Peer-generated content is made by kids, and that's a scary thought

Tik Tok can be great. The platform connects you to people who are experts in their domain. You get free advice, you get insights from people in the most unexpected industries, and you see how people live their lives.

But as I'm sure everyone knows, Young Tik Tok creators also don't have filters.

Pls refer to the below image, a screenshot of a Tik Tok video.

I think this is the first time in history we're seeing kids influenced by other kids, on a massive scale. Yes, if a creator is capable of putting the word 'piaking' in her content, I'd certainly classify her as a kid.

Of course, kids have always influenced other kids to do stupid stuff. I'm sure we've all been part of that.

Kids need adult guidance.

Before this explosion in peer content, you had adults doing TV programming, writing stories in the newspaper, and prepping and voicing stuff on the radio.

There were newsrooms and editors and people who oversaw the entire news making process. I'm sure these people were arguing about the Oxford comma and the finer points of what Strunk and White recommend (and also how to prime/frame news according to what their masters wanted).

Still, there was a whole machinery behind it.

Nowadays all it takes is a kid and a phone camera.

We all know kids don't have a filter. They are still learning to use language and to differentiate between good and bad. Their intrusive thoughts win, most of the time. Consequences is a vague abstract that is far away and is not very scary at all. YOLO, right.

It doesn't help that some adults, in the name of relatability and attracting more views, have chosen to dumb down their content, like Nas Daily. It results in a downward dive to over-simplified thinking. It makes kids think, "if Nas is still creating rubbish at his age, then why not me??!!"

I'm not asking for every kid with a camera to be accompanied by an adult. Nor am I advocating every Tik Tok creator to be seated on an expensive armchair, smoking a cigar and spouting Marcus Aurelius in a mid-Atlantic accent like Frasier Crane.

There is plenty to explore in between these two extremes. And I like to think most of us consume content in that area.

Come to think of it, adult-written content on Linkedin is regulated by other adults. If you write something mediocre, you won't get attention. The community will keep offensive posts in check. A kid doing the same probably won't receive the same amount of pushback, because his peers are like them - not very discerning.

I follow a middle-aged musician on YouTube called Rick Beato who occasionally spotlights the issue of teams of songwriters writing and producing new songs that rip off older songs. Songwriting teams are made up of much younger people nowadays, obviously. And it takes older adults to catch them in the act of copying. Maybe AI databases will soon help relieve Beato of one of his burdens of being an elder statesman of music.

Wait, are future adults...AI? I have no piaking idea.