The social media age completely changed an entire generation. With its advent, personal information about almost everyone became available to friends, family or really anyone who may want to know something. While we merely adopted social media, some were born into it.
Young children have only seen this world after the effects of social media. They're used to "being apart" of the lives of the people they look up to, or rather the people they should. Social media gave them the advantage of knowing. Knowing details of the lives of people much older than them gave these young children a feeling of familiarity. In the same way that you may feel like you know a celebrity, these kids think that when they see you, they see a friend. While being friendly to people should be encouraged, this feeling typically leads to boundaries being overstepped.
With each passing day, it seems as though respect among younger people is nonexistent. When I was in middle school, I vividly remember being scared of seniors. They were the kings and queens. Not only did they seem to have their lives figured out, but they were going places. They deserved our respect because they had completed challenges that I couldn't even imagine. However, I also had no clue about their personal lives nor had I heard their feelings about the work they had done.
As seniors, my class had a completely different experience. As I walked through the halls, I frequently was taunted about predictions I had made about basketball games, upcoming deadlines for my senior thesis, or my relationship by middle schoolers. While they didn't phase me and I had plenty more reasons to tease them, it just showed a stark difference in mindsets. Younger children are feeling more and more important and feel as though they deserve the same privileges as older children and adults partly due to this closeness. As a result of this, young girls feel the need to dress like girls twice their age and boys feel the need to talk trash to the upperclassman and captains whom should be mentoring them.
Respect is an integral part of coming of age. You give respect as you earn it. In order to prevent the idea that kids "deserve" certain things just for who they are or who they know, it is important to keep kids honest about their place in society. Children do not need to feel close to people far older than them. They need to stay kids, enjoy that stage of their lives, and look forward to attacking challenges head on. Also, a short shoutout to Jaime Bloxom for the awesome discussion that sparked the inspiration for this article
