Many young people now days find it easier to process pain or embarrassment through humor. One could argue that this has led to our generation being less afflicted when it comes to serious matters seen on the news.

A recent example of this would be the business between Iran and America. Arriving to school after the Christmas holidays there were many jokes made between students that WW111 is going to happen and those to be drafted first should be gang members who are ‘on it’. Another joke made was that women wouldn’t be involved in the war as our jobs are to stay at home and wait. Attending a girl’s school made this annoying to hear, only because the values promoted within the school is we are all strong, smart and independent women.

Despite a majority not taking these sorts of jokes too seriously it makes me question the maturity of my generation. Certain issues are joked about between teens in this day and age, probably due to the influence of social media. Memes are a way that we sometimes connect with one another however is this a connection that shouldn’t be allowed. Not only does it make the issue at hand less serious, it promotes the idea to teens that these sorts of issues aren’t theirs only because they’re not a part of it. It is however interesting to see which issues are desensitized. Things like the Australian bush fires from my knowledge have not yet been made a spectacle of.

A Carshalton high school for girls sixth form student has decided for the new year to delete her Instagram account after she saw a post humourizing the deportation of a 6-year-old child. She quotes ‘’It didn’t make me laugh, and after commenting that it wasn’t funny, I received many messages slating me for being boring and a buzzkill’’. So far after deleting the app she agrees that the nature of some posts was toxic to the way she perceived the news. To her it was no longer serious or alarming but comedic and amusing. So, for any teens reading please try to sympathise with certain issues even if they don’t directly affect you as the more you joke about it the more likely it is for you to be promoting the desensitisation of our generation