The Modern Young Person and the internet

I almost feel like the way life is now compared to 2015-ish and before is really odd. It seems like so much is stacked up against us in terms of the world, whether it be financially or just people. Additionally, it seems like a lot of people are very judgmental toward people who may be seen as "weird" or whatever, despite knowing they were at some point, similar to them. 

Another strange but loosely related thing I wanted to touch on is how much MORE people are influenced by videos they see online. Sometimes I like to watch a few tiktok videos to pass some time in-between my usual activities, and I'll commonly see the most UNHELPFUL and downright HORRIBLE advice specifically for young people, or if not that- something that glorifies something that just isn't good for us as people to keep in our heads as we interact with each other. It is absolutely insane how much of incel culture has infiltrated more mainstream people without anyone ever noticing (Andrew Tate is a prime example). I don't want to say TikTok/Short form content in  itself is to blame- of course not, people posted those things, not the app itself- but it is a VERY effective carrier of information directly to a young audience. 

What made me type this is something that reminded me of what I'm talking about, or at least loosely what I mean. 

I was in a class, specifically catered around playing video games, and there I was: playing a game. All was going pretty well, until for some reason, a girl sitting next to me turns to me and says; "Ew, that guy likes anime, I can tell by his name (in the game) and his hoodie." this isn't EXACTLY how she said it (I can't quite remember the specifics), but it entailed that. This threw me off massively, because if she thought people who liked anime or Japanese sort of weeb-related things in general, WHY would you sign up for a class full of people who like to play video games? And why even mention it? To stir up the pot? To just be a hater? That guy did nothing wrong at all, but she just decided to clown on him for some reason. Anyway, after she said that, I just kind of nervously said "hah... yeah?" I didn't really know how to respond to such a statement. 

Can we just stop hating on other people for having nerdy-ish interests? Some people at my school are really into cosplaying and do it almost every day, I think it is fantastic, but I've heard people behind their backs say they are "weird" or "autistic", for no reason other than to bag on someone else. I understand WHY this happens, but can we just normalize not being a hater? I feel a resurgence in it for some odd reason, and I am coincidentally getting a pretty good amount of videos on TikTok on my feed centered around making fun of people who are not "normal". People EAT those videos up too, which is very surprising to me. 

So yeah, that's my rant on people judging others. Thanks for reading.