Sensitive “snowflake” culture has gotten out of hand (Opinion)
“Snowflake” culture goes hand in hand with cancel culture, both of which have stopped people from being able to have opinions
The fragile nature of snowflakes led to “sensitive snowflakes” or the “snowflake generation” being used to reference people who are particularly sensitive to comments surrounding controversial (or even uncontroversial) topics.
Speaking your mind is great, but how many are doing it — by being overly sensitive and making others feel guilty for no reason — isn’t that effective. Speaking your mind may be something Generation Z needs — it is how things change, after all. But recently it’s become apparent to me that we’re all a little too soft. What has been considered “offensive” has become so broad that people can’t talk about anything anymore.
Why is everything being made such a big deal?
If you were to go back ten or 20 years in the past and say the same thing that society freaks out about now, most people would just laugh or take that comment lightly, like it was supposed to be taken. You can’t say make a joke or tease someone by lightheartedly saying, “You’re dumb” or something similar without someone getting offended.
You can’t say something lightly, especially if it has serious undertones, such as if you’re giving a friend advice on how to better themselves. Even if you say something factual now, people get offended. And most of the time it’s not even the person you’re talking to — it’s someone judgmental who you didn’t direct the comment towards.
We are all trying so hard to be “cool” and “popular”, which means by default you’ll have different groups of people with different views on what is “cool” and “popular”. To some extent, we should care about our high school social status, even though it’s fleeting. But that shouldn’t mean we should have to be silent in order to protect that status. We should be allowed to have normal opinions without inoffensive things being seen as “offensive”, “rude”, or “cancel worthy”.
With little years left until we graduate, social status won’t even matter. But people still want to tie cancel culture in with being a “sensitive snowflake” and judging anyone that ever makes a comment about anything remotely controversial.
“The world is just so sensitive because of how everyone was raised,” said a Mead High student who asked to remain anonymous. “They weren’t raised with [any] toughness in their lives.”
Another anonymous student said that because some students “are spoiled[,] they can’t take criticism and they’re too scared” to make any commentary. They said that learning to “handle the stress” of everyday life without putting the opinions of others down is something that needs to happen.
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Mason Thompson is a sophomore. He enjoys working on cars and playing video games. He is involved in the football team. He is looking forward to producing more articles and taking more photos this year.
Liam R. Waters • Feb 8, 2022 at 10:57 am
I agree with this entirely. The up and coming generation doesn’t have any sense of work, blue collar work to be exact. This generation doesn’t know how to do manual labor, which not only strengthens you physically; but preps one for life and teaches integrity and workmanship. People are offended far to easily and don’t know social clues. I do believe strongly that this is something that will impact everyone’s future, and that something should be done.
Jordan • Feb 8, 2022 at 10:56 am
Very true. There are alot of snowflakes here but we don’t know what happens to some people out of those doors.
Jordan Lohr • Feb 8, 2022 at 10:56 am
I agree with you.