A typical 2018 teen updates his social media

Each generation is different from the last, with its own set of things the generation has found or experienced that define the way it acts and makes choices on a large scale. Part of that is a rebellion against what it doesn't like about the previous generation, some nostalgia, some ideas whose time has come, some random.

The current generation of extreme screen use and social media sharing makes no sense to members of past generations, who see no real value to doing those things. The generation after the social media generation may also laugh at how lame this generation was that spends all its time flicking its thumb to look at social media obsessing over what strangers think and accumulating followers. It may raise its own children without letting them use social media, warning them about it as a harmful thing.

"But we can't live without social media. It's part of everything we do."

Before 15 years ago, we did just that, and had more time to spend on real experiences, real people, and learning things in real contexts. People who did what's common now would be laughed at as "computer geeks." It's just as likely that before long people taking a look at the social media generation will think they're lame and don't know how to live a good life.

It may also come about that social media (along with other internet things) will have become so corrupted, so far from what was the original hope and reason we dove into the idea, that people will be left with no response EXCEPT to avoid it. They will identify it as too harmful, dangerous, and abusive.

It's only recently that social media has taken on this color. That is to say, there hasn't been time yet for a response, so the response is yet to be seen. The current storm of events is the stimulus.

Who remembers how interesting and promising people thought Facebook was when it was seen to help educate and connect oppressed people in North Africa during people's movements? Who remembers how positive the mass response was whenever a photo of Zuckerburg or a news story of one of his projects or comments was shared?

Now we're past the crest of that wave, and people are responding to what has become of these tools as their abuses become more prominent and meaningful. And news stories are showing people who uses these tools and for what.

If this continues the way it is going currently, with the userbase for social media and other internet services souring and becomming spiteful (as a generalized response, not just as a reaction to an event), the coming generation may avoid social media and connectivity technology (except where forced to by the authorities that have control over them). What may contribute further to this is improved but unsecured technology, which many people are currently excited about installing in their most private spaces, their homes and cars. But what happens when the listening-tracking-and-recording devices you install on your child's phone, in your bedroom or board room, result in the same news stories as are currently happening around social media?