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>All of them said they voluntarily get their grades pushed to their phones through notifications. It took me a minute to realize just how annoying and agonizing

>All of them said they voluntarily get their grades pushed to their phones through notifications. It took me a minute to realize just how annoying and agonizing that must feel. It means that at any moment, they could find out they bombed a test or missed an assignment. Instead of having the time to mentally prepare to receive a bad grade Our lives have gotten so easy that we now write articles about how push notifications of grades "consumes" children with anxiety. Here's an idea. Maybe kids are more anxious these days because instead of, especially in the case of faux adversity like going to school, teaching them to be strong, we legitimize their anxiety, and worse, take them to doctors who prescribe them with unnecessary drugs for what amounts to normal and healthy teenage angst. Here's another idea. It's normal for life to get a little scary when you're starting puberty. And giving young kids terrifying materials like "43 pages long" course registration manuals (the horror!) is an opportunity to teach young teens the value in planning ahead and taking control of one's life. We shouldn't normalize their anxiety over making decisions and commitments - it's a year of schoolwork! Big deal! Just wait until real life! What's the problem? If we don't expose these kids to stress and teach them to accept it as part of normal life, they'll grow into helpless, anxiety ridden adults, as I seem to see among many of my contemporaries, perpetual children in their late 20s who do not understand commitment or forsight. Given that this is from vox, I can't help but notice themes in common with nonsense like toxic masculinity - this is all opportunity to begin on a path of success from an earlier age, and instead of celebrating it, vox predictably avoids the celebration of achievement and complains that it's too hard and we're scaring our poor children with talk of futures and grades! The rift in our country starts here. At the divide between collectivism and individualism. But what vox et al. fail to understand is that when you vehemently shun individualism and achievement, instead focusing excessively on minimizing difficulty, your collective will fail, as those that exist within it become increasingly incompetent.

kaitai 8y ago
It's interesting that I agree with you at a few key points, but utterly disagree with your post in a few other places. Agree: "The rift in our country starts here. At the divide between collectivism and individualism." Interestingly, I think the problems described in the article are entirely from the whole-hearted embrace of individualism that America has fallen into. There is not communal or collective effort at all; these kids are told that they need to be fighting each other in the stack ranking of life for the next 18-65 years. No one will take care of them if they get sick or injured -- they need to save for that, and saving requires a good-paying job, which requires the right career path, which requires optimizing your class schedule in 8th grade and not accruing a police record for tipping cows or outhouses or, God forbid, spreading a little nitrogen triiodide in the high school hallway as a prank. That'll get you a terrorism charge. In some sense I again agree with your first paragraph: "Our lives have gotten so easy that..." and the note about "faux adversity". I think we'd all be more mentally healthy if we spent more time in the woods or desert, where Nature doesn't care about your GPA or your career cluster, but you can truly test yourself against physical reality. Heck, even weightlifting can provide a touch of that. But again, it's not faux adversity when you see your parents missing mortgage payments because of the government shutdown and you realize that they went to college & did everything "right" and yet because they're not 5%-ers in the US your life in the good school district is precarious. It's not faux adversity when you see your parents get the $24,000 bill (after insurance!) for a broken arm from Zuckerberg Hospital. This is created adversity. We have created a system in which there is no floor and no escape from debts. All rests on the individual, and if you get old, or sick before you're old, you're f*(&ed.
- feistypharit 8y ago
  "Interestingly, I think the problems described in the article are entirely from the whole-hearted embrace of individualism that America has fallen into. There is not communal or collective effort at all;" Totally agree. The every man for himself is a very harsh system to live in.

kaitai 8y ago

It's interesting that I agree with you at a few key points, but utterly disagree with your post in a few other places. Agree: "The rift in our country starts here. At the divide between collectivism and individualism." Interestingly, I think the problems described in the article are entirely from the whole-hearted embrace of individualism that America has fallen into. There is not communal or collective effort at all; these kids are told that they need to be fighting each other in the stack ranking of life for the next 18-65 years. No one will take care of them if they get sick or injured -- they need to save for that, and saving requires a good-paying job, which requires the right career path, which requires optimizing your class schedule in 8th grade and not accruing a police record for tipping cows or outhouses or, God forbid, spreading a little nitrogen triiodide in the high school hallway as a prank. That'll get you a terrorism charge. In some sense I again agree with your first paragraph: "Our lives have gotten so easy that..." and the note about "faux adversity". I think we'd all be more mentally healthy if we spent more time in the woods or desert, where Nature doesn't care about your GPA or your career cluster, but you can truly test yourself against physical reality. Heck, even weightlifting can provide a touch of that. But again, it's not faux adversity when you see your parents missing mortgage payments because of the government shutdown and you realize that they went to college & did everything "right" and yet because they're not 5%-ers in the US your life in the good school district is precarious. It's not faux adversity when you see your parents get the $24,000 bill (after insurance!) for a broken arm from Zuckerberg Hospital. This is created adversity. We have created a system in which there is no floor and no escape from debts. All rests on the individual, and if you get old, or sick before you're old, you're f*(&ed.

feistypharit 8y ago
"Interestingly, I think the problems described in the article are entirely from the whole-hearted embrace of individualism that America has fallen into. There is not communal or collective effort at all;" Totally agree. The every man for himself is a very harsh system to live in.