They're better able to tailor their lifestyles to their actual preferences as opposed to peer pressure.
Minus the peer pressure, I see this as echo chambering and from a young age they are able to stay living in a world of immaturity as they suffer confirmation bias through tailored feeds. They can get everything they want and do and perhaps this is why I find a high rate of emotional and social immaturity in those who live so much of their life online as they can avoid anything they don't like.
But it should also be remembered how much better like-minded people are able to connect using technology than ever before.
Like minds yes but, what is liked? This is also the driver of extremism.
When it comes to bullying I find that people are much less capable to negotiate since the introduction of the concepts of safe zones and protected environments. Sure, physical violence should be curbed heavily but the world isn't going to be agreeable to those who are unable to endure some forms of adversity, criticism and assholes as, there will never be a future devoid of such. It is also likely that in many respects, the bullying is getting worse due to the types of digital communities that form as well as the way young people use social media and apps.
There are positives and negatives to all aspects of life but engineering them to avoid dealing with negatives rarely leads to well rounded personalities in my experience.
My perspective on safe zones and protected environments is that they are quite far and few in between in this country. Safe zones are a curiosity confined to American college campuses at least from a Finnish perspective. I've talked to a few Finnish people on Facebook who talked about needing safe spaces. All were transsexuals. I know one of them personally. I don't personally feel like telling them to suck it up because I know how badly some people treat transsexuals and how most people merely tolerate them. All of them have probably had to deal with more shit than I ever have.
There will always be adversity, conflicts and assholes. The world will never run out of those. But I don't think bullying in general is getting worse. Social media has introduced new forms of bullying but the thing with bullying on social media is that it always leaves a trace of evidence behind and it will be easy for the perps to be brought to justice if it's severe enough to be a crime.
I don't believe in "what does not kill you, will make you stronger". In most cases, injustice and violence, be it mental or physical, only leaves dysfunction behind. Yes, it's possible to fully recover and learn valuable lessons but how common is that?
Civilization is all about trying to engineer the negatives away. But that's a moot point anyway because one cannot help but deal with negatives.
I don't think they are even close to needed since there is very little adversity here as it is. What people claim as a hard life is much less so than not too long ago but it still impacts them as if they are mortally wounded. Life gets easier, the impression of pain stays the same.
I have a couple trans friends in the Helsinki region and they have had a relatively easy go of it considering those I knew who grew up in the 80s in Australia. When it comes to the tolerate, that is the same for anyone who is not part of whatever group the judge belongs. In Finland, I am tolerated.
And for the victim, it is a lifetime of potential searchable and shareable shame .
I agree but, it is also because rather than build tools to cope and heal, we tell people that they are victims. No matter who did the harm, it is up to the individual to take care of the aftermath.
It is a pity that it is the same negatives on repeat for most people.