The notion that something has happened to this generation of kids seems self evident, but there’s a deeper, more sinister reality that needs to be observed. The basic facts that it’s estimated 80-90% of girls by the age of 17 have sent out nude photos is almost incomprehensible to me. The idea that teen boys now use schemes and tricks to extort girls around them to get nude photos and possibly sex makes me want to vomit and scream at the same time. How in the world have we come to the point where we joke about “dick pics?” You want to think of something insane? Imagine 25 years ago when I was 17 years old. Imagine me grabbing a camera, taking off my pants, taking a picture, and then thinking it was a GREAT idea to send that picture to ANYONE. WHAT?!?!? But I’ll tell you what, I probably would have.
The fundamental misunderstanding that most adults have when it comes to teen behavior is that most adults think it’s the kids that have changed, and they blame the situation we’re in on the human beings. What an incredible error. First, if you think the problem is the people involved here, what is your solution? What, are we going to send every teen in the United States through shock therapy or something? Are you going to go to young parents and tell them that they have somehow given birth to a fundamentally different brand of human that will be inclined to become an amateur porn star by the age of 15? That’s an absurd statement, and what’s worse is if you blame the kids, like ALL the kids, there’s no solution. If we think there is fundamentally something different about our youth today, how do we even begin to address that? No, they’re not different. In fact, I think they’re better, and they’re certainly better than I was.
The second issue with blaming youth is it betrays what we should be focusing on: the world we made for them. Try this. Think about how many teens today are addicted to social media, are victims of the world wide predation industry, are acting like sex predators themselves, and then compare that group with how many teens from 1924 were doing that. I’m not that bright, but I’d make the statement that there would be a slim to zero chance that these existed at all in 1924. The only possible chance would be that there was a teen predator engaging in predation 1.0 against other people. We have always had to protect young people from violent criminals, and I’m sure those existed in 1924, but that wasn’t the majority, and the other addictions and industries didn’t even exist. Well, were the people in 1924 really DIFFERENT? Were they somehow more morally righteous? More virtuous? Were the teen boys less hormonal? Were the teen girls more pure and less social? Of course not! They were the exact same people we have today.
I don’t speak with teens to make them feel like they’re bad people. I try to express to them that there are two very unfortunate truths, and I’m sorry I have to bring these to light. You didn’t make this mess, but you have to clean it up. You weren’t born to send out nude photos. You weren’t born to be a sex predator by 16. You weren’t born to become a lifelong revenue source for tech and app companies, but here we are. This is not what you were made for, but because of the world you were born into, because of the powers of technology, because of the smartest people in the entire world knowing this about your brain and how it functions and your impulses, this is who you have become. You are just an amateur porn star. You are acting like sex predators. You are just a revenue stream for tech and app companies, and I would have been, too! I am no better or worse, actually, scratch that, I’m actually worse than most of you. I was a squirrelly teenager of a single mom who didn’t give a squat about what I did. I barely kept myself in line by being on three sports teams, being in band, and having a paper route. I had the basic sense to always join structured, incredibly hard communities. That was all luck. If I didn’t have those, I would have become a criminal, and even with all of that, if I had all the tech and lived in the world you do, I’d be even worse. It’s not that I was virtuous or amazing. It’s that I came from a different world that didn’t give me access to the very things that are destroying you as people. And although you didn’t make this world, you’re going to have to clean it up. You’re going to have to consider yourself, your actions, who you actually want to be, and against the odds, you’re going to have to become a superhuman in this world of insanity. I’m asking the young women to look around and realize 90% of your friends are sending nudes, but you go the other way. I’m asking the young men to hear me when I tell you that you don’t want to see naked girls like this, not under these circumstances, not over the phone. I’m asking all of you to realize that your actions are going to determine if this entire country becomes filled with tech addicted, predatory, pornography inclined crazy people or if there we will start to see pockets of young people who have the superhuman capacity to just TURN OFF THE TECH. Just TURN IT OFF. The only reason I didn’t do this stuff is because I didn’t have a phone, and you’re the ONLY one that can take away your own phone. Your school won’t do it. Your government won’t do it. Your police won’t do it. Most parents won’t do it. It’s up to you.
We’re the same, and I can tell you my teen years were not that great, but they were better than yours. The trick is, you can upgrade your life right now and step away from the world we made for you, and if enough of you do it, you can redefine your generation as the next greatest generation.
