Year 20: Growing Up on the Internet
Being born in the late 90s is a confusing time. It’s an awkward in between stage comparable to being in the age range where you’re no longer a kid but not quite an adult.
You can use the term “Only 90s kids remember” but also not completely understand the hype around the Spice Girls. You can understand the importance of Lizzie McGuire and That’s so Raven to Disney Channel but you’re too old to connect with Dog with a Blog. You are often considered a “Millennial” (if you’re born between ‘95–’99) but in fact you’re apart of “Generation Z”. You’re able to remember how slow Windows XP was and the massive space a desktop computer took but can’t complain about having dial up Internet as our formative years were apart of the first generation to have grown up completely on the Internet.
While many in the Generation Y (‘80-’95) which preceded Generation Z (‘96–present) were on the Internet, there are stark contrasts between the two. The former generation are first conscious users of the Internet and computers although the latter, as stated Tammy Erickson for Harvard Business Review, “are the first unconscious participants in an era when everyone has access to everything, everywhere, at every time. This is the generation of mobile technology, wireless communication, and clouds of constant content.”
This stark contrast between the two is made clear with the beginning of the World Wide Web which started in 1993. This advancement for the Internet came about just as “just as the oldest Y’s were turning 13, in their prime stage of influence” as Erickson states. However, those in Generation Z would be turning 13 in 2008, a time where people used MSN messenger daily after school and iPhones were gaining traction for their innovation.
With all this information in mind the differences between the two main Internet consuming generations, there is another big different between the effects of the Internet on those born in Generation Z opposed to Generation Y. That is the impact on mental health while growing up solely and dependently, on the Internet.
Personally, I never grew up heavily using social media because of how strict my parents were on safety. It took me until 2012 to have all social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) after years of peer pressure. However, in 2008, when everyone was using Facebook and starting their new Twitters — I was only allowed to use MSN Messenger. While this was not a strict social media platform, it carried many of the aspects that current platforms have — personal photo icons, personal messaging, status updates where you can post cryptic song lyrics. It was here that I first learned the harsh reality that social media can have on one’s mental health.
Being in Grade 8 (circa 2012, 13 years old) on the Internet is a harsh time as I found out the hard way that schoolyard bullying can easily follow you home through the Internet. One of the social media stressors, online harassment, was very much prevalent during my formative years because frankly, 13 year olds especially girls can be a living nightmare when they don’t like you. Being subjected to rude comments at school and then them following home, not only in my head but visually on my screen, put a lot of stress on me. I can honestly say, I was a more depressed kid at the time and it led to sleep deprivation, anxiety, stress, and fear.
Opening my first social media accounts, I definitely wanted to show the best life as a 13 year old could possibly live. I really wanted to stick it to the mean girls faces that I was happier than them. I made my accounts into a constant highlight reel which furthermore induced the stress I put onto myself as I feared that the facade I was putting up would easily be broken by them if they saw the slightest crack in my accounts.
While this is my own personal experience, the high levels of feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress are felt by many students in Generation Z as per the Centre of Collegiate Mental Health for Penn State University. This could be because 90% of those who are currently 18–29 have grown up using social media and have often dealt with similar situations as I. The social media stressors are caused by using wanting to remain interconnected but unsure of how to live genuinely and authentically as our lives always on broadcast for many to see and judge.
One thing that growing up on the Internet has taught me is that you have to have tough skin. As stated by George R.R. Martin in a Game of Thrones: Storm of Swords — “my skin has turned from porcelain, to ivory, to steel.”
These social media stressors affected me deeply and the effects of what I went through via social media still sticks to me today. It is hard for one to come out of the Internet unscathed especially when you are 13 years old.
Nonetheless, it does not help to linger on the past. I have grown up mentally, physically, emotionally since the dark days of 2008. Closing my blog entry (and my goodbye to this blog), I would like to end with a letter to the little girl from 2008:
Dear Younger Self,
You get asked a lot over the years to write letters to yourself, past and present now for school. You’ve always taken them as a joke, never writing anything serious to yourself. However, you’re almost 20 and I want to take this assignment to finally write a serious message to yourself.
You’re going to be okay.
Being online all the time isn’t healthy. You’ll fall in love with video editing through sitting on the computer desk all day and watching Youtube videos but don’t let it consume your life. But honestly, there is more to the world than a computer screen despite it all being on there.
These are dark times for you but in the end, they are just words on a computer screen. Whatever is said to you, whoever says anything negative to you is a coward as they are hiding behind a screen. In a few years, they will be out of your life and you will be surrounded by the most wonderful people you will have ever met. They will be a breath of fresh air.
In the meantime, until you get to those days, limit yourself to the dangers you expose yourself to. Do not leave yourself open to this harassment — block these girls because outta sight, outta mind right? Or if you can’t block them, kill them with kindness. While it is hard to hear, treat them how you wish they would treat you because at the end of the day, you will take no pleasure in their downfall.
Take all the necessary actions that you need to take in order to create a better digital environment for yourself.
I hope you take this advice into account. It’s been real.
— Your older self
