Dear Young People, You Terrify Me
Channel: vlogbrothers
Date: 2018-02-23

Once I started writing this video I realized that there was a great deal that I wasn't going to be able to fit into a 4 minute video. There are times, like when I'm watching a Logan Paul video or reading about Tide Pod challenges that the natural response for an older adult is to just overwhelming anxiety for next generation.

And, indeed, I've watched as bad ideas (much worse than tide pods) have taken over young people in a way I did not expect and am extremely stressed out by. I worry a lot about people who figure out how to capture this energy for their own gain and do not consider the responsibility that their power brings, or think that they are righteous when they are in fact leaning into culturally destructive ideas.

But also, I have found the level of responsibility pretty paralyzing. John and I have both been shying away from cultural criticism on this channel because, like, I feel more and more drawn to stability and that means compassion for people who are intolerant, but don't necessarily know they are. And I feel like people often (maybe rightfully, I don't know) get roasted for that kind of behavior. 

So this video was a surface-level discussion of a deeper and more intense thing that I've been experiencing, and that is pushing me a little bit away from four-minute explorations of culture because:

1. I don't know if I have the guts to put myself on the line for things that I completely recognize I might be wrong about.

2. I don't know if internet-based, echo-chamber-riddled discussion about any of these things is actually helping. 

Also, a thing I cut from this is how, just like genetic mutations usually do nothing, I believe we can freak out about cultural changes that actually have no real effect on people. And sometimes the changes are absolutely negative. The way brains are set up after new dopamine channels open around puberty to when the frontal cortex finishes developing in the mid-20s is a recipe for indulging in bad ideas, and individuals certainly suffer when that carries them to the wrong place. Culture at large can suffer as well. 

But it can also mean great things...great change...great action. And that's how I'm feeling right now. 

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