As far as the state of “kids these days”, I think what we’re seeing is due internet, but in a different way.
We’ve long had youth subcultures, where teenagers through 20-somethings try to dress and style themselves in a way that’s counter to the mainstream, as a way to show off how cool they are to other teenagers and 20-somethings. (Bonus points if the old people and normies find it kind of repugnant.) And those youth subcultures have often had a political element to them because, let’s face it, that age range is when most people first start to realize that the world is kind of shitty but they’re still naive enough to believe they can do something major about it.
It’s just that in the past, before everyone was on the internet, most of us adults wouldn’t have really crossed paths with them very often. We’d probably see the ones in the local area, or hear the news stories about the wayward youth of today protesting and rioting, or maybe even have some personal encounters with a few of them if we had kids of our own that age. We’d certainly know that unfortunate-looking bastards with bad haircuts, ugly glasses, and extreme leftist political beliefs existed. But we probably wouldn’t be acquainted with the details and nuances of those beliefs like we are today, because socially, we’d just occupy different worlds. Thanks to the internet (and social media in particular) this is the first time people have really been able to get an in-depth look at the most extreme aspects of subcultures without actually interacting with them in any way.
And on the subject of supposedly increasing anxiety and depression, I think we have to question how much of that is actually an increase mood disorders, and how much is over-diagnosed teenage angst and/or people self-diagnosing because they think it makes their complaints seem more valid.
Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk.
