Even though every girl of every range on my club gymnastics team had an iPhone, I still find it weird when I see a twelve year old with a phone of that quality. I don't know why though. It's been a normal sight for me for a few years now.
Still, it's weird. Probably because I didn't get my first phone until I was eleven (it was a good ol' fashioned flip phone) and didn't get my first iPhone until I was almost 15. I guess that' not the only thing I noticed though.
Girls are dressing nicer than I did at that age, and utilizing social media more than I ever did or maybe ever will. I have pre-teen former teammates who follow me on Instagram and I even follow some of them back. I post the occasional beautiful view of WPI and the occasional picture of me with my friends. Well, they post about parties and post about boyfriends and post selfies with a cheesy quote. They beg for followers for additional accounts on their main accounts, and even tell people to follow their friends. Keep in mind, these girls are no older than twelve or thirteen.
They also talk about boys at practice and over-analyze every single text message conversation, and goof off with the latest dance craze. They gossip hilariously about some horror movie or something of the more mature-show variety. They try to act older than preteens, and it drives some people insane. "When I was their age, I did [blank] and [blank]...yadda, yadda, yadda".
And I'll be honest: when I was twelve, I did try to act older and cooler than I was. I was an awkward preteen who was secretly excited to watch Disney movies in band but pretended to be indifferent. I posted stupid things on Facebook, and stressed out over how many friends I had on the social media platform. I enjoyed taking pictures, but I grew to enjoy being behind the camera. I felt rebellious watching "Thor" with one of my friends at the age of twelve without parents...it was a PG-13 movie. I was twelve once. So were you.
It's hard to criticize kids now a days because I was once in their shoes. They're going through the same awkward experiences that I did, just in different ways. I remember over freaking out whenever a cute guy looked at me and overanalyzed every interaction he had with me with friends over slow paced texts. I remember wanting validation from others over social media. I remember all of that.
To say kids these days are growing up too fast may be a bit hypocritical. Do we wish that kids would watch Disney and think that the opposite gender still have cooties because we ourselves didn't appreciate that time ourselves? None of us wish to relive our middle school years because it was such an awkward time for everyone.
It's important to note: these kids aren't going through different experiences that we did. They're experiencing them in a different time. Kids these days have different technology, different clothes, different expectations than we did when we were kids. My older siblings probably said the same thing when I was twelve, since they were 90's kids.
So remember this when you next see a gaggle of preteen girls taking a goofy selfie and worrying about how many likes it will get: we were all twelve at one point. Let them have their own experience.
