The End Of Teenagers.

 The end is near. I can see it approaching quickly. Some day soon there will be no lessons that have been learned in our "rebellious teenage years". We will never get to experience the thrill of making mistakes because of this terrible phenomenon that is occurring. Teenagers will take the place of gossip magazines and policemen and people in politics. Do you not see it? The precious time as teenagers is being lost due to this, this, THING, that is engulfing us. It magnifies every, single, mistake someone makes. Your private conversations, pictures, thoughts, ideas, are no longer things you can keep to yourself. We cannot help it. We are just drawn to it and it is just spreading like a virus.

With no vaccine.

When it has taken over all of the teenagers left in the world, the world will look like a very different place. Only a select few will make mistakes, and they will be shunned and become outsiders of our society. Everyone else will become vultures. Watching, waiting, ready to swoop in on the next headline of someone's mistake. And they have no choice but to become vultures, because if they do not, they too will be singled out for not doing what everyone else has deemed "right". 

My parents never tell me about all the mistakes they made when they were my age. My aunts and uncles, on the other hand, that is another story. Part of me wants to think that they want me to learn from my own mistakes, but I can not shake the feeling that that is not the case. What if this, THING, is working on the parent's side. They never cease to stop complaining about how it is taking over, but what if it is helping them? They no longer have to worry about their children sneaking around or doing things they are not supposed to because this, THING, is attached to their hip. Parents know that their children care about what other people think of them, whether they admit to it or not, and are forced into doing the right thing because any mistake they make will be broadcasted to everyone they know, and many more whine with which they have never met. 

Social media is the disease and our smart phones are the carriers. 

Everything we do, everyone can see.

Friends.

Family.

Teachers.

Followers that you've never met.

Younger kids looking up to you.

Coaches.

Colleges.

Future employers.

Are people okay with that? They continue to post things like they do not consider it a disease, but how long will it take before start to care again? Will it be too late, and we will all have no choice but to turn into vultures? Will this whole generation be shunned by the next to come?

But even if all this is happening, what do we do?

JSL