Is It Harder to Grow Up in the 21st Century Than It Was in the Past? (Writing - Izzy)

Blog Post 1 (Writing): Is It Harder to Grow Up in the 21st Century Than It Was in the Past?

This question could be looked at several different ways, and I understand and can reason with both sides of the argument but for the purpose of this post, I do have an opinion. I think that it is much harder to grow up in the 21st century than it was in the past. Although I understand the opposing argument when it comes to the raging sexism, racism, and the extreme homophobic opinions of the eras before the 2000s, I have several counterarguments. Although it is not as obvious today, there is still underlying sexism in our workplaces, violence rooted in racism occurring across the country (the significant death of George Floyd in 2020, for instance), and legislative regulations and laws that strive to hurt the LGBTQIA2S+ community. I also understand that there were moments in history that must be acknowledged as some of the human race’s darkest moments (such as slavery, the world wars, and The Great Depression), but perhaps one may see that today’s era has many, many issues of its own. There are two factors, specifically, that support my belief that life today may be harder than the centuries past.

Some of the biggest issues in today’s society are social media and AI. Today’s technology is ever-changing and further developing, which continuously proves to be both good and bad. AI has several important uses that can be found across the industries, such as accessing medical databases that need to be on hand and easily in reach during medical procedures or fatal situations. AI is also used in developing military weapons and can even be used in every-day life for studying or research. AI has also furthered the development of the automobile industry, creating cars that are much more sustainable and eco friendly. AI is used in environmental sciences, engineering, agriculture, and so much more. But AI also has its flaws. The important question to ask is, can AI be trusted? Is this fountain of information, intelligence, and industry-changing abilities without its consequences? The answer is no, the list of consequences is extensive and growing.

First, AI in education has become extremely problematic. Although the tool may be useful for creating study guides for late night cramming sessions, lesson planning, or quick calculations, it is more often used in shadier circumstances. AI proves problematic when students struggle in a subject or simply do not want to complete their work, because they can easily resort to AI to generate the answers of an assignment without actually registering the information and gaining understanding. ChatGPT, specifically, is used all over the country in schools for generating essays or articles based on a single prompt that a student submits. This writing is then copied and pasted by the students into their document and submitted, receiving credit for work they never actually completed. In an article from ScienceNews about ChatGPT, the author writes, “A lot of students have used ChatGPT out of curiosity or for entertainment… But students can also use it to cheat. ChatGPT marks the beginning of a new wave of AI, a wave that’s poised to disrupt education” (Hulick). Kathryn Hulick continues on with a few statistics supporting her claim, writing, “When Stanford University’s student-run newspaper polled students at the university, 17 percent said they had used ChatGPT on assignments or exams at the end of 2022. Some admitted to submitting the chatbot’s writing as their own. For now, these students and others are probably getting away with it. That’s because ChatGPT often does an excellent job” (Hulick). Hulick is correct in stating that ChatGPT does an excellent job masking its writing so that it looks as though a student has written its work, which makes the process of grading infinitely more difficult for teachers when AI is in play. When these students enter the real world for the first time after using AI to get through their educational years, nothing good can come from that transition. Although my example references writing, AI is used across all subjects in education. These adults won’t know how to solve relatively simple math equations or understand a scientific theory used in everyday life. If this continues on, the effects over time will result in a world full of illiterate and dense individuals. 

Additional to use in education, AI has been a leading cause of division in politics, specifically over social media. The two main political stances in this country’s era are liberal and conservative, both of which have become frighteningly extreme. The gap between each party’s views and respect for one another used to be much smaller and closer together. Today, the parties consistently pick fights over significant world events, immaturely poking fun at the opposing side’s major leaders. Instead of uniting and working together to make our country a better place, we pick the other side apart and forget the people in need across the United States, the people who need the help of those in power. Some of the biggest controversies and questionable moves of our major political figures have taken place over social media, and AI is always a key player. Many AI-generated images of and/or made by political figures have exploded over the internet, causing confusion over what is real and what isn’t. For instance, an NPR article by Shannon Bond informs that, during the 2024 presidential election, “Trump posted a cartoonish AI  image purporting to show Taylor Swift endorsing him - which, to be clear, she didn’t” (Bond). This deepfake falsely claimed Taylor Swift’s political views and became highly controversial, further confusing the public on who to trust (especially when high power officials misuse the technology). Not only is AI used for images and photographs, but also the highly-developed technology has been used in multiple instances to skew election results through social media, which is extremely harmful when the country wishes to maintain a democracy. In a study from PEW research center, data shows that “1 in 5 Americans now regularly get news on TikTok” (Tomasik and Matsa). This means that much of the United States’ adult population is easily misinformed. In a related study, the Washington State Standard writes that “Today’s AI algorithms can extract information about you far beyond general demographics like age and gender, to include unique interests and affiliations. That information is then used by campaigns for targeted advertising to nearly all of your online spaces” (Gross). Clearly, AI plays a bigger role in elections than we thought, specifically in generating content online based around a certain political party to impact a voter’s political opinions. AI can now be considered one of today’s era’s main forms of propaganda. 

Finally, one of the main reasons our highly powerful technology is an issue is its effects on the mental health of its users. Across the nation, the quality of our mental health has been seriously declining, especially for the people who use social media consistently or have an excessive amount of screen time. Social media may seem useful for connection with other people, but it is also a cause of disconnection with other human beings in real life and causes mental health issues. In a study by the National Center For Health Research, Elina Mar, Sunny Cui, and Andrea Sun write that “Although social media can allow people to reach out and connect with others, it can also make some people feel worse. Almost 25% of adolescents believe that social media has a mostly negative effect. With 13% of 12-17-year-olds reporting depression and 32% reporting anxiety, mental illness is a concern for adolescent health. It is a concern for young adults as well, since 33.7% of 18-25-year-olds report having some form of mental illness. Depression is particularly increasing among girls” (Mar, Cui, and Sun). Not only is social media a concern for the increase of mental health issues in young adults, it is also a source of impossible body standards. Across social media, influencers are documenting their weight loss journeys and posting pictures of their perfect bodies. Body standards not only cause self-deprecation, but many of these photos are either heavily edited or generated by AI. Otherwise, the lifestyles that these people are living are unhealthy and unrealistic. In an article from BBC, the author writes, “A systematic review of 20 papers published in 2016 found that photo-based activities, like scrolling through Instagram or posting pictures of yourself, were a particular problem when it came to negative thoughts about your body” (Oakes). This study was from 2016, which was nearly 10 years ago. Surely, there has been an uptick in mental health problems related to body-image caused by social media since then. Social media endorses the idea that there is only one perfect type of body instead of welcoming all body types. 

To conclude, while AI and social media have many benefits, one must be conscious of their cons as well. Much of today’s world revolves around our advanced technology and these two forms of technology have proven to have devastating effects on our mental health. 

Sources:

Hulick, Katherine. “How ChatGPT and similar AI will disrupt education”, ScienceNews, April 12, 2023, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/chatgpt-ai-artificial-intelligence-education-cheating-accuracy

Bond, Shannon. “How AI deepfakes polluted elections in 2024”, NPR, December 21, 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/12/21/nx-s1-5220301/deepfakes-memes-artificial-intelligence-elections

Matsa, Katerina Eva and Tomasik, Emily. “1 and 5 Americans now regularly get new on TikTok, up sharply from 2020”, Pew Research Center, September 25, 2025, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/09/25/1-in-5-americans-now-regularly-get-news-on-tiktok-up-sharply-from-2020/

Gross, Paige. “Americans, anxious about AI’s role in the election, may not know its full scope, expert says”, Washington State Standard, November 1, 2024, https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/11/01/americans-anxious-about-ais-role-in-the-election-may-not-know-its-full-scope-expert-says/

Mir, Elina, Cui, Sunny, and Sun, Andrea. “Social Media and Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Mental Health”, National Center For Health Research,  https://www.center4research.org/social-media-affects-mental-health/

Oakes, Kelly. “The complicated truth about social media and body image”, NPR, March 11, 2019,

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190311-how-social-media-affects-body-image