Kids Really Are Growing up Faster Nowadays

by Corey Gray

I’ve been thinking a lot as of late about how my sixteen

years old friends act more mature than my twenty-one year

old friends. About how you can scroll through Instagram and

see fifteen year old makeup artists. When I was fifteen,

everyone I knew was just worried about acne and little cute

crushes. Now it seems like people are maturing at a much

earlier age, and I want to explore that idea.

I’m nineteen, only one year out of high school. While in

high school, there were obvious changes from class to class

concerning maturity in different regards. Of course, the

observations I’m going to get into could’ve been completely

random. Everyone is different, so the classes could’ve just

had a lot of a certain kind of person, but I believe the

changes were so specific to our societal context that it’s less

than random.

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My grade was the first to full-heartedly embrace social

media. We were the kids Snapchatting everything and

Instagraming in class. We were still awkward teens, though,

and looked at it as just a fun way to share a moment with

your friends. Overall, I would say we were an immature

group in many ways, romantically, sexually, aesthetically,

and intellectually. Nothing had really come together with us.

We were still all growing, which a lot of people argue is the

best way for a teen to be; growing and enjoying their spry

youth.

I noticed a change when I was a junior. The freshmen

class that year showed a distinct change from the current

student body. They seemed more aware, not only of

themselves, but also the world. Of course, my grade was by

now much more aware of everything, but these kids were

two years younger than us, and in some ways, but definitely

not all, they were closer to equals with us than felt natural

within the high school hierarchy. In that freshman class, I

saw confidence and a sense of self. They came into high

school with a gusto that I wasn’t expecting, and I am

honestly think it’s an affect of the rise of social media and

the technological age.

Now, I’m not old, but when I was younger I didn’t even

know what the word “gay” really meant until I was about 9.

The area I grew up in is small and everyone is really the

same, and I didn’t have a smart phone or high-speed

Internet, let alone my own laptop. I grew up in the middle of

the woods in Maine, a state known for nature, not diversity

and representation, or technology, and that reflected in my

age group. We were all very much molded by our parents

and our community, and no one really had much distinct

individuality. Then that freshman class came in, and turned

that upside down. Rather than being molded only by the

area, they also had the influence of the Internet and social

media on them. They were so much more woke than my

grade was at their age. They were exposed to diverse

thoughts and opinions and news from a much earlier age,

and finally self-expression was more welcomed.

The next year, the incoming freshman class was like

the one before them, but times ten. I was seeing tons of

different gender expression (something I didn’t even think

about when I was their age), tons of knowledge about the

world and current events, very well thought out opinions,

and a very welcoming group. This was the year that I

started a Gender & Sexuality Alliance at my school and the

members were primarily from this freshman grade, and the

grade above them.

People like to write the social media babies off as

superficial for being so aware of their appearance, overly

sexual for not shying away from a topic that should be

talked about more at that age, and too technology obsessed

for having their eyes glued to a screen all day. They don’t

acknowledge that these teens are gaining so much from the

boundary transcending quality of social media. They are no

longer confined to the area they grew up, they are exposed

to so much more early on. I can honestly say that the

younger teens that I’ve met as I’ve grown into my last year

of teen-hood have blown me away with their confidence,

morality, and perseverance. Social media has given them a

voice, so I’ve found so many young activists who are

fighting just as hard, and even harder with their online

presence than people I know in college. They are still young,

and of course they make mistakes, but I really think we

need to celebrate the social media babies more. The ones in

my life are a constant inspiration, and we should all try to

celebrate them more, rather than belittle them.