The downfall of youth.

Youth is a once-in-a-lifetime experience when you are discovering the world by socializing and creating memories out of it. It is defined by being the rite of passage between childhood and adulthood. It is meant for people to construct a base for them to grow on later in their adulthood, but it also means that it is a very vulnerable time because everything around you is new since you are discovering the world and you might not be prepared to face bad things from an early age.

Youth is also very different throughout the generations. Before the invention of phones and the internet, youth was very different than what we see now. We already know that before, people used to go out more because they didn't have phones, they tended to socialize even more and create many memories with many friends. In the beginning of the 2000s, it was not that much different. Maybe because it didn't appear when we were little children, I know for example my big sister couldn't have a phone till she was in high school, but before that, she still had to meet her friends to talk to them and even send letters. Then children started to have phones too, and it wasn't so bad either. Now you could socialize even more and every time at an early age, like sharing your little secrets about someone you've had a crush on in your little group chat at 2 a.m. knowing that you have school tomorrow. Little things like that that were genuinely good.

Then social media happened; at first, it was innocent and cute because it was meant, at first, to share your passion on the internet. It was as simple as this. To share what you like, your hobbies, and your projects. But as we can see now, it's not the same. We already know that now social media is about performing to gain success as quickly as possible, but I don't think we realize how much it is affecting young people on a deeper level. I'm not talking about how social media creates insecurities, even though it is a very serious problem that is causing pain among young people. I'm talking about the core of the human soul, the thing that makes us human more than anything else in the world. Empathy.

It might sound weird right now, but people have to understand that empathy is what makes us realize that other living beings around us are actually alive. It is what makes us have respect and consideration for others. And I think that we are lacking it.

We see on social media how easy it is to insult someone behind a screen, how funny it seems to be mean to someone, how people are easily choosing a person or a group of people to hate them for no reason, how people are ready to create things from their own mind and own will to ruin someone's reputation, how easy it is to hate or dislike someone based on the color of their skin, their features, their body, their origins, their sexuality, their gender, how easy it is for people to ignore someone's suffering, how easy it is for people to look down on others, how cool it is to have no emotions and to treat other people badly, how funny it is to be ignorant about everything, how sexy it is to cross the lines.

How did we come to this extent of pure hatred toward another human being? How did we come to this type of behavior so hostile to our own kind?

And this is where the problem is. The youth, the rite of passage between childhood and adulthood, the most vulnerable moment in our lives, is exposed to this lack of empathy, to all of this hatred toward another, and it is going to be a part of the construction of their base for them to grow on for their adulthood. I find it so scary because we can see in real life how trends are affecting young people; if you don't know the latest meme or the latest reference, you are being left out. This kind of influence can be so damaging for them and their growth if they follow every kind of trend they find on TikTok, for example. Knowing that most of these trends are problematic, as in misogynistic, racist, or homophobic.

I actually believe that it will get worse over time because this problem is only one of the branches of a big tree deeply rooted in the ground. And the only roots that can explain this downfall of youth due to the lack of consideration for the human being is capitalism.