The Corruption of Our Youth

Our youth is under bad influences. Take theatre, for example.

According to wise men such as Plato and Aristotle, tragedies will make young men boisterous and comedies turn them into buffoons. The puritanist groups of 17th century England also agreed - they called theatre the "school of vice" and worried that it not only promotes laziness, drunkenness and loss of morals, but might also challenge social order and put all kinds of dangerous passions in the heads of young minds.

And what about the printing press? Surely letting people read all kinds of writings without the proper guidance of scholars and priests is a bad idea (that's what authorities were worried about in the 1400s, at least). And don't get me started on romantic novels, which will fill the heads of young women with unrealistic expectations about love and married life - if it was true in the 18th century, it must be true now.

A baddie vibing on some OG brain rot.

The history of soiling our pants over new kinds of entertainment, media and inventions goes back to the ancient times. Movies are all kinds of detrimental. Rock and Roll is the Devil's music. Comics are trash. Video games are dangerous. And then came the Internet.

To be fair, there are things to be concerned about. Various studies have shown that heavy use of social media can be detrimental, especially on young people, and can increase feelings of loneliness, anxiety and depression.

And of course, there's all the Really Bad Stuff: No matter how deranged or evil something is, there is now an online community for it. Protecting our children from abuse, stupid and dangerous viral trends and genuinely bad influences is more difficult than ever. When my generation was young, we were spared from a lot of things simply by not knowing they existed, and the Internet wasn't there to be used as a tool by criminals who want to hurt children.

But ignorance can only be bliss to a certain extent, and we also didn't have the modern means of fact checking anything. I've personally had the pleasure of calling bullshit on some things my own children were taught in school - no, people in medieval Europe didn't think the Earth is flat, the pyramids were not built by slaves, and getting drunk doesn't permanently kill your brain cells.

Young people are now more knowledgeable than ever. They have all the means of finding and sharing information. And while the world remains a dangerous place, they also carry their smartphones everywhere - to document what they encounter, to navigate home when they get lost, and to call for help if need arises.

We will continue to be suspicious of new inventions and the effect they might have on our young. But at its core, it's all just fear of new things - that our beloved power structures and social norms might change, and that we might lose control. It's that unpleasant feeling of the generational gap opening between us and our children as they grow and adapt so quickly to our changing world, while we as parents just can't keep up.

Personally, I think our best bet is not to come off as fearful, judgemental or dismissive, but to remain curious. Ask your kids what that new thing is, or what the hell is that word they just used. They might make fun of you, but they will also educate you. It will help you keep the generational gap from growing into a chasm.

Although if you don't know what this is about, trust me - sometimes ignorance is bliss.