How Teens Have Influence

     In many ways, today's youth live in an adults' world. Adults write newspapers and books. They control TV and radio stations. But newspapers, books, TV, and radio combined are not as powerful as the internet. When you want to learn the definition of a word, do you look it up in a dictionary or google it? Which do you use more often, wikipedia or an actual encyclopedia? Do you even own an encyclopedia? If you do, when was the last time you dusted it? If you want to find out what's going on with somebody who lives far, far away, do you send them a letter or facebook them?
     Facebook, facebook, facebook. It really does rule the world today, and the teenagers rule it. Yes, I know that adults use it too, but they're just getting introduced to it. The adults are still adjusting. Today's youth are being raised on it. And we know how to put it to good use.
     If you've read my earlier posts about James Tate, you know that facebook helped reverse the princi-pal's decision. Wait, let me rephrase. Facebook reversed the principal's decision. Set up a few pages, get a few thousand people to like them, and voila, "international notoriety", as the principal herself called it.
     Another important way teenagers influence the world is language. Namely, slang. I cannot think of any slang word or term that was invented by an adult. And why is that? Because young people are new. They come onto the sceen with new problems, new interests, new thoughts, and new words to explain them. And sometimes, these words become popular with people of all ages.
     (A little tip for the adults of the world: Do not attempt to use any slang you have not heard a young person say. You may be more wise and mature than they are, but this is their sphere of control.)
     So even though teenagers are faced with prejudice and aren't taken seriously by adult media, we control, we control other forms of communication that are gaining more and more power by the day.