Exploring the Decline of Teenhood and Tweenhood in the Age of Social Media
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Introduction
In recent years, the concept of teenhood and tweenhood has faced a seismic shift due to the rapid evolution of social media and consumer culture. Today, many teenagers seem to navigate through an identity crisis brought on by societal pressures and digital influences. In this article, we will explore the decline of traditional teenage experiences, the impact of social media, and how fashion and community have changed for the youth of today.
The Evolution of Teenhood
Origins of the Term "Teenager"
The term "teenager" was first coined in the 1940s by advertising executives aiming to market products to a new demographic. This period marked the beginning of youth culture, which was largely defined by consumerist ideals. Prior to this, being a teenager was not a distinct phase of life; rather, adolescence encompassed a much broader age range.
- Contextual Factors:
- The Great Depression led to increased restrictions on child labor, removing youth from the workforce.
- As more young people entered high school, communal spaces for socializing emerged, further defining teenage identity.
- The automobile allowed for increased mobility and dating, reinforcing this new youth culture that emphasized freedom and rebellion.
The Commercialization of Teenage Identity
The modern teenager is often viewed through the lens of consumerism. Advertisers and marketers have shaped identity formations, creating a cycle of dissatisfaction and superficial roles:
- Consumer Identity: Teens feel pressured to adhere to certain trends that often lead to feelings of inadequacy when they don’t measure up to the curated lives of others online.
- Advertising Influence: Brands perpetuate stereotypes of what a “normal” teenager should look and behave like, complicating the quest for authentic self-expression.
The Impact of Social Media on Teen Identity
Digital Pressures
Social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat play a significant role in how teenagers form their identities today. The constant exposure to curated lives has led to:
- Comparison Culture: Teens now face an unattainable standard heavily influenced by more mature influencers, warping their perceptions of beauty and identity.
- Heightened Anxiety: The pressure to conform often leads to anxiety and insecurity, driving teens to prefer virtual interactions over physical ones.
Shift from Traditional Media to Social Media
In previous decades, teenagers engaged with media through music videos, magazines, and youth-targeted TV shows. In contrast, today's teenagers consume content predominantly on social media platforms:
- Decline of Teen Magazines: The once-popular teen magazines, such as J14 and Teen Vogue, have seen a decrease in readership.
- Change in Content: While shows like Euphoria represent modern adolescence, they focus on heavier and darker themes, lacking the whimsical representations of previous decades.
Decline of Physical Teen Spaces
The Vanishing Third Spaces
Third spaces, which are environments separate from home and work where teenagers could socialize (e.g., malls, parks), have dramatically decreased in number. This decline can be attributed to:
- Online Shopping: The rise of e-commerce has led to the decline of traditional shopping malls, removing casual hangout spots for youth.
- Alternative forms of Interaction: Teens are now opting for online interactions, utilizing social media as a primary means of socializing rather than meeting in person.
The Need for Community Spaces
Psychological and social development is crucial during adolescence, and the absence of third spaces poses risks:
- Development of Social Skills: Teens today risk entering adulthood with underdeveloped social skills, stunted by reliance on social media for connections.
- Sense of Community: Without physical spaces for gathering, the traditional sense of belonging and community may diminish.
Changing Teen Fashion Trends
The Impact of Online Trends on Clothing Choices
Fashion for teenagers has also dramatically shifted. The once-flourishing teen clothing brands are now scarce:
- Emerging Brands: Teens now favor online retailers like Shein and H&M, often influenced by trends seen on TikTok, steering them away from traditional brands.
- Pressure to Conform: The obsession with fitting into a specific aesthetic (e.g., cottagecore, e-girl, etc.) detracts from individual style exploration that was common in earlier decades.
Reflection on Community and Self-Expression
The dynamics of how teens express themselves through fashion have radically altered:
- Homogenized Fashion: The market reflects a homogenized style often dictated by social media trends instead of local or personalized influences.
- Challenges in Self-Discovery: Today's youth may find themselves overwhelmed by choices, unsure of where they fit, as they navigate endless online aesthetics.
Conclusion
The experience of being a teenager is evolving, and the decline of teenhood and tweenhood as we know it poses important questions about the future of youth culture. As we delve deeper into what these changes mean for community, identity, and self-expression, one must ponder: will there be a resurgence of teen spaces, or are we witnessing the end of an era? Only time will tell, but fostering environments where young people can thrive socially will be critical in shaping the next generation.
medic what we going do many Dream Come Oh yeah and I have a music video out for IOD my clone that just dropped
today so if you're watching this then it's available now on my YouTube channel so go watch it enjoy thank you so if
you're familiar with my channel then you probably know that I've talked a lot about teenagers and the shift in the
teen experience and the development of teenagers in the context of social media teenagers are exposed to a lot nowadays
and seem to be under a lot of pressure to grow up fast and almost like compete with adults just seems like the gap
between childhood and adulthood becomes more and more narrow with each day I actually came up with today's video idea
when I was looking into the sexy red and respectability politics discourse going on so if you're interested in watching
this bonus video then you can go to my patreon patreon.com brown for bonus content and early access to videos
thanks social media plays a big part in this but I've also noticed that there is a huge decline in teen spaces teen
oriented spaces teen oriented media fashion and just general youth culture the internet has really changed the way
that teenagers find community and identity stores like justice Hollister aeropostal malls in general which also
serve as a third space have gone almost extinct with the rise of online shopping and Amazon and online fashion trends
that stem from Tik Tok there's been a huge shift in the way that teenagers dress and how they communicate with each
other which I think has led to the decline of teenhood and tween Hood there aren't too many teen oriented spaces
where teenagers can just be themselves and be their age and develop in an organic way that isn't directly tied to
internet and social media culture so today I really want to dive into the death of teenhood and twe Queen hood and
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for sponsoring this video and let's get back to our scheduled programming so first we have to talk about the origins
of teenhood because being a teenager was not a thing up until the 1940s so the term teenager was first introduced to
the American public in the 1940s as a moniker coined by advertising Executives looking to sell their products to a new
audience so it's interesting that the origins of teenhood was essentially made up by companies to to create a new
demographic to sell things to this creature is a mid 20th century phenomenon and almost everything has
changed since the early 1940s when it emerged are teenagers still necessary and that's a really important question
which I think has really shaped this video is like what is the purpose of the teenager what is a teenager today and
how has it change from the original definition of a teenager because the teenager is really just a product of
consumerism but there at a time was such a rich culture around adolescence and teenhood and I want to differentiate the
difference between teenhood and Adolescence because the teenager is marked as the emancipation of
adolescence I explained this poorly but basically an adolescent is someone who's going through puberty experiencing
puberty you could be 10 years old 12 years old in your adolescence and into your teen years but a teenager is
specifically someone who is 13 to 19 and like I'm talking about in this video a teenager teer is essentially a construct
created by consumerism so in this video we're really questioning teenagehood the purpose of it not adolescence itself
being a teenager is he said a false identity meant to Short Circuit the Quest for a real one by giving people
superficial roles to play advertising the mass media and even the schools confuse young people and leave them
dissatisfied and this open to sales pitches that promise a deepening of identity you're a teenager you'll like
this if you're with within this age group then you should buy this but the origins of the teenager started in the
1940s and was a result of a few things one being the Great Depression and the workforce and how it was affected by the
Great Depression because there was an increase in restrictions on child labor and that had happened a few years prior
during the 1930s what was different was that after 1933 when Franklin D Roosevelt took office virtually all
young people were thrown out of work as a part of public policy to reserve jobs for men trying to support families
businesses could actually be fined if they kept childless young people on their perils and because children were
working less they had a lot of time on their hands so what would they do during the day they went to school and this is
when high schools started to become a lot more popular and more kids were attending school fulltime despite High
School's being around for about a 100 years prior the first high school that had opened was in 1821 in Boston and so
once a attending High School became more popular and normalized in day-to-day life for young people of course this
created communal space for people of the same age to socialize and this started to build the foundation of teen identity
and teen culture as a result a larger number of teenagers were thrown into a common space than ever before it was
only natural that discussions about commonalities would occur before long schools developed their own cultural
patterns completely unlike the childhood or adult experience School athletics and extra curricular activities only enhan
this nent culture the American Teenager was born and lastly the automobile actually had a lot to do with the
emergence of teenhood and teen culture since the invention of the automobile buses became a thing and buses allowed
for larger groups of people to be transported from point A to point B and so more kids were able to go to school
because of this transportation and you know groups of kids from different areas were able to come together and go two
schools that were larger than like a small local Schoolhouse for like a handful of children which was the norm
before teenagers being able to drive allowed them a lot more freedom and they could you know go on dates and courtship
evolved a lot from the automobile and being able to be more independent the courtship process rapidly evolved into
dating in earlier times young boys and girls spent their first States at home teenagers were given privacy and a
sexual Revolution swept America experimentation with ual behaviors before marriage became increasingly
common Young Americans were now able to look beyond their own small towns at an enlarged dating pool so teenagers now
have a place to gather to socialize to learn they've built the foundations of youth culture and now it's become a
full-fledged identity that represents freedom and rebellion and consumerism there's actually a book called
advertising and marketing for youth where American teenagers are considered the new jackpot market and although this
is based in American culture and history even in England we start to see these youth-led subcultures like teds who you
know were kind of Elvis likee they were quiffs and had flick knives and they were a part of the working class of
London Circa 1953 then we had the mods skin heads and punks the 1950s were marked by the emergence of a distinct
teen culture seeking to distance themselves from the culture of their parents teenagers turn to rock and roll
music and youth oriented television programs and movies all packaged for them through new marketing strategies
targeting their demographic it's interesting to see the difference in the teen youth subcultures that were
emerging in the ' 50s compared to teen subcultures now cuz they're definitely not as distinct or prominent as they
used to be I think the closest that teens have to these kinds of subcultures are like Aesthetics you know like oh
you're a cottage cor you're an eir or or you're Barbie core or you're this or that and there was like a real sense of
community and identity in these 1950s subcultures that you don't really see with these Aesthetics today because
they're just Aesthetics it doesn't really have anything to do with lifestyle or Community fashion historian
Shelby Ivy Christie pinpoints the shift to one thing it's that algorithm she says it's wanting to belong and be
positioned as cool it's fed to twins I think also now with the rise of these cores they are not just pressured into
choices they're almost over pressured into identity you have to belong to a core what is your aesthetic who are you
I think a lot of teens are just a cog and a bigger wheel that want and pressure to belong to a specific
aesthetic also serves the needs of retailers Brands and ads without them even realizing it I want to talk about
the kind of evolution of teen film and TV because it wasn't really until the 1930s and 40s where we started to see
more teenage representation in film and TV and we've seen a great array of teen media throughout the years and it's
extremely influential on youth culture movies personified Above All by the bizarre boy man Mickey Rooney and the
Andy movies he began to make in 1937 his frequent co-star Judy Garland was part of the phenomenon too as Dorothy and The
Wizard of Oz Garland was clearly a woman not the girl everyone pretended she was the tension between the maturity she
feels and the childishness others see in her helps make the film more than a Children's Fantasy it is a early pant
piant peent expression of the predicament of the teenager the earliest teen films we see are movies like Rubble
Without a Cause I was a teenage Frankenstein I was a teenage werewolf teenager from outer space and teenage
doll which I'm obsessed with these names that could be core in itself Frankenstein core teen werewolf core uh
Teenage doll core that's basically Barbie core is it not but where we really start start to see the massive
influence of youth culture and teenage hood on TV and film is in the 80s 9s and early 2000s once Fox became a major
Network MTV is like I think the peak of teen media I mean that was the hub for pop culture and for teen culture then we
had iconic teen films that still hold up today like The Breakfast Club pretty and pink 16 Candles
TV shows like The Facts of Life Different Strokes then moving into the '90s we had shows like Sabrina the
Teenage Witch my so called life 0210 Daria Buffy Maisha Freaks and Geeks early 2000s there was One Tree Hill
Dawson's Creek Gilmore Girls Gossip Girl even award shows like the VMAs had such an iconic place in pop culture that we
don't really see today I mean the VMAs are still going on but I think the early 2000s era of of the VMAs was just so
iconic and is unmatched and the today's VMAs can't live up to that level of popularity but the reason that is is
because you know the nature of television has changed so much with streaming and social media I mean back
then everybody was gathering around their TV at the same time to watch this event and you would watch it with your
friends and your families and you know you would sit down front of your TV to watch a music video debut on MTV or you
would watch your favorite pop star win a moonman and you know deliver a stellar iconic performance that would define
their career then go to school the next day and talk about it with your friends and your teachers and cuz everybody was
watching it it was communal it was Universal it was just special award shows just aren't what they used to be
and teen TV shows definitely are not what they used to be I'd say the most popular teen TV show these days is
Euphoria Euphoria was is a huge huge moment in pop culture for Gen Z and then there were skins which came a few years
before but I I don't really see the same kinds of TV shows that we were getting in the early 2000s and even the '90s cuz
Euphoria I mean if you've seen it you know it's a very heavy show it's quite adult honestly and although sure
Euphoria depicts realities for a lot of teenagers and America I wouldn't say it's necessarily a universal experience
and it it touches on very dark subjects and we don't really get shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch anymore but I
think that makes sense considering the way you know teens interact with media today things are a lot more heavier and
darker and more adult and I I think Euphoria kind of represents that change of you know teen media being more
aren't dedicated teen networks for kids to watch relatable teen life content and the last part of the Teen media section
I want to talk about is magazines because magazines definitely have played a huge part in teen media and totally
hopped on to the rise of the teenager very early on 17 magazine being the first teen magazine to emerge in I
believe the 1940s and then of course we have te magazine Cosmo Teen Vogue j14 I used to buy j14 as a kid and collect all
of the celebrity posters I miss those days do people still buy teen magazines like that's I mean people don't really
buy magazines in general anymore but I I mean are are the 11-year-olds of today buying j14 and hanging up like I don't
know Olivia Rodrigo posters in their bedroom now I want to talk about teen clothing brands because where are they
where have they gone where did kids shop shop like there used to be Justice which is more of like a tween like older Child
store but still teen tween nonetheless diaas Wet Seal Claire's abber comian fish Hot Topic uh Spencers all these
stores have kind of gone out of style I mean I know people still shop at like Paxon and stuff but you know Most teens
these days shop at like Lululemon or H&M or Sheen 57% of teens site Amazon as their number one favorite e-commerce
site with n Sheen Lululemon and Pon taking spots 2 through 5 I think the main reason why we don't see Teen
oriented clothing stores anymore is because of the decline of shopping malls you know like most of the stores I
mentioned like abber crry Hollister Justice Etc were usually in shopping malls and most people shop online like
on Amazon for clothing and I also think with the rise of Tik Tok and the way that Tik Tok has shifted the trend
cycles for fashion teenagers are more interested in following in online clothing trends that most young adults
are wearing and following Justice is with Walmart now but we don't really see a lot of tween fashion brands anymore
Trend forecaster Katherine Irving says I think that the teen Market in general is such a tough transitional phase for kids
and stores are still finding it hard to navigate the other thing is that customers are moving in and out quickly
through the tween range that you're constantly doing customer Acquisitions so it's just a little bit of a tricky
area in the market the tween Market especially I think has like kind of disappeared I mean I'm also in my 20s so
I'm not talking to people below the age of like 21 ever so I don't really know what the what the scene is like for the
kids 10 to 14 but Justice's original intended age Market was between 6 to 14 but most girls who shop at Justice are
around 10 years old I think kids especially now more than ever just want to dress older and you know dress like
their favorite influencers So Stories like like justice aren't incredibly appealing to them but you know if
there's any 6 to 14-year-olds out there watching this video let me know what are y'all wearing the unring thought now is
who is the tween girl and what does she like because it's no longer glitter graphic teas with positive affirmations
across the chest nor is it something radically adult the in between and constant fluctuation of self is what has
young people abandoning these Staple stores and hence tween Brands precipitously declining Cottage core
Barbie Corp mermaid Corp preppy core all these cores circulate on Tik Tok giving impressionable teens a one-size fits-all
approach to style when you're submerging yourself into the retail world as your own person for the first time it can be
the needed guidance to find individuality or affirmation from the masses I think that's interesting cuz
when I was in like the Justice age range of like 6 to 14 I feel like for the most part we all dressed the same I would say
once I hit like 12 13 I I started to find my own style and I was like super emo but for the most part there there
weren't so many options there weren't so many different Aesthetics to choose from there was like a handful of them yeah
people dress preppy like maybe You' shop at like what's that store with the pink whale Vineyard Vines or you shopped at
Hot Topic like me or you went to abber cromi and Fitch but I don't remember feeling the same pressure of trying to
find an aesthetic or a core to identify with and it wasn't like shoved down our throats back then as it is now with Tik
Tok and everything there's so many Niche cores Niche Aesthetics that it I'm sure is overwhelming for young kids to try to
choose because you don't even know who you are so you're just trying on all these different identities trying to see
what fits which I think is like natural in general with Brands notably known for targeting more mature clientele becoming
the staple shopping points for the younger crowd the question arises will pre-teen fashion eventually die out will
this homogeneous fashion movement become the norm and will it be customary for a 12 and 24-year-old to R on the same
aisles my question exactly which is kind of scary to think about but I think that's accurate I think it's true that's
kind of the reality of it so speaking of shopping malls I want to talk about third spaces because I think the lack of
third spaces is a real issue for everybody but especially for teenagers so third spaces are the social
surroundings that are separate from the two usual social environments of home first place and the workplace second
place examples of third places include churches cafes clubs public libraries gyms bookstores Stoops and Parks do you
guys remember that show 16 it was like an animated TV show on like Teen Nick or something and it literally is about
teenagers hanging out in a mall and like that concept I feel like is dead like that's not a thing anymore I remember
when I was in Middle School we would go to this place called like the Rio and it was basically just a bunch of stores and
there was like a pier and like a movie theater um and just just like it people would literally go there on Friday
nights like middle schoolers like myself would go in their best abber cromie fit and roam around with their friends just
living off the land and it was great and we didn't have to spend money and we just had ourselves and our and our
imagination and I don't know if kids have that anymore or if they feel a desire to do that anymore like obviously
shopping centers are still a thing but I wonder if social media has stopped kids from going two third spaces to socialize
and interact with each other and meet other kids their age kids need third spaces so they can do that you know
places where they don't have to spend money or have to focus on education or learning but just have time to learn
about themselves and grow and form friendships for teenagers today if you want to go to a place like David Busters
or whatever you have to spend a minimum of $50 to $100 we also have to think about what is the structure we are
creating for them so that they are able to learn how to socialize and be social without being gayk kept I think the
internet and social media has really served as a replacement for third spaces especially now that shopping malls have
greatly declined since the rise of online shopping um you know teenagers aren't reading as much either and so I
doubt they're like hanging out at libraries not that you know if you're going to the library with your friends
you're like there to read but I don't know I just feel like places where teens used to hang out aren't really
popular anymore or places where teens today would think oh yeah we should go here but again I'm not a teenager so I'm
a little like toned deaf in that regard and not to mention the fact that you know if you want to socialize with your
friends you can do it online and I think a lot of people especially younger people see socializing online as like
the first Resort when it comes to interaction with friends I have to double check this but I'm pretty sure
this generation of teenagers is at a record low when it comes to sexual activity and having a driver's license
and so I think that just proves that kids really aren't going out they're not going places they're not doing a lot of
the things that teens of the past used to do like sexual exploration isn't as popular and I think a lot of that has to
do with like general anxiety and insecurity and of course I'm blaming it on social media because like if you're a
teenager and you're comparing yourself to like a 24-year-old influencer and that's like what you're seeing all day
and that's the norm when it comes to a beautiful and what's aspirational that'll really warp your self-perception
like magazines were a thing of course and teenagers were comparing themselves to models and magazines but social media
has really infiltrated I think what is considered to be normal and like so many teenagers are looking older these days
because you know they have access to YouTube and Tik Tok and they can you know watch these tutorials and how to
beat their face and they can learn how to dress like a adult women and they're shopping at the same places as adult
women and so there almost I feel like there's like a sense of like competition to be like oh I have to look like this
grown ass lady to be considered beautiful I think the anxiety that is bred from social media use has caused
kids to stay home and to not want to interact and be vulnerable with each other social media is such a distraction
too I mean teens were just sucking and [ __ ] back then cuz there was nothing better to do but now you can I don't
know scroll on Tik Tok and play Candy Crush no one plays Candy Crush anymore what am I saying third placees public
settings which offer sociability and Community Connection May Foster adaptive responding through the mutually
consecutive mutually reinforcing and interrelated mechanisms of psychological sense of community and Social Capital
that is so important like kids need that kids need third spaces for psychological and Social Development it's a it's a
huge core part of the teenage experience so they learn how to socialize and I I really like think that teenagers today
are suffering when it comes to the skill of socializing and making friends adults suffer from this too making friends is
so hard but I do worry for the younger generation that their social skills will be inept and and they will be
underdeveloped and I can't imagine what it'll look like when they're in college and when they're in their 20s and I'm
afraid that teens will just never go outside and they'll never get out of their comfort zone and break these
barriers of social anxiety and it'll only just get worse so yeah if you're a teenager I'd love to know what your
thoughts are on this or if you're an adult and you know you want to give your own experience about what it was like
being a teenager before Tik Tok and Instagram and all this stuff I'd love to know your thoughts um so yeah is teen
hood and tween Hood dead is it on the decline is it extinct will there be a shift back to teen oriented media and
spaces I hope so but you know only time will tell and hopefully maybe this Gap will be filled by some entrepreneurial
genzer who knows but let me know what your thoughts are in the comments and I'll see you in the next video
[Music] bye KN PR I'm Coming For The Goal so don't get in my way yeah yeah yeah yeah