Every teenager today was born this century. Trust is different for digital natives.
Growing up online is different to the world I grew up in.
As a teenager last century I trusted doctors, banks, media and the government. After all these institutions are the cornerstones of society.
Somewhere along the line that changed.
The media focused on ratings, Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD). After that’s what gets the eyeballs.
The silent majority has become the exhausted majority.
Maybe the world was always this messed up, the gate keepers of old media kept us safe by drip feeding us outrage. Now we are drinking from the social media firehose, always on, always connected, constantly fatigued.
Over time trust in our institutions has eroded.
Doctors have to compete with Google and deal with antivaxxers. Banks keep ending up in front of judges, yet no one seems to go to jail. The President of the United States labels reporters he doesn’t like as fake news. Governments only seem concerned with political point scoring.
Trust is confident vulnerability.
The media keeps showing us why being vulnerable is dangerous.
