Have you ever heard the phase, “Don’t rush this time, it goes by so fast, enjoy your childhood.” told to you by your parents? Many of us have, by either an adult, older sibling, or just a person a few years older than us. There’s a reason they all say this to us often, because there’s a toxic social culture that surrounds teens and school environments today than ever before. Technology has made it easier for all of us to gather and interact all on the same level. The easy access that children have to technology creates a gateway for them to see, hear, and witness all sorts of traumatizing things that a young brain shouldn’t be absorbing.

Phones and other technological devices are given to ages earlier and earlier than they should be. Falling into the web and certain apps meant for adults and older teens is a lot easier now. Finding older kids’ hotspots on social media creates the opportunity for them to stumble upon a lot of things they shouldn’t know yet. Social media has created a romanticization of depression, ED’s, mental health issues, heartbreak, love, recklessness, and egoism. There’s hype surrounding teens and all the things they engage in because their behavior is unpredictable and spontaneous. Their brains are still developing, especially their sense of right and wrong. When other ages see this, they think “Oh I can do it too because the older kids are.”

That’s usually where the adults start saying try not to do it all so fast, make levelheaded decisions, and that there’s a reason we have middle and high school. They look back on their mistakes and wish most of all, they hadn’t done everything so quickly, so impatient, and without thinking. Maybe if they had someone around to guide them, these fast decision-made mistakes could’ve been avoided sooner. There’s 5-6 years that make up our teen years, half a decade, giving us plenty of time to enjoy our childhood and grow up when we were meant to because adulthood is finding that exact balance of work and play. So how can you do that when you’re trying to heal from all the struggles you created for yourself during your youth?

That’s the whole point of being told to stop and smell the roses, enjoy the carefree moments where you have no obligations to anyone or anything before you have no choice but to move with the rest of the real world. It’s important to talk to the younger generations, make sure our family, friends and even strangers know they’re not alone and they have at least one person to relate to. Its important to emphasize the difference between early and older teens and what they should be experiencing right now, it may save someone from a harmful core memory.