A Generation of Indifferent Observers: Why Today’s Teenagers Are Amused by Other People’s Pain
Teenagers increasingly become participants or witnesses of violent situations. These are not only fights in schools or on the streets, but also moments when someone is sick and help never comes. Instead of intervention, filming on the phone begins, and comments and likes under the video come to the fore, destroying humanity. Aggression and indifference begin to merge into one phenomenon. There is no longer a difference between who is doing the damage and who is just watching. A silent presence with a camera in hand is no longer a neutral position. This is a new form of participation, where the main goal is not help, but reaction in social networks. Such manifestations have long ceased to be isolated cases, having turned into an alarming trend. When a lack of empathy becomes a habit, society risks losing its capacity for mutual support. With each such incident, we move further away from normal human responses and closer to an environment where indifference is considered the norm.
Content instead of help: How teenagers lost their humanity
On May 10, an event took place in Dnipro, in the residential area “Chervony Kamin”, which caused deep concern and indignation among Ukrainians. Local residents found a man’s body in the reservoir. People immediately called the police, but the public’s attention was drawn not only by the discovery itself, but also by what appeared on social networks. Soon it spread on the Internet video, probably filmed by teenagers who witnessed the tragedy. The camera recorded the last minutes of the life of a person who was fighting for survival. The teenagers simply filmed the process on their phones without making any attempt to help. Without emotion, without anxiety, without action, they filmed content to gain fame in social networks.
This case not only shocked, but also made us look into the eyes of a problem that is often preferred to remain silent. Indifference and aggression, wrapped in likes, reposts and comments, are increasingly manifested in the behavior of modern teenagers. While the man was fighting for his life, the teenagers were looking for a good perspective. And this is not just moral degradation, it is a mirror of the state in which part of the younger generation found itself. They were not born indifferent, but found themselves in a world where screens are more important than people, and reactions on the Internet are more valuable than real participation.
In the fall of last year, another disturbing “entertainment” was recorded in TikTok. Underage girls pretended to take “interview” in men with signs of intoxication or mental disorders. All this was presented as humor. The girls did not even understand that creating videos with the participation of vulnerable people as “living props” is not only unethical behavior, but also evidence of cruelty covered up as jokes. It is clear that such behavior has nothing to do with creativity, but is a direct evidence of the lack of basic human boundaries. People who cannot fully comprehend what is being done to them become tools to get views, and anyone who watches and laughs is actually participating in the humiliation.
The problem is not even specific girls, but the fact that such behavior has become the norm for most teenagers. More and more often, sympathy is replaced by ridicule, understanding is replaced by liking, and protection gives way to exploitation. And while adults shrug their shoulders, such “jokes” form in teenagers a distorted idea of the limits of what is permissible. Such behavior has nothing to do with journalism, social studies or humor. This is an example of heartless bullying. It should be understood that in the case of passive observation by society of such cases, the following “trends” may be even worse.
In Ivano-Frankivsk last year, the purposeful actions of a group of teenagers were recorded, which not only committed violence against the elderly, but also turned it into “content” for a limited circle of subscribers. IN I recorded the attackers can be seen approaching the victim from behind, knocking him down, and then beating him. This is not a mistake, not an accident, but a well-planned attack. The fact that these actions are accompanied by filming and distribution of videos only emphasizes the complete loss of moral guidelines. It is especially worrying that law enforcement officers learn about most of these cases not from official statements, but from social networks. People probably don’t go to the police because they don’t believe it will make a difference. Such silence only helps the attackers go unpunished.
The case when caring users independently found the injured woman and talked to her relatives and neighbors was illustrative. They learned that the police were called to the scene, but the statement was never accepted. This is another alarming signal about the indifference not only of the attackers, but also of the system that is supposed to protect.
Such behavior cannot be justified by fatigue, age or fear. If society remains silent, it automatically agrees. If the police do not record the appeal, they lose credibility. If adults do not respond to the criminal actions of teenagers, they are tacitly approving the violence. Each case of such an attack should become public. All videos of this nature should be reported to the police and not left in the comments and channels to watch. Silence allows bullying to continue. And this is something that each of us can stop with at least one message to the law enforcement agencies.
There was an incident in Kyiv when his own grandson brought his friends to his sick grandmother, not to visit or help, but to have fun. A group of boys entered a room where an old woman was lying on a bed and turned her state into an object of amusement. They pointed a toy gun at the wasted face of the grandmother and began to threaten her in order to record the “spectacular” video on Instagram. Even after angry comments poured in the address of the criminals, they still did not understand what they had done wrong.
The fact that they consider such behavior to be the norm says a lot more than the video itself. This is not just a lack of upbringing, but open contempt for elders, for those who deserve care and protection, but not a role in other people’s “jokes”. And it doesn’t matter whether the weapon is real or toy. Everyone who watched the video witnessed an act of moral violence. When elder abuse becomes part of entertainment, it is no longer a boundary, but an abyss into which our future generation is plummeting. Indifference to other people’s pain, mockery of physical weakness, complete lack of empathy are increasingly becoming the norm among young people.
Teenagers are increasingly looking for ways to express themselves online, and it seems that the boundaries of what is permissible in their eyes are disappearing. Aggressive behavior, violence against other people, including the elderly, becomes simply part of the content for them. This is not just random bullying, but deliberate actions aimed at getting more views, likes and followers.
Such acts cannot be justified by “ignorance” or “recklessness”. Rather, they are symptoms of a deeper problem where real-world values are giving way to illusory popularity in virtual space. Teenagers who make bets on playing with other people’s feelings believe that “nothing terrible” will happen if their actions are not noticed in an official context. They don’t understand that their laughter can hurt others, that likes are no substitute for real relationships, and that teenage pranks for internet fame can have consequences that are hard to fix.
They try to “stand out” in a world where serious life problems and emotions are replaced by trivial and cheap entertainment, and moral boundaries are blurred to the point of invisibility. However, such behavior not only destroys individual relationships, but also creates danger for the entire society. If impunity for such actions becomes the norm, we will have a generation that does not know what compassion or ethics are. Lack of respect for other people will become not just a normal thing, but a standard from which there is no escape.
A society that allows such behavior risks losing its moral foundation. Teenagers who do not see the consequences of their actions in real life can grow up to be people who will not be able to treat others with respect. The virtual world will begin to look like a space where everyone considers themselves unpunished, and no one feels the consequences of their aggressive actions. This is not just a problem of teenagers, it is a problem of the whole society, which should not allow such shameful behavior to become the norm.
What are the causes of teenage aggression
As you can see, teenage aggression is becoming less of an exception every day, turning into a common scenario. She is no longer hidden by the school yard or family conflicts. Now it has moved to another level, becoming public. We see manifestations of this aggression in recorded videos broadcast on TikTok, discussed in chats, liked on Instagram. Society looks on, blinks and swallows another story about bullying, bullying or attacks just on the street. But behind each such behavior there is a concrete ground.
Teenagers live under pressure that is not visible at first glance. The death of a loved one, abuse in the family, lack of emotional support, violence, the constant fear of being ashamed or being “not like that” eat deeply into the subconscious and eventually lead to rudeness, verbal attacks, fights, and sometimes much worse things. But we should not forget that teenagers are a reflection of ourselves. When a child watches in silence as their parents figure out the relationship every day, or struggles on their own with feelings of shame after routine humiliations, they accumulate anger. This anger requires an outlet, but instead of dialogue, help or support, the teenager chooses a way to be “noticed”.
Sometimes aggression can act as a mask. A teenager with anxiety or depression does not cry out for help. He shouts at others, insults the weak, provokes conflicts. Because being rude, funny and “unbreakable” in your environment seems much easier than admitting that it hurts. There are also those who have medical or mental disorders with which they are left alone. They are not explained what is happening to them, they are often not heard. And then the incomprehensible internal chaos spills over into physical or verbal aggression that frightens others.
The need to be accepted is no less dangerous. Teenagers do not want to be left out of the group. It is easier for them to join in the ridicule than to be the object of the jokes. And the worst thing is that there will always be an audience. In the form of followers, viewers or silent adults who avert their eyes.
When aggression becomes a way of life, and popularity on the Internet justifies any teenage cruelty, society gets a generation for which emotional dullness becomes a survival strategy. It is worth understanding that in this way we lose not only humanity, but also basic ideas about boundaries and respect. And while adults continue to pretend that “this is a transition age” or “it will pass”, aggression is gaining momentum. Sometimes she is at home, sometimes on the street, sometimes on the screen, but always close to each of us.
We often hear the phrase: “We weren’t like that”, but here it’s not a banal nostalgic syndrome, but a real difference, which today is hard not to notice. Teenagers of the past grew up with clear boundaries and ideas about good and bad. They could be brawlers, argue with teachers or sometimes bully in the yard, but at the same time they had the concept of conscience, shame and, most importantly, empathy.
Once upon a time, a child was ashamed to respond rudely to an elder, unlike mocking an elderly person. The grandmother in the yard was not a target for jokes, but someone who could give candy, pity or tell something of life. The boys had ideals – a grandfather who went through the war, a father who worked from morning to night. The girls have moms who taught them kindness, not Instagram filters. Children grew up in a world where books, friendship, respect, and even boredom meant something, which made them invent, not degrade.
Today’s teenagers often have as a role model not a hero, not a person with deeds, but a blogger who became famous for spitting in someone’s food or filming himself breaking an urn. Today, popularity does not require talent, intelligence or inner core. Today it is enough to be loud, rude, defiant. Empathy has become a weakness, kindness sounds like a made-up word, and mocking someone else’s pain makes it possible to become popular with others. The worst thing is that this moral degradation is no longer shocking. Every day the Internet explodes with the terrible actions of teenagers captured on video, and adults stubbornly claim that it’s just that age.
But it is worth understanding that the problem is not with the teenagers themselves, but with the fact that no one shows them anymore what it means to be a person. They are told how to make money, how to become popular, how to stand out. But they do not tell how to be responsible, honest, kind. We weren’t perfect, but we understood the limit. And the current generation increasingly does not see it at all.
This has become a familiar scene – someone is lying on the asphalt, clutching at the pain, next to a car with a broken bumper, and instead of those who would kneel, put their palm to their pulse or call an ambulance, there are people with phones. Sometimes these are not only teenagers, but also adults, serious-looking men and women. Their hand reaches not to the victim, but to the camera. The focus is on, the video is being shot. Eventually, that video appears in the feed, gets likes, angry or sympathetic comments, maybe even a media quote. And the person who was filmed is left without help.
We are used to talking about “adolescent indifference” and “TikTok influence”, but in reality the indifference of adults is no less blatant. Those who have life experience, who have taken first aid courses, who drive a car and know what an accident is, are often the first among those filming. And this is already a reflection of a wider change: the testimony has become more valuable than the deed. Proof that you “were there” is more important than what you did there. Children learn from examples – from how adults behave. If an adult, passing by a person in trouble, pulls out a camera instead of a hand, then this lesson will not go unnoticed. And if we continue to silently observe how moral guidelines are replaced by hype and do not raise children in the right direction, then we ourselves will be guilty of raising not people, but indifferent spectators of other people’s troubles.
