Oh I’m not normalizing it – although I used the normalizing-bad-things language because two cats are fighting here on the porch and I’m being careless in falling into tropes while I try to break them up (unsuccessfully – must be springtime)
I’ve been online since 1989 and seen a lot of subcultures and they fascinate me; but the influx of the humungous GenZ generation on the scene around 2011-12 online though is something I really didn’t expect.
I watched their generation absorb and sanitize a lot of what they found out there. Cleaner friendlier versions of scary things, cartoons where there once were real people; the raw political energy of GenY/Millennial generation transformed through Steven Universe, Minecraft and Roblox; and lots of fascinating subcultures emerged along the way with their own energies.
So a lot of kids that would’ve previously been ‘homeless and afloat’ online were able to find places and people to be with.
But… that worked on the positive and negative sides as well.
And if you’re a kid who is a target of one of the negative bullying groups, life for them can be hell.
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