DIGITAL LIFE | TECHNOLOGY
Understanding the TikTok Generation
Having empathy toward the pioneers of the digital age
Millennials and members of Gen Z can often get a bad rap. If you’ve ever spent an hour on TikTok, it isn’t always difficult to see why. But we deserve our credit, too.
It’s hard to deny that there’s something unique about the time period in which we’re living. Crumbling economies, terrorist attacks, the rise of the internet, and the advent of smart phones provide the context to our lives. So many of the developments of the last thirty years lack parallels. And yet, so often when older generations speak about us it’s to malign us and talk about how spoiled and entitled and social media-obsessed we are.
“These kids are glued to their smartphones — can’t get them to look up for five minutes,” many might complain. And there’s some truth there. We are addicted to these machines.
But be understanding. We grew up with the entirety of human knowledge floating through the air around us. We signed up for social media accounts before we understood the side effects. If we had, we might not have been so cavalier.
But no one knew better yet and we got to serve as the impressionable guinea pigs of a brave new world. The societal oversight…
