Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/30/how-this-teens-life-changed.html
…
3 Likes
Wonderful, uplifting post. Corey Alexander, you are a young man whom I would be proud to know.
5 Likes
I remember feeling something very similar to that as a teenager when we suddenly didn’t have a television. I probably regained about three hours of life per day, and wound up being far more productive. Really honed my programming skills in that span of my life.
7 Likes
When there’s a major power failure, and the television is off for a while, nine months later there’s a blip in the birth rate. 
10 Likes
So when will you delete all of your social media?
19 Likes
And then the kicker at the end of the post:
“If you even slightly enjoyed this, feel free to give this a love to maximise impressions and increase the chance of this helping someone overcome their addiction. Follow me to continue reading my work.”
All I could think of was Godfather II – just when you think you’re out they pull you back in…
26 Likes
Some adults (especially Happy Mutants) might think everything he says is obvious, but it’s rare that a teenager decides to publically embrace this kind of DGAF attitude. He’s already on his way a happier life.
7 Likes
I smell a boat load of awesomeness!
1 Like
Interesting. I think this might be a rare choice.
Typically (stereotypically?) those who complete high school on an accelerated schedule go straight on to college.
2 Likes
Finished might not necessarily mean graduated. It could mean dropped out, with GED or not.
There are also sometimes logistical issues with going to college at a young age. Nowadays especially, there may be financial issues as well, even if it’s community college.
6 Likes
Something isn’t adding up to me. The writing is just too pat. He’s opened a new account at Medium, with only 3 pieces so far, and they’re all the same. It doesn’t read like a mature 17-year-old. And graduating at 16, at work at 17, but thinking nothing of slipping an extra $20 to an Uber driver…I think this is a persona written by an older person.
15 Likes
I think this person might actually be 17. I’ve known 17-year-old high achievers, and even may have been one, and this is precisely the type of crap they might write.
This doesn’t surprise me. I’ve been working since I was 16 and graduated college at 19.
This is a little odd. I’m not sure why a young person, especially one who has sworn off smartphones and social networks, would take Uber. I never needed Uber growing up, so I find it hypocritical that someone who gets high and mighty about being free from social networks would also write about taking Uber.
7 Likes
Exactly, right? He seems to have jumped right back into the thick of it all. His actual response to going off social media is to open up a new social media account to tell everyone to follow him on social media.
For me, it’s how polished and shallow his arguments are. It’s not adding up right to me. Something’s off, and I can’t put my finger on it.
15 Likes
This is why I think he actually is 17. Precocious 17-year-old arguments tend to be really polished and glib, and make sense until you really examine them.
I’m thinking, actually 17 but a massive hypocrite.
7 Likes
BINGO!
I deal with teens a little older than him and young adults day in and day out… hypocritical doesn’t really capture it… obtuse, oblivious, self-aggrandising… I mean we all went through it, we just didn’t have the means to publish think pieces on every maturity “level-up” we did, thats the main difference.
Side note: I think I just had an epiphany… they live online, online didn’t really exist when we where young… so when they go online everything is “new” OMG this is why they think everything they do is new and unique and original because we didn’t leave a digital footprint of our own journey to adulthood. OMG I need to go think about this for a while…
16 Likes
“I’m no longer what would be considered “relevant”. Luckily, I was always too good for them anyway!”
“I am Pablo Picasso about to paint a masterpiece.”
“I was depressed, lazy and in mediocre shape. In three months I have lost almost a fifth of my body weight…”
Definitely 17. It’s a good thing he escaped the evil thrall of Social Media, making him fat and lazy! Next he’ll take on reefer madness and the scourge of evil masturbation.
12 Likes
He better get off my lawn first.
7 Likes
I just kicked social media! Yippee!
Now off to blog about my success…
…oh wait 
We could tell stories, but nobody would believe us. Like, how nobody had cell phones, so in order to make plans with a group of people, we had to talk things out in person and arrange a meeting place, and be there on time. This often involved getting a group of people meeting in person calling people up, using voice communication, one at a time.
Then, when it came time to go home, we had no Uber to slip $20 to. We had to use a payphone to call our one friend who had a car, who as it turned out was always the flakiest one in the group and couldn’t be relied on to be anywhere or do anything. Then, when that failed, we had to call a taxicab. That’s hit-or-miss at best… usually just pure miss.
If one really wants to kick social media, it can be done, but it involves living like social media hadn’t been invented yet.
14 Likes
Who talks like that?
I suppose “I lost 1/5 of my body weight” sounds more impressive than “I lost 50 pounds”, but losing 50 pounds is no mean feat.
1 Like
Exactly. It’s boilerplate pablum for the masses.
1 Like
