If we're talking about music, movies, fashion styles, etc, I'd say yes. However, no previous generation has had the juggernuat that is FB to compare to. FB has had more (at least potential) than any other source of influence on the younger generations especially those that are young enough to never know life without FB.
I would say FB's reaches deeper into our lives than previous media did.
This might be a cultural thing, but it is not uncommon to have radios/TVs in the bedroom.
They have been evil.
Facebook and Instagram have been so much worse it would have been inconceivable to me had I not seen it with my own eyes.
Youtube has done its share too, with exploitative kids videos and every kid wanting to become a youtuber.
We need regulation on all of this shit 20 years ago.
There're no likes and comments and self and peer generated content on TV.
Every single generation for all of time has said this.
People thought rock and roll was the end of the world.
https://www.usi.edu/news/releases/2017/02/rock-n-roll-and-mo...
I mean sure, the music was just one manifestation of the cultural shifts through the late 60s and 70s, but those people complaining about it were broadly right in that it was a real threat to their way of life, if wrong about their most dire and hyperbolic predictions of the consequences.
Personally I think there's tons that's very positive about Instagram, but even if I didn't, it's not for me to dictate how the next generation chooses to communicate and enjoy themselves.
I do sympathise with the libertarian take on this, if people like and enjoy Instagram that's up to them, but these social media platforms are not neutral channels. They tailor their feeds individually, to users who have limited control of their feed. The platform is in control and they manipulate the feed to serve their own interests.
I'm not going to say therefore we should do this or that thing, I don't know what the right thing is to do.
Would you accept that in principle the level of control platforms have over their feeds, and the incentives they have to do so, potentially opens them up to some level of responsibility for the consequences?
The issue isn't a changing of culture, it's an issue of mental health. Previous generations "looked down" on things like music because it was a cultural phenomenon they didn't understand or care for. I don't recall any previous generation that was facing massive mental health issues as a result of their cultural changes.
I still think some of the new music being produced is garbage and some is good. I think it's hilarious to see 20-somtehing girls wearing baggy clothing that looks like it's straight out of the early 90s. None of those things have me concerned for their mental well-being. Sanity perhaps*.
*joking
It's the same record on repeat.
It's about getting damaged self esteem and feelings of worthlessness
That's a different dimension
A 24/7 lie machine producing and creating lies around them with the people they know as the stars of the lies. It's a constant bombardment of imagery using people they know this has never been seen before because it has literally been impossible. There is no walking away or shutting it off, it happens outside of school and inside school.
I think your eagerness to dismiss this as a non-threat is a luxury of your age, privilege, and your likely enjoyment of the platform. I find it truly incredible you think other generations have experienced this... because it's quite plain none have.
This is a totally different statement. Every generation said the kids are being corrupted. It may be the case that this time the kids really are being corrupted.
The whole point of the thread is that armchair psychology says the same thing it always does: the kids are being corrupted. Actual research says: the kids are being corrupted and that IG is different.
The point is that we need the research.
It's their self esteem that can get damaged.
Computer gaming addiction, and worrying about likes on FB and elsewhere, and feeling worthless, are in a different dimension than "corrupted clothes" and music.
It's more comparable to getting bullied maybe, than music and fashion.