Laughing at Our Children's Misery

So, as we all know “Do it for the Vine!” is the new mating call for attention seekers across the world wide web to perform for our entertainment, judgment and validation with the hope that maybe this video will go viral. And that's all well and good I suppose, there are those who like to entertain and those who seek entertainment and the two often meet on these grounds however, what about the non-entertainer entertainers? Those who've been shoved into the spotlight so the rest of us can get a hearty chuckle at their most vulnerable, embarrassing and gut-wrenchingly awkward moments and who have no idea of the social implications of it all? Yep I’m talking about kids, your kids and what I like to call ‘Kid Misery’ videos.

‘But Joyy’ you say ‘these videos are all in good fun and hilarious to boot!’ And honestly, yeah I kinda agree. I admit to getting a nice giggle out of watching Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy’ challenge for a couple years now and the mountains of other random videos parents post of temper tantrums, pranks, and pre-spanking behavior but after watching I can't help but feel this might have some interesting consequences down the line.

Imagine for a minute that if every time you cried, fell, or were otherwise enjoying a care-free day of childhood your folks were sticking a camera in your face in the hopes of catching you doing something noteworthy enough to get other people’s attention? Firstly, you'd probably think your folks were nuts, following you around like you're a member of Real Housewives of Atlanta or something but secondly, you'd probably start to learn that to get their attention or make them happy, you'd have to perform and not only for them but for the whole world. Now I don't have statistics around this, which I would love to get my hands on, but I do have experience working with children and know how willing they can be to do just about anything when they want to please people or make them happy and therein lies the problem. With every video we as a society are reinforcing the idea in children that to get love you have to get validation from others, and that’s dangerous. We are already a culture who's bought into commercializing all aspects of our lives but we should want our children to push beyond that limited thinking.

The majority of grown folk now, grew up without their every move being documented and I'm grateful for that and the grounding that gives a person. I can’t imagine how it feels to be a kid in this era of ‘personal branding’ where everything you do has to be camera ready, seamless and open to public opinion. Where the slightest mistake is no longer a lesson to embrace but a shameful blemish on what needs to be a flawless social record and where not posting every meal, nap, love, outfit or act in your life is considered...weird. Even as an adult it’s difficult to maneuver through this world, you can’t imagine how long it can take me to write a response to thread on Facebook so I can only imagine what the teens, tweens and toddlers are going through in their day to day, when their entire identity rests in the hands of the peers. So, as hard as this might be, parents please put the cameras down during tantrums sprouting for your boldface lies about eating Halloween candy and giving fake Christmas presents, or when your baby is falling a sleep in a shopping cart because he literally cannot control how over his body is from enduring your shopping habit. Stop laughing at your babies when they are at their emotional, physical or spiritual lowest, it could lead them to not know when to NOT “Do it for the Vine!”