Back then, connection looked different. Today, Meta’s new teen accounts make me think about what we lost when social media took over how we talk and spend time.
I remember when connection felt slower. When you had to call someone from the house phone and hope nobody picked up the other line. When getting your first cell phone felt like freedom. When messaging someone online was new, and chat rooms felt like the future.
Back then, the internet felt like a place where you could just be. No filters, no pressure. It was a space to talk, to hide, to explore who you were becoming.
Now we are here. Watching Meta talk about safety for teens. And sure, it matters. But it also feels like we are applauding the same system that taught us how to disconnect from each other. The same one that keeps families sitting together but miles apart.
I think about how adults are still struggling with the same things. How easy it is to reach for the phone instead of talking. How many nights end with scrolling instead of listening. How we started calling it normal.
So yes, protect the kids. But let’s not pretend we have it figured out either.
Connection deserves better.
I keep thinking about how this all got so normal. Watching people talk about “screen time” like it is weather. Watching parents hand kids phones just to keep things quiet. Watching companies make products that pull everyone further in, then offer tools to limit it.
Meta’s new teen accounts are being framed as progress. And sure, they are better than nothing. But the real story is that we are here at all. That we built something so addictive we have to build guardrails for it. That we are not even angry about it anymore.
Adults are still inside it. We still refresh, still compare, still lose hours without meaning to. We have gotten so used to the pull that we call it connection. But it is not. It is habit.
I miss when connection meant time together. I miss seeing faces without a glow on them. I miss when conversations did not need to be recorded or shared.
We talk a lot about what kids are learning online, but maybe we should talk about what we are teaching them by example.
If you are craving spaces that feel real again, Kinnect was built for that.
