Recently I had the chance to view one of Anderson Cooper’s 360 Specials entitled “Being Thirteen: Inside the Secret World of Teens”. What followed after I clicked on the “play” button on the video itself shocked me: teenagers in middle school, with their seemingly childhood innocence intact, spewing vitriol on social media against peers who do not click with their interests, humiliating a classmate by failing to tag them on Instagram just because they looked “uncool”, or posting heart-wrenching cries of help virtually invisible to their parents’ watchful eyes. Indeed, gory details of parking lot encounters with bullies from higher grade levels—once a flavour of a typical high school in the 80s and 90s—have now escalated into an even more volatile medium of spite, wherein teenagers channel their unbridled angst for all the world to see, even unto those unbeknownst to them on social media but still accepted into either their “friends” or “followers list because, as one student remarked “The more the merrier.”
This very alarming trend happening amongst teens are all done betwixt class discussions, with sexting as the norm while good ol’ teacher expounding on the American Civil War continues to take on her tasks diligently, unwary of all the equally perturbing activities happening online in her students’ lives. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, we begin seeing headlines on Fox News about a middle schooler’s lifeless body merely dumped in the woods, with two college students who “followed” her on Twitter as perpetrators. All these and more, plus the neverending assault on young students’ minds by pornographic images on Snapchat, notwithstanding a diversity of attempts by parents to monitor their children’s online activities. Indeed, the perversion of social media has gone too far, eventually compromising a youngster’s self esteem and mental health.
Without further ado, here is the video which I believe is a must-watch and a must-share. Likewise, kudos to Anderson Cooper and his CNN team for fearlessly exposing the dangers that America’s kids—and ultimately, all kids regardless of race or creed—face on a day-to-day basis.