9 ms·

The Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens

71 points by samsolomon 11y ago

ikeboy 11y ago
Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11133663 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11133663
- kelukelugames 11y ago
  Yes, I remember this was posted recently. I thought the wait period for dupes was a year?
  - striking 11y ago
    It used to be something like that. It now appears to be based on the number of votes as well as the amount of time.
  - dang 11y ago
    It is, so we've buried this one.
evilDagmar 11y ago
What I just don't get is how these teens who were supposedly so internet and media savvy and established huge followings based on "being honest" or somesuch couldn't see that deliberately posting low-quality content which was fundamentally dishonest (the opposite of what they'd been doing) was just as certainly going to hurt them. ...and that thousands of teenagers are apparently involved in this kind of thing, it's probably safe to call it "widespread". Clearly there's a lapse here, but I'm uncertain if it's an ethics problem or simply an educational problem (we didn't teach them not to deliberately poop into the internet).
- Raphmedia 11y ago
  > deliberately poop into the internet Take a look at the Youtube Poop movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_Poop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_Poop
- xlm1717 11y ago
  They're teens, good judgment is something they're still working on developing.
  - jdmichal 11y ago
    I'm over 30, and it's occasionally made obvious to me that good judgement is something that I'm still working on. It's a skill and like anything other skill in life, starting early and lifetime learning is the best solution.
- mhurron 11y ago
  > supposedly This is the reason. Kids and teens are not anything savvy in reality, and specifically are no more internet savvy than anyone else.
  - lostgame 11y ago
    Umm...pardon me? I'm pretty sure kids under 20 are far, incomparably, even, more internet-savvy than the previous generations. Just because there's a small percentage of 20-50-somethings who actually understand or use it, doesn't mean there's not a huge percentage of 7-year-olds who understand technology infinitely better than their parents. This is the norm, not an exception. Proof? Let's take something super-recent - Microsoft's ludicrous failure with 'Tay.' The lack of 4chan/reddit-proofing indicates how wildly out of touch the previous generation is with the internet of the current generation. It's sad.
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      Not really, no. The current generation of kids is growing up with the Internet, but that doesn't mean they're automatically "tech-savvy" or "Internet-savvy". For most, it's just another magic box. I think it's time to bring up this classic: http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/ http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-comput.... RE Tay fiaso, I wouldn't blame it on previous generation being out of touch. Programming is a mainstream discipline now, most programmers are out of touch with the messier side of the Internet just like most kids these days.
      - naveen99 11y ago
        Fun stories from tech support. But why is he trying to "clean viruses". He should be just saving some data, and then reinstalling from scratch... Also, while ios isn't quite as open as desktop oses, at least it has an sdk and we have internet. Growing up, I couldn't write software for my nintendo as easily as for ios.
    - dsp1234 11y ago
      far, incomparably, even, more internet-savvy than the previous generations. Counterpoint: My mother will not post personally identifying information online because she's afraid that it will be used against her later in life. Part of being internet-savvy is understanding that the internet never forgets, and that sooner or later what you say be used against you.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
amykhar 11y ago
In Internet time, this article is ancient.
mcphage 11y ago
> In early 2014, when she was 16, some Tumblr users dug up posts Miller had written when she was 13 in which she used the word “nigga.” Screenshots of the old posts went viral. At one point, according to Miller, she had 9,500 concurrent visitors on her blog and she received over 2,000 angry messages, some of them telling her to kill herself. If you're telling a child to go kill themselves, because of something they said when they were 13 years old, and didn't understand a complicated issue from halfway around the world...
- nmeofthestate 11y ago
  ...you should kill yourself? Maybe most of the messages were from 13 year olds.
jabberjones 11y ago
And those are just the secret lives someone would attach their name to: http://abdlstoryforum.info/forums/index.php/topic,6486.msg63620.html#msg63620 http://abdlstoryforum.info/forums/index.php/topic,6486.msg63... .

71 points by samsolomon 11y ago

ikeboy 11y ago

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11133663 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11133663

kelukelugames 11y ago
Yes, I remember this was posted recently. I thought the wait period for dupes was a year?
- striking 11y ago
  It used to be something like that. It now appears to be based on the number of votes as well as the amount of time.
- dang 11y ago
  It is, so we've buried this one.

evilDagmar 11y ago

What I just don't get is how these teens who were supposedly so internet and media savvy and established huge followings based on "being honest" or somesuch couldn't see that deliberately posting low-quality content which was fundamentally dishonest (the opposite of what they'd been doing) was just as certainly going to hurt them. ...and that thousands of teenagers are apparently involved in this kind of thing, it's probably safe to call it "widespread". Clearly there's a lapse here, but I'm uncertain if it's an ethics problem or simply an educational problem (we didn't teach them not to deliberately poop into the internet).

Raphmedia 11y ago
> deliberately poop into the internet Take a look at the Youtube Poop movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_Poop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_Poop
xlm1717 11y ago
They're teens, good judgment is something they're still working on developing.
- jdmichal 11y ago
  I'm over 30, and it's occasionally made obvious to me that good judgement is something that I'm still working on. It's a skill and like anything other skill in life, starting early and lifetime learning is the best solution.
mhurron 11y ago
> supposedly This is the reason. Kids and teens are not anything savvy in reality, and specifically are no more internet savvy than anyone else.
- lostgame 11y ago
  Umm...pardon me? I'm pretty sure kids under 20 are far, incomparably, even, more internet-savvy than the previous generations. Just because there's a small percentage of 20-50-somethings who actually understand or use it, doesn't mean there's not a huge percentage of 7-year-olds who understand technology infinitely better than their parents. This is the norm, not an exception. Proof? Let's take something super-recent - Microsoft's ludicrous failure with 'Tay.' The lack of 4chan/reddit-proofing indicates how wildly out of touch the previous generation is with the internet of the current generation. It's sad.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Not really, no. The current generation of kids is growing up with the Internet, but that doesn't mean they're automatically "tech-savvy" or "Internet-savvy". For most, it's just another magic box. I think it's time to bring up this classic: http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/ http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-comput.... RE Tay fiaso, I wouldn't blame it on previous generation being out of touch. Programming is a mainstream discipline now, most programmers are out of touch with the messier side of the Internet just like most kids these days.
    - naveen99 11y ago
      Fun stories from tech support. But why is he trying to "clean viruses". He should be just saving some data, and then reinstalling from scratch... Also, while ios isn't quite as open as desktop oses, at least it has an sdk and we have internet. Growing up, I couldn't write software for my nintendo as easily as for ios.
  - dsp1234 11y ago
    far, incomparably, even, more internet-savvy than the previous generations. Counterpoint: My mother will not post personally identifying information online because she's afraid that it will be used against her later in life. Part of being internet-savvy is understanding that the internet never forgets, and that sooner or later what you say be used against you.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

amykhar 11y ago

In Internet time, this article is ancient.

mcphage 11y ago

> In early 2014, when she was 16, some Tumblr users dug up posts Miller had written when she was 13 in which she used the word “nigga.” Screenshots of the old posts went viral. At one point, according to Miller, she had 9,500 concurrent visitors on her blog and she received over 2,000 angry messages, some of them telling her to kill herself. If you're telling a child to go kill themselves, because of something they said when they were 13 years old, and didn't understand a complicated issue from halfway around the world...

nmeofthestate 11y ago
...you should kill yourself? Maybe most of the messages were from 13 year olds.

jabberjones 11y ago

And those are just the secret lives someone would attach their name to: http://abdlstoryforum.info/forums/index.php/topic,6486.msg63620.html#msg63620 http://abdlstoryforum.info/forums/index.php/topic,6486.msg63... .