When we were kids, we only communicated face to face or on the phone.
I cannot count the ways kids have to share information today. And a new study shows they’re not only taking it for granted, their generation is losing sight of what’s insulting and mean.
A poll conducted by the Associated Press and MTV finds teens and twenty-somethings think it’s mostly okay to tweet that a girl is a slut or use a racial slur against someone, as long as its within their own circle of friends and meant as a joke. Of course, whenever you catch someone saying something offensive, isn’t that their first defence? “It was only a joke!”
An overwhelming majority see mean things about themselves and other people online but very few of them ever express that they’re upset with it or think it’s inappropriate. The words they find most offensive? Not the N word, apparently. Slut offends 65% of females but only 28% of males. (go figure). Calling someone gay or retarded is A-OK with most and only a quarter had ever thought that someone might forward their text or email to someone else.
They’re not stupid, they’re taking for granted something that those of us who didn’t grow up with this technology don’t. We can see the forest, they’re only looking at the trees.