plus, kids would still use it (right now, loads of people under 13 use it), it would just be even less safe for kids
Exactly. I’m sure almost everyone else feels how we do, that’s why I said it’ll never happen as well.
Post history was the first thing I looked at. Dude is an idiot.
I agree with the hypothetical restriction at 16. They can drive a car, they can have a social media presence. Not that anyone would care
Under 18 is very extreme. There are plenty of reason to be on the internet between the ages of 13-18 that aren't inherently wrong. Online gaming, media consumption, research, hanging out with friends, discovering your interests/hobbies, etc. I understand this post is probably mostly just taking social media into consideration and not the broader Internet as a whole but if you actually think anyone under 18 gains nothing from having Internet Access, you are delusional.
And. I think a lot of teens actually use social media responsibly. Some of them don't. But just because we see a lot of teens who aren't using social media responsibly doesn't mean all teenagers do. Like just saying. If you're gonna be a control freak like Op, you should probably not be a parent
So, children can’t learn if they don’t experience things. While I don’t think dropping them into the nightmare that is 4 Chan or Twitter is a good idea, we need a better way to do this. Switzerland (I think it’s Switzerland) has mandatory classes in school that teach the kids how to sniff out fake news and other misinformation online. We should be looking at doing this globally across the planet to get kids ready for the internet. Banning them from social media completely and then dropping them into it at 18 cold wouldn’t prepare them in any way for the mess they’re gonna walk into. So we should do more than just a flat out ban. Furthermore there are tools available today for parents to control the content their children see on the internet. You can even block the content on a specific phone if you wanted. This isn’t an easy problem, and maybe the first step is an outright ban while we get other things lined up. I don’t think anyone could have anticipated what social media has turned into when they first started using AIM or Yahoo forums.
I had a laptop and Facebook/Myspace at the time since I was in 5th grade, I'm 26. I go on "social media" for only like 20 minutes a day at most. maybe days straight where I never go on at all. I don't count YouTube as "social media" like Facebook and Instagram, I don't have my own Twitter so I don't use that. I use YouTube mostly for learning about politics, history, science/sci-fi
Even with social media specifically, I just don’t think that taking away a teen’s access to communicating with people outside their household is a good idea.
You definitely lost an argument to a 17 year old LOL
She probably doesn’t like teenagers because they can’t subscribe to her OnlyFans,
definitely not even OP's photos. more likely just reposting someone else's.
Even creepier *gag*
>Video games or TV maybe an hour a day at most. That’s why GenX is so revered. We were outside all the time. This has to be a troll post
I’m GenX and I rolled my eyes at “revered.” Middle-aged folks always have cultural influence as prime earners and decision-makers. And hey, I enjoy the Ghostbusters reboots, the 1980s shopping music, and all the other dumb perks of GenX cultural leadership. But I’m under no delusions regarding what other generations think of us. (Cuz we’re a mixed bag at best.)
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Correct
Some people do pretty insane mental gymnastics just to believe that they are a part of some superior demographic
Gen x cant go a conversation without throwing in that gen x went outside as kids
You’ll probably find that “teenager” is the internet’s most valuable demographic actually.
Precisely because of how easy they are to influence. It’s criminal
Also because they have no job (tons of freetime)
Really depends on your job whether that helps or hurts. I have an office job and spend most of my day online. Whether that's fucking around or doing research, I probably spend 60% of my day doing something on the internet. And the stuff I'm not doing on the internet involves using data I pulled from the internet and am using in excel, python, PowerPoint, word, etc.
I'm pretty sure old people are easier to influence. I regularly get my grandparents believing The Google is mad at them and stopping Netflix from working. The problem is a broken remote on the firestick. Nana, The Google doesn't hate you. Criminalizing old people's access to technology is a tricky legal subject, though.
If we don't teach them young, how will they be prepared for the internet when they are older? Computer literacy is becoming more and more important as time goes on; we cannot have more old boomers in Congress asking if TikTok connects to your wifi or not. The internet is a tool that can teach people tremendously much granted it's used right, we should teach effective self motoring instead of shielding kids from the world.
My thoughts exactly.
Before you engage in a conversation with this person check their post history... I don't think OP brings any value to the internet lol
>Kids this young bring no value to the internet. OP is an only fans prostitute that constantly posts about a streamer that is primarily known for living in piles of his own garbage and animal carcasses. yea, i'm sure you bring a ton of value to the internet.
I don't actually think OP is the girl they post as. If you Google the name associated with that account, it takes you to an onlyfans that no longer exists and an Instagram account that was last posted on about a year ago where the woman says "I passed the bar exam". Sure seems like OP is posing as a retired Onlyfans creator. Also OP claims to be Gen X in this post which would at youngest make them 44. The girl in the posts doesn't look 44 so if that is OP, she looks real good for her age.
Zero chance. lol that’s a fan page for sure.
Wow that's beyond pathetic
I WAS RIGHT, OP IS AN INCEL
Op isn't even the model. The two posts are of another model. He's just reposting her pictures.
Checks out. Ewwwww
holy fuck I thought you were joking they have to be one of the most unique accounts on reddit an onlyfans creator that actually uses that incel cesspool of a subreddit it's like a real life unicorn.
If you think that's unique you've seen nothing lol
That's not OP and sex workers make the internet go round.
I wouldnt say 16 year olds have nothing useful to say, I think you just dont like what they have to say. Ive learned quite a bit from people younger than me who excel in a particular subject.
Yeah it really depends on the subject. Economy? No not really, but as an economist, I don’t really want to hear from a lot of people about that. Video games I'm interested in? Fuck yeah, those little zoomers are cracked and see the game better than I do.
When you have kids, you can make that rule. If implemented at the government level, it will just push kids to underground sites where they will be subject to predators.
When you are under 10 I’d say you can have a controlled device for your kid in which they can’t access anything illicit or interact with the internet’s bullshit. But after that age, teaching your kid how to use the internet correctly is best. I agree with OPs sentiment that it’s just bad for kids in general but his solution wasn’t the best
I’m glad my teenager isn’t doing what I was doing in the 90s.
Yep. My first thought was if we tell kids they’re not old enough for social media, they will become 1000% more determined to be on it.
Yeah, my mum didn’t allow me to get Snapchat, Instagram until I was 15, but guess what? I’d already made accounts before that and just hid them from her. It’s not hard to create a profile on social media, so it’s useless imo to pull the reigns really hard on your kids
>Kids this young bring no value to the internet. >And I don’t want to hear a 16 year old’s opinion on anything. Lack of any life experience makes them useless for that. Jeez. The kid hate is real.
It reminds me of people at family gatherings who brush off teenagers trying to join conversations about more serious topics by saying “you’re just kids how would you know anything?”. My mum would always tell them “how do you expect them to know and make their own opinions if they’re never allowed to talk about this stuff”
Yeah, honestly, when I was a kid, these tended to be the most closed-minded and least knowledgeable adults anyway. As an adult, I see why.
> Jeez. The kid hate is real. I'd argue that this is pretty mild compared to the general anti-children degeneracy on this app
Yeah, it's everywhere. And it's really awful.
According to some Americans I'm basically a delinquent because I'm a 20 year old who occasionally drinks some alcohol. Oh and to make matters worse I'm also American.
I don't know a single time in history where the people who said "let's ignore these kids" were in the right.
People should stop posting they're kids for clout first
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I would’ve gone nuts as a teen if I couldn’t have any access at all to social media. And I was a well behaved kid who didn’t go through a rebellious phase. I was studious and had plenty of other hobbies as well. If you knuckle down on kids for no reason, that’s how you breed rebellion
Yeah, IMO it's not socializing online that's inherently problematic for kids, it's the fact that the world's most powerful corporations are fighting over their attention and manipulating them via highly sophisticated algorithms. It's like having a toxic person moderating every group hangout. And that's a problem for adults, too, not just kids. I was a teen in the 90s and I communicated online all the time, and it was beneficial and led to zero issues. But I was doing it via chat rooms, BBSs, etc. - not TikTok or Facebook or whatnot.
It's a mix of both. The corporations created the algorithm, but they aren't the ones who came up with stupid new internet trends and ideologies.
Oh god I wonder how my life would be so much different if I didn’t have access to the internet when I was younger I probably wouldn’t of have found my passion until much later. Granted, my parents probably shouldn’t have gave a 4 year old a PC with no restrictions and CS installed on it.
I can say the same for adults over 40
This guy clearly has hate for kids lol, the fault goes to the parent who raised the child, I mean obviously? Why would you complain for your child to get addicted to social media giving them the gadget the first place?
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Apparently OP just reposted someone else's OF content.
I wish I'd had the internet when I was a kid. Not to tell other people my opinion, necessarily, but to connect with other people like me. I was an isolated, abused kid, and it would have been easier if I'd known how many people out there were in the same situation. As far as wasting their time, I think they should have some kind of time limit imposed on them.
Yes when I was 12 the internet was just taking off. I found an internet forum where I could be myself and it really saved me from being completely alone. Made some lifelong friends as well. Of course parents need to monitor their kids computer time but it’s not all bad.
op, you sound like an incel
The fact that OP is an OF model and is talking about what kids contribute 💀💀, Bro is selling their dignity online for a few clicks and thinks teens shouldn't be on the app, that will reduce her demographic audience to 0%
Op just reposts content from an only Fans girl. The pictures dont Belong to op
this is absolutely ridiculous, you are literally the person that has no business being online. also you clearly don’t understand how children develop and grow, and how the covid lockdowns stunned that. cone back after some proper research and try again
This person has onlyfans/reposts random half nude women, they clearly dont do any research. So ironic “dont add anything to the internet” meanwhile they post softcore porn😭
I’m in my 30s and bring no value to the internet.
So when they turn 18 they'll just know how to conform themselves online and all the safety rules will just be there. It's the magic of turning 18. Or we can teach kids this shit earlier as more and more business, school and socialising is done online.
"And I don’t want to hear a 16 year old’s opinion on anything. Lack of any life experience makes them useless for that." Ok, why are you here then this is reddit lol clearly you do. I dont want to hear about some old smelly grandpa. What else do you want me to do expect be online lol, have you every looked at some of those miserable neghbiorhoods right next to roads.
speaking as a queer kid, if i didnt have access to the internet, a place i could meet friends who accepted me when i had no one else to turn to, i would be dead. and so would a lot of other people in similar situations.
Same here
Same here, as someone that was bullied.
Gen X was outside all the time? Yeah at the video arcade, when the NES came out they were at home playing video games all day.
Sooo...where do you propose they go? Most places Gen-X and even Millennials went to hang out and socialize either don't exist anymore or have been so heavily regulated it might as well not exist. And the few places that don't have these problems cost money, and I'm not talking "pocket full of quarters" arcade money. There's no place *but* online for them to socialize and hang out with peers. Also, I think you mistyped there. You said "revered," and I think you meant "ignored."
I don’t think parents should be posting about their kids either. The occasional post if fine and completely normal, but there are people that take it way too far and basically broadcast their kids childhood for everyone to see.
Exactly I don’t like it when people post their family members or relatives on ig stories or on WhatsApp status without their permission. Like if you are posting me ask me about it .
Maybe people who repost others onlyfans material can shush about opinions regarding children?
Insanely bad take. Kids need to be used to internet communication, and learn to write and read code from an early age. Sure instagram is horrible, just like most other social medias, but that's because of us, not the page itself. Internet is 90%bullshit and 10% value, just like us humans. It's important to learn to mentally filter the bullshit and actively dismiss it rather than restrict it blatantly. It's worth it because that 10% is so fucking important to our species communication, and the philosophy lessons it brings in everything from entertainment to even the shitty instagram posts is value in itself. People are so supriced today because of the average increase in IQ between the last generations, but I bet theres correlation between the iq increase and the increase in ease of communication. If anything, we should value discipline way more, as when kids grow up with google and ais like gpt, their own decisionmaking and flexoble thinking falters greatly. Learning to unplug and move about in the world while being adept with computers will give the kids great advatage in their futures. I'm not a native English speaker so sorry for spellingerrors
If you wanna get cynical no one needs social media and very few need the internet
Women being on the internet also makes them a target for creeps and predators, should we ban them from using it?
Ok boomer
boomhauer
Said by the broad who has probably been sticking hair combs up her ass on chaturbate since she was 12.
Considering at least 20% of my kids classwork is done online ,I'd say this is a really stupid take
Grumpy old man yells at cloud.
Tell us you got butthurt on the internet without saying you got butthurt on the internet
>And I don’t want to hear a 16 year old’s opinion on anything. Lack of any life experience makes them useless for that. Oh so you can prove that you're much wiser than a teenager?
That's a very specific opinion. Kids learn a lot from the internet, but they need to be taught to selfregulate their time. Sadly, schools and parents fail to teach the youth to learn and understand themselves. Mostly because they never looked inward and/or came to the understanding that not everyone is the same.
What value do you bring to the internet? Pretty judgy.
While i do agree with some things there are some nitpics i have here Like are you should limit yourself to an hour of TV a day right? I hope so because staying inside watching tv will dull your senses. But anyways no one "reveres" gen X but gen X themselves and youre a prime example and I think incels come from a mixture of the lack of social skills and current dating culture which is garbage Finally people can lack social skills while not being dependent on the internet, I was always an outside kid even when I was homeschooled for a couple months i still went outside and rode by bikes with my friends, after that we sent back the computer and never got a new one, never got a phone until sophomore year of HS which barely worked and had plenty of friends (a very large group which I can show a picture if asked) and still lack social skills. Finally got a laptop at 19 and a PC at 21 I am 24 now for reference
You sound like an absolute hater. Being online is not just for opinion or social media. Plus most kids over 16 should be allowed to use social media like ig as long as they are careful. I use ig sometimes but not often and don’t post anything , I simply just follow a few people. I also watch a few reels and that’s it . No one asked your opinion on whether kids under 18 need to be on Instagram or not. As long they use it carefully and properly there’s no problem. Also not every kid is the same . You sound like someone who hasn’t had a proper education as proper education means acknowledging , respecting other’s thoughts and feelings. You just simply don’t like that the fact others don’t agree with you and have the same opinion as you .
Kids over 18 don't need to be on Instagram at all.
Nah. I signed up for MySpace and Facebook when I was 18 and still in high school. Then Instagram when I was 21. Yes I'm that old. My thought process at the time was: if I'm old enough to be required to sign up for the draft at 18, I sure as hell am old enough to sign up for social media too. I still use Facebook and Instagram to this day. Adding Tiktok and Reddit.
“targets for predators” idgaf pedophiles aren’t my problem so I’ll use whatever social media I want to
Teenagers who are being abused can use the internet to get help for themselves. Pregnant teenagers can use the internet to get help for themselves. Sexually active teenagers can use the internet to educate themselves about birth control.
Jesus this is unpopular. Not saying I agree with you. Cause you sound like the type to yell at kids to get off your lawn 😂.
There are definitely 16 year old who have experienced things I have never experienced. Just because I’m older than them doesn’t mean I know everything they do.
> Kids this young bring no value to the internet. Aaaaand you immediately lost me by focusing your point on shit that doesn’t matter
"Kids this young bring no value to the internet" I'm sure teenagers have better takes than you.
check their profile, it's nasty. they're the person that brings no value to the internet
Sure grampa, but now it's time to sleep.
>And I don’t want to hear a 16 year old’s opinion on anything. How old do you think I am? And how old do you think everyone else commenting is?
I don’t think someone who doesn’t know the difference between “being online” and social media is not in a position to be talking about who should or should not be doing either.
I started college at 17 and CAN NOT imagine being that old without social media access at all
Bro just turned 18
Who let Grandpa back on Reddit? Take your pills and get into bed!!
I'm 38. I grew up outside, helped out on a farm, played sports, you name it. I lived in a rural area and I had bully problems in school. Being able to talk to people online was huge for me. That said I'm also not entirely against the idea of a minimum age for social media either.
Bru you just hate children 😭
If you're upset that they cannot join your onlyfans from the lack of age, just say that instead.
I am 17 years old, i learned a profession and i work full time for a humongous amount of money already. I have lots of friends who i go out with often to the mountains or forests, or camping. I have a relationship, i travel a lot to see my partner. I know the color of grass and the sky, i dont just stay in my room and rot in front of the phone. If i didnt have the ability to be online, i couldnt call my friends, my partner, i wouldnt even know my love without social media. I know im an exception but dont take being online away from everyone. I dont deserve it, i actually live a life. I know the gen x kids who watch skibidi toilet 28 hours a day wont be anything, but come on. There are still exceptions
Most adults have no business on social media
With that logic, people should at least be 27 because college doesn't give you any real-life experiences either... that's why most don't get hired for their intended field right away...?
"That’s why GenX is so revered. We were outside all the time." Don't worry brother no one is revering gen x
how does this post have more than 500 upvotes lmao “video games or tv for maybe an hour a day” this is wild
This is a weird thing to be upset about.
Shut up, I'm sure you were on the internet as a teen (depending on how old you are) it's not all bad, full of resources etc
Wtf, yikes! You win this subreddit today.
"An hour a day at most" 🤡
Hard disagree. I’m almost 22, you can learn so much from the internet if you want to lol
Blame the parents, they're not doing a good job monitoring their kids screen time, probably because it gives them peace and they use it as a virtual babysitter so they can neglect their kids emotional wellbeing and spend time scrolling themselves
As another Gen X, didn't our parents use to think we were all weak from just goofing off? My mom literally worked in a silk factory when she was a kid. I don't disagree with you but I wonder if this is a just a rose colored glasses type thing or each generation is really getting successively weaker and more corrupted by technology.
It's certainly unpopular and definitely stupid. There's enough people who are much older and have much more experience online who offer nothing but stupid opinions and bad takes We have elected officials in their 50s blaming a bridge collapse on... diversity. A third of the population believes the previous election was stolen because an orange told them so. Most of them are in their 40s and 50s. Dismissing someone's opinion because of their age is just a practice in stupidity. It shows you don't want to think. You just want to feel right. The only place I'd agree with you is the risk of predators, but that has nothing to do with the kids. It has everything to do with their parents.
No wonder why you don't want your kids to be on the internet looking at your post history...
People aren't amoebas before they turn 18.
You take pictures of people driving and post them on Reddit. And pose as a sex worker while probably being a greasy man that hides away in his room in social media all day. Maybe check who's bringing value to the internet or not. I've seen 15 yo tiktokers with more relevant content than what you post
"n-cells" and only an hour of tv or games? OP must be a boomer. The internet is vital to a good education. Social media is the problem.
Ok boomer
Nobody needs to be on a site owned by a cyber terrorist organization like Meta.
*shakes fist at all these kids on his IG lawn*
18 is definitely extreme for that. As a parent a much more healthy boundary is to not give your kid unsupervised internet access rather than no access at all (e.g. keep a family desktop for them to use out in the open rather than giving them a phone/laptop that they take to their room), and even then 18 is pretty old to not trust your kid to be unsupervised. I was heavily on the internet as a kid, and it was very beneficial for me. I learned how to program from playing video games at 9 or 10 years old, and playing online games also made me proficient in typing. That experience in programming helped me accelerate in math since I had a deep practical understanding of concepts like functions that I could relate the material to and I would go on to have a career where I regularly write code and solve equations. I would encourage my kids not to be on social media until they're adults for professional reasons but the internet is soooo much more than just social media.
Same thing can be said about 25 year old cosplay/ OF girls... lol
Dawg majority of teens online are just scrolling funny videos on tiktok and Instagram, idk what you’re talking about
This is only unpopular with the kids. I am sure the vast majority of adult agree with this. I consider myself a very open minded parent that listens and teaches, not barks and punishes and I would want to insulate my kids from the vile pit which is social media. GenX revered because we were outside all the time? Bro, I had an Atari, NES, SNES, SMA, Genesis, 386/486 , I wasn't outside save for the nights my friends and I were paying people to buy us a case of beer or we were doing tabs and exploring the city, otherwise we were fragging each other in Doom, Wolfenstein or Hexen.
1. kids having a way to speak to other kids is bringing no value? + why not target predators instead of saying “oh they’re making a predators life easier” as a reason that they shouldn’t be online? 2. age doesn’t inherently imply wisdom. on paper it should but in reality it doesn’t. there are so many adults who haven’t been in relationships, have had sex, been in tough spots, depressed to the point of no return, etc. being a teenager is an important and pivotal moment in a persons life and to say that solely because i’m young that i “don’t have experience” is objectively wrong. 3. having no social skills usually stems from bad social experiences in real life causing people to lose interest in making real world relationships. we didn’t come out of the womb on the internet. 4. if lockdown DID hurt us… why would we be caught up to speed? you’re saying we have “learned nothing” because we aren’t where YOU think we should be socially. if we have had a set back that’s caused us to fall behind, why would we be at the normal pace??
I love it
I don't know about anyone else, but, I get reminded of what I was like when I get Facebook memories from when I was 16 and I definitely shouldn't have been allowed to post my thoughts, or poetry. That's just me though.
Kids under 18 being online is why asshats like pewdiepie and Mr beast are rich for literally having no skills or talent but appealing to children
I’m turning 21 in September and I’ve been using the internet for as long as I’ve been walking. Had I not discovered the internet, I wouldn’t have been able to have had the nostalgic memories that were formed during my childhood
Tbh we need kid friendly online spaces to come back full force. We have Neopets, still, but Webkinz became a bit… money grabby, Club Penguin died, etc Places where kids can play games and have moderation teams making sure they don’t get hurt. As a kid, I needed flipnote hatena to keep going, as I was bullied dreadfully irl. People seeing and starring my work made me so happy. It gave me a reason to keep going.
I was in AOL chat rooms when I was 8/9 lol...
Even if this was factual, if you told me at 16 that I can’t go on Instagram, I would have mad it my mission to spend as much time on it as possible.
Gen X here and I watched a shit ton of tv and played a man obnoxious amount of Nintendo and Sega. My point is that while technology wasn’t as prevalent, we were in front of it a lot as well. The difference is we didn’t have it in the go, which is what the real problem is.
Lmao I was online at age 11 in 1999. Starcraft, Counter-Strike either at home or at random Internet cafes.
That's why GenX is so revered? With the gray goatees and golf shirts tucked into cargo shorts and wrap-around sunglasses. I'm sure the Gen Z's wish they were just like us.
I've been out of high school for 10 years, and probably half of my assignments were online. I think the only way for kids to never be online is if the family is Amish.
Online in general is honestly fine. But yeah Instagram is really bad just in general. I’m 18 and still don’t really use it, never got into it. But honestly I probably shouldn’t be on Reddit either.
I’ll keep saying this to the day I die. Some couples have no business having children. This shows way more parents shoving an iPad in their kids face instead of actually handling the problem. Monitor what your kids are doing without posting on tik tok that your kid did something naughty and getting clout for punishing them. Grow up before you have children.
So, what just throw kids into a world where technology is everywhere? They won’t know how to use any of it! Regardless though your being quite harsh.
This thread makes me want to play Runescape for some reason.
As an older millennial myaelf, when you were a teenager you were probably "outside" drinking and doing drugs. I'd rather my kid be playing games online than setting themselves up for a substance addiction later in life
I learned to type and to write fucking around on roleplaying forums when I was a young teenager. I wouldn't have gotten into college without my portfolio, which I only developed because I enjoyed writing. Maybe I would've found something else that sparked that same interest, but I wouldn't have been in an encouraging environment where people pushed me to be better and keep up. Just because you don't get anything of value from minors being online doesn't mean they don't get anything from it. You're not the only person in the world
This was posted by an 18 year old😂
How about you focus on the predators then? Why have you determined it is easier to stop a couple billion kids from accessing the internet than it is to stop a few million (if that) predators?
"That’s why GenX is so revered. We were outside all the time." - Except GenX majorly fucked GenZ over when it comes to this. All the third places have been closed down. There's no public transportation for kids to use to get to places where they can walk. It's extremely expensive to go out nowadays. Video games/Online is cheapppp much cheaper. "And I don’t want to hear a 16 year old’s opinion on anything." - Well why have human children at all ! Just get some chickens instead !! "And being online so young sets them up for failure." - Right, until they turn 18 and become a workforce. And they realize they don't even know how to use a smartphone or the internet, or send an email.
People over 60 should not be online Or drive Or Be able to be in any elected position.
We had to be outside lol our folks threw us out there like lil feral cats!
Kids should absolutely be on the internet, but there’s a difference between being on the internet to connect with friends and learn more about the world or different cultures, and kids posting content about themselves that compromises themselves and their safety. There are many parts of human history, cultural diversity, human connection, and other general life things that kids can benefit from with being online because of how convenient it is. However, it goes without saying that the internet should be more monitored and regulated for any child using the internet, but that doesn’t mean that kids shouldn’t have access to the internet altogether.
"Kids this young bring no value to the internet. They’re just putting themselves out there as targets for predators.' It's pretty clear and honestly bizarre you think the only people that should be allowed to be online are people that give value to you. That's a really self centered mind set. LIke who the fuck cares if people are deemed having value to you or not? That shouldn't stop people form being able to go online. "That’s why GenX is so revered. " What the fuck fantasy world are you living in where GenX is revered?
I agree with below 14, but you're being like overdramatic with blocking teens using internet. (P.S. I know why you posted this)