Are Kids Aging Faster?
With social media dominating kids' lives, is it causing them to age prematurely?
YES
By Jonah Derechin and Mia Maksimovic
With changing perspectives about how younger generations are coming of age, the question of whether this generation is maturing too fast is becoming more and more common. And the answer to that is an resounding ‘yes’. The combination of exposure to the internet at a young age, marketing campaigns, and a world where technology is influencing parenting styles all seem to be incredibly common contributors to this accelerated maturity.
“The average parent allows their child a smartphone at age 10, opening up a world inaccessible to previous generations, with unlimited access to news, social media and other privileges previously reserved for adults, forcing them into emotional maturity before they reach adulthood,” BBC writer Katie Bishop said
And this digitally fostered premature emotional maturity leads children into a process called “shaping”. When kids try to be more like the people older than them, they will mirror their older idols. And while these older people can be their parents, most likely this consistent stream of mature content will lead them to form obsessions over other adults, which could be based solely on aesthetics.
Technology is not the only thing leading many children to premature aging. Many online advertisers and marketers are increasingly targeting a new demographic: children. Children are naturally drawn to the stimulating, neon colors on many packages, which in an average grocery store have found a recent uptick.
“Bright colors are a big reason a lot of kids want something, especially on TV,” sophomore William Lyle said.
Especially concerning is the advertising of certain items that contain substances only available to those 18 and older. These substances, while incredibly addictive, increase stress response. And when people live consistently with stress, wrinkles become more prominent. This leads many under 18 to have smile marks, forehead lines, and lip lines, visibly aging them.
“I see a lot of parenting YouTubers talking about their children needing to be mature,” sophomore Ava Mairs said. “A lot of the parent blogs look like they are disciplining their children as a display.”
On par with the rise of technology, many parents are taking advice from parenting vloggers on the internet. These content creators seem to know everything relating to children’s success, from academic discipline to how parents should be preparing their five-year-olds for early college. But one thing remains clear with these creators: children need to optimize their lives for the adult world. The punishments parents can take for temper tantrums are in the millions, but sometimes it is good to understand it is a normal part of childhood development. And when a lot of these parents take advice from bloggers, they end up applying practices that are not individual to their child. While so many parents might search for the right parenting style, the only one that will work is the one subjective to their children and their personality.
“I think that even though children look like they are growing up faster, all it comes down to [is] having to adapt a parenting style to the modern world,” Lyle said.
NO
By Gabrielle Mariano
Kids of younger generations are not growing up any faster than others. Although it may seem that way due to their social media presence, other generations did not get to experience it. When investigating facts instead of opinions, it is easy to quickly see this is false.
Many socially acceptable events mark growing up. For example, finishing your education, getting your driver's license, and even romantic relationships. These are common events that parents and scientists look for to make sure you are advancing at a healthy rate, but as this age gets pushed back it raises questions. Is this generation growing slower?
“What we’re witnessing in popular media and on young people's social media profiles may better reflect their desires to grow up faster, than the material reality of growing up fast,” blogger Madison Huizinga said. “It’s clear that kids are growing up slower than they once did, pushing many of these “first” experiences into young adulthood.”
The new generation is growing up with technology and because of this, they are going to be more tech-savvy at a younger age than the previous generation. This results in them being viewed as if they are growing up faster.
“Technology may be exposing kids to more, making them intellectually savvier. Yet whether they are actually growing up more quickly may be a matter of perspective,” according to BBC writer Katie Bishop. “It may also be time to update what we think of as the milestones of maturation, and what it really means to grow up fast.”
Many young adults look up to their parents and try everything to mimic what they are doing. Kids are doing the same thing, but they have access to more role models. But isn't it the parent's responsibility to monitor who they idolize?
“As such, young girls’ obsessions with womanhood and young women’s obsessions with girlhood, while stark at present, aren’t so dissimilar to behaviors that past generations have exemplified,” Huizinga added. “All in all, what’s clearest to me is that girls are better off accepting the learning and support that comes with embracing the temporary state of girlhood, while women are better off wholly accepting the responsibility and independence that comes with being adults.