some things we, as a society, have recently done to teens:
-traumatized them with gun violence
-vastly reduced their rights to reproductive healthcare
-had a moral panic about their genders
-abandoned them to the ravages of covid, destroying their immune systems
it's not tiktok that fucked em up
if you're a kid in the US you have seen the adult world fully abandon your interests in health and safety in every way, from refusing to install air filters in classrooms to refusing to address climate change.
you are constantly surveilled. there are no third places for you to hang out in: you are likely restricted from malls, hours are cut at libraries, cops are fucking everywhere and they hate you.
a lot of people sure read this as me saying "tiktok and other social media is good and has no problems". the person that said that is imaginary and you may take your conversations with them out of my feed
it's just incredibly obvious to me that social media is filling a need for people, including children, that is otherwise not being met. our society is structured at every level to take away coping mechanisms and never address root causes.
