Side Effects of the New Year
By Riya Dasgupta
2024 has been a crazy year, and we’ve only just begun. From the tens of worldwide conflicts in places like Yemen, Ethiopia, Gaza, and Myanmar, to the largest global warming threat to humanity today; little third-world problems in our lives such as Sephora havoc, consumption culture, and reliance on technology seem irrelevant. Nevertheless, the years continue to pass, and modern customs continue to evolve; yet not always for the better. Could the exaggerated use of technology and new overconsumption trends be pushing the development of society backward instead of forward?
From blogs online to high school students, most of the world seems to unanimously agree against iPad kids. These are the children that grew up inside, glued to their screens with tendencies that instilled the preconceived notion that “if you need something, you can get it through technology”. I guess that makes it no surprise to what the same generation has grown into; more specifically, the Sephora snatching, makeup messing, 10–11-year-olds seen terrorizing malls across America today. Model and content creator @haleyybaylee state on Tiktok that “there was a massive group of girls who came running in [while I was shopping in Sephora]. Baylee states that “these girls had to be very, very, very young; like nine, ten, maybe eleven”. And when Baylee says “a massive group, [she] mean[s] a massive group. There had to be like 26 little girls and only two adults. Anyway, they came running into Sephora and immediately started grabbing things off the shelves, screaming, and running around”. While the lack of manners and acceptable behavior displayed among children in public might be attributed to modern “skincare mindful, clean girl aesthetics” and access to technology from a young age; other, darker forces are possibly at fault- ones that might have more profuse consequences than a makeup scandal.
Between 1968 and 1970, American ethologist John B. Calhoun conducted a behavioral study of captive mice within a nine-square-foot enclosure at a rural facility in Poolesville, Maryland. Within the enclosure known as Universe 25, several pairs of mice bred a population, which ultimately swelled to 2,200. Universe 25 had the mice enjoy the luxuries attributed to modern human life; things like unlimited food, no diseases, no predators, and a plenitude of comforts. Upon supplying the critters with unlimited food and water, Calhoun expected to see their population swell to 5,000 throughout the 28-month experiment; yet the reality of Universe 25 was decidedly more gruesome. To summarize, the mice met, mated, and bred in large quantities; eventually leading to a “leveling-off”. After that, the rodents developed either hostile and cliquish or passive and anti-social behaviors- things such as rape, cannibalization, aggressiveness, superiority complexes, and other traits seen in modern human society. Soon enough, the population would trail off to extinction (Victorpest). To add to the sincerity of Universe 25, the Harvard Business Review has found that “even though the rat brain is smaller and less complex than the human brain, research has shown that the two are remarkably similar in structure and function”.
Whether the new age of “lazy” kids means ‘the experiment’ is following its course is not clear, but the facts are still there; those from CNN stating that “IQ scores have been steadily falling, and genes aren’t what’s driving the decline” and The Guardian, who writes that “children today read less frequently than any previous generation and enjoy reading less than young people did in the past”.
Even with these disconcerting statistics, however; there remains hope. Despite the grim parables revealed in Universe 25, Calhoun was not trying to imply humankind was headed down a similar path toward extinction. While there are parallels between the downfall of Universe 25 and some of society's ills, Calhoun stressed that humans are a more sophisticated species – they had the wisdom and ingenuity to reverse such trends. As long as it is not rats scurrying around in Sephora, there are still opportunities for the new generation to wake up and fix their mistakes; assuming they can pull away from their phones for a second, of course.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/13/health/falling-iq-scores-study-intl/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/feb/29/children-reading-less-says-new-research