Juvenoia
VsauceCited 3× on HN, 2016–2023
explainer · general · evergreen · 2016–2023 on HN
Vsauce looks at 'juvenoia', the exaggerated fear that new media and youth culture are corrupting the young. It gives historical examples of older generations complaining about the next one.
HN uses it to put worries about phones, music and technology and kids into historical perspective.
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3 comments from Hacker News
> and every generation says the same thing Juvenoia: "The fear or hostility directed by an older generation toward a younger one, or toward youth culture in general." See also: ▶ this video
The problem seems to be the parents, not the technology. It reminds me of a VSauce episode that brought up the following interesting antidotes: > In 1871, the Sunday Magazine published a line that may as well have been written today about texting. "Now we fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper." And the Journal of Education in 1907 lamented that at a modern family gathering, silent around the fire, each individual has his head buried in his favorite magazine. [1,2] If the parents weren't lost in their phones, they'd be lost in something else. [1] ▶ this video [2] link
The thing that disturbs me about this argument is that IMHO it's a slippery slope towards "back in my day, we didn't have this new-fangled stuff". We have to be extremely careful that our arguments have more substance than that. That requires a lot of introspection, to be honest. See, my grandparents worried that the new technology that my parents grew up with would somehow make them dumber (growing up with radio, parents getting television); my parents' generation worried that the technology we grew up with would be bad for us (too much computer, too much gaming, too much Internet). The upcoming generation of parents will grow up wondering whether VR and AR is going to ruin their kids' chances. Yet kids ALWAYS adapt. They don't view smartphones or tablets as anything particularly out of the ordinary. It's just their ordinary. I'm certain their brains will build on top of this foundation. That's the thing - brains are extremely adaptable. All of us adapted. There's a term for this worry - it's called 'Juvenoia': ▶ this video link Now, I'm not saying that this is a discussion that shouldn't be had - it certainly should. I just think we all need to be mindful about where our concerns might be coming from.