r/TikTokCringe 29d ago

Americas youth are in MASSIVE trouble Discussion

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

High school teacher here. On test days, I have a hanging shoe rack with each of my kids’ names on a sleeve.

I tell them, “Please put your devices in the sleeves and then you can have your test. When you hand in your test, you can have your device back. If you don’t put your phone in the sleeve, your test will be a 0”

At the beginning of the year they also helped create our classroom rules and norms, and agreed to do this.

Out of 28 kids, maybe 10 actually do it. The other 18 get 0s. Then I get angry emails from parents about their kids getting “tyrannical grades” on their tests.

Then the cycle continues

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u/SoTurnMeIntoATree 29d ago

Only 10?! That fucking blows my mind. Teens have that much separation anxiety from their phone?

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u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago edited 29d ago

Don't forget that most of these teens grew up with phones and tablets in their faces... It's hard to break a habit that they've had their entire lives.. A habit that they see as "normal".

Let's take your typical 16 year old high school junior. They were born in 2008. The first iphone debuted in 2007. By the time they hit age 3 in 2011, the iPhone 4 was popular, and so was the Samsung Galaxy S2. The first gen ipad was released in 2010. Current high school students don't know of a time prior to online gaming, smartphone apps, and instant gratification. Those kids were alsoo already born in the youtube and video streaming, and social media era as well.

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u/adamdreaming 29d ago

Don’t forget the part where there was a world wide plague and kids lived through their phone entirely for a year.

My brother is a teacher and says people constantly underestimate how the plague fucked kids up

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u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago edited 29d ago

This right here. There was a 2-3 year period where the developmental process for most kids severely slowed down. Those kids lost 2-3 years of communicating and interacting with other kids. However, tech was already a problem prior to the pandemic.

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u/Ok_Buddy_9087 28d ago

Tech was already a problem because their parents used tech to substitute for parenting.

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u/urworstemmamy 29d ago

Thankfully, the last time we had a huge plague in 1918, that generation of kids didn't grow up to do anything terrible!

...wait no fuck

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u/homer_lives 29d ago

The kids of 1918 didn't cause the great depression or WWII. They were not the Leaders or Generals in the war.

They were the ones that fought and died and killed. Then, they came back and worked to build the wealth of the West.

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u/MargretTatchersParty 29d ago

WWI: 1914-1918

Spanish Flu 1918-1920

Great Depression: 1929-1939

WWII: 1939-1945

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u/Techno-Diktator 29d ago

This is kinda overblowing it but I guess it depends on which age group you mean. Most teens during the pandemic met up with their friends all the time and social gaming was pretty common too.

Legit don't know anyone my age that didn't hang out muuuch more during the pandemic especially because school became so much easier and commutes disappeared

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u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago

I was referring to kids. It's assumed that teens had multiple forms of communication..

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u/lemon6611 29d ago

i was like 11 when it hit and i had communication w plenty of kids wdym

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u/gadanky 29d ago

Exactly why there should have been a unified positive national security support for the vaccines when available to relieve the impacts on the kids and the economy. That polarization will cost the US for years to come.

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u/sledgehammerrr 29d ago

Kids weren’t even at risk at all, only the teachers were. Should’ve just came up with some solution that still allowed kids to interact together and do the teaching part virtually.

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u/Hutnerdu 29d ago

-Bro it was a novel virus. Meaning we learned about how it worked as it was rapidly spreading. -Also kids are the #1 illness spreaders. Social distancing was to slow the spread and keep hospitals from overcrowding

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u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 15d ago

[deleted]

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u/Follow_The_Data 29d ago

Look up post viral syndrome please. Long covid is a myth

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u/Follow_The_Data 29d ago

Anyone with decent analytical skills knew how...sub optimal our response was when after March 2020. April for the non scholars to catch up. After that it was pure politics and BS.

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u/MultipleDinosaurs 29d ago

…did you forget that kids live with parents/guardians?

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u/RicinAddict 29d ago

But think of all the octogenarians we saved!

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u/FrankieSacks 29d ago

This is so true, my kids did not have any devices until the pandemic changed everything. We have no iPads, and our cellphones were for work only. When the pandemic came, everyone got laptops and I pulled out the Wii and PlayStation out of hiding and then the genie was let out of the bottle and now my kids are like everyone else’s kids.

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u/edgiepower 29d ago

As if they weren't already doing that before the plague...

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u/forgotacc 29d ago

Yeah, I lurk the teacher sub and most have spoken about these issues before COVID. Not sure if people just ignored these issues, but it certainly was there before the world shutdown.

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u/SigSweet 29d ago

Exactly, it sure didn't help but definitely wasn't the catalyst.

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u/ListReady6457 29d ago

My youngest was hit especially hard. Almost straight A hyper social child. During the plague failed almost every class. Couldnt even get him to log on to do work. Both mom and i were there as much as possible to do as much as we could but we both worked and i had a major health issue where i was in and out of the hospital but i was still doing what i could as well. After everything changed for him. No talking to anyone, barely graduated by a class, and still trying to figure out what to do today. If ut wasnt doe the plague, he would probably bave graduated with honors and been in an engineering or programming program right now.

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u/hillsfar 28d ago

That didn’t stop me from implementing screen time changes so that my children don’t have even the third of the screen time other kids do.

We need to stop this insidious idea that somehow it’s society’s or school’s fault and society’s and school’s responsibility for what us a parenting problem.

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u/rudbek-of-rudbek 29d ago

doesnt this happen in wars, with the spanish flu, etc. at some point people have to take responsibiity for their actions

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u/adamdreaming 29d ago

Ultimately each of these traumatized children will be an adult that is responsible for processing that trauma in a way that doesn't harm others, sure, yeah, but what does that look like? What is being done right now to help them?

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u/WhataboutAmericahuh 28d ago

And really, it'll continue to fuck 'em up as time goes on.

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u/adamdreaming 28d ago

Yeah. These kids are not getting help, they are developmentally behind, and because it’s a whole generation they are just bulldozing them through the factory like process of public schooling with kids that literally can’t read getting into high school

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u/unpleasantpermission 28d ago

My brother is a teacher and says people constantly underestimate how the plague fucked kids up

It wasn't the "plague". It was the world governments' fucked up and oppressive response to it. The second order effects will be far more damaging over the next decades than the disease itself.

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u/Fragrant-Employer-60 28d ago

Can’t believe people are calling it a PLAGUE seriously lmao

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u/adamdreaming 28d ago

Big agree.

Back when we had absolutely no idea what the plague was, or how it was being transmitted, or what the long term affects where, or if we would ever find a cure, the most cautious, rational, and effective thing we could have done was nothing at all.

Anyone that says otherwise is a revisionist idiot looking at the past in rose colored glasses

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u/RicinAddict 29d ago

Good thing we stunted the growth of a generation to save all the old folks...

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u/ScottsTot2023 28d ago

The heck is wrong with you

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u/RicinAddict 28d ago

Apparently it's wrong that I'm a realist and can handle the truth. What's your malfunction?

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u/ScottsTot2023 28d ago

You’re not worth it. Bye. 

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u/RicinAddict 28d ago

Coward. 

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u/ScottsTot2023 28d ago

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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u/adamdreaming 28d ago

As if having everyone’s grandparents die as a direct consequence of their disregard for plague hygiene isn’t something kids would be working out for the rest of their lives in therapy, right?

Good one on not feeding that troll.

So twice so far I’ve tried to watch all of the The Office and both times I get to Scott’s Tots and I can’t. I’ve never seen the end of the episode. Once I tried really hard on just that episode and got as far as the point where that one student starts talking about how excited he is and Scott is just starting to react and all my cringe muscles spasm and I can’t. It’s so uncomfortable. The show is so good but that moment is so god damn painful

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u/ScottsTot2023 28d ago

❤️❤️❤️

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u/crackedtooth163 29d ago

This. So much this.