Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

A Message for the Younger Followers on Entitlement

This is a chapter that I don't expect to go over too well with everyone. I wouldn't be surprised if I lose a few followers just by posting it, but I feel like it is something worth saying to the lot of Wattpad writers and the overwhelming base of teenagers that make up the majority of them.

Many teenagers are entitled. I know, I know, most of the adults and parents out here are treating this statement like I just said water was wet. Meanwhile, most teenagers are raging with indignation, claiming that it's the adults that are truly entitled. Then you have the young 20s, just out of the teenage age who think they're adults just close enough removed from teenagers to "get them". I'm just an old fart that has long sense grown out of touch with this generation, what with your smart phones, and your touch screens, and your loud music.

The major point I want to touch on in this particular article is an attitude amongst some of the writers on here that I've run into from time to time. That is the attitude that you deserve more.

The conversations usually run something like this:

Me: I really think you handled this bad, I really think that could have been written better, this part needs improvement. The grammar was shotty. Their is room for improvement.

Teenager: Well, It's there, not their, so clearly you aren't as qualified as much as you think to criticize my work!

Me: I'm 30, earning my doctorate, with published scientific work that I've earned awards for. I think my opinion is valid here.

Teenager: I don't care about your education. I write as good as people twice my age! My writing should be published as easily as any 25 year olds! It's only not because people don't respect teens!

Now, clearly the teenager in this scenario isn't taking criticism all too well. I have a chapter on that if you'd like to read it. However, it's really the last statement here I want to focus on.

I recall a few years ago getting into a big argument with a large heaping of 16 year olds (because that doesn't speak to how sad and pathetic an individual I am) on the grounds of that last comment. Many teenagers believe that their writing should be taken on their writing's merit alone, and that that merit easily equals those of an average adult based on their limited experience on Wattpad.

"There are 30-something year olds whom write like crap! Therefore, if I don't write like crap, then I must equal to the capacity of a 30 year old!"... the logic seems to go.

Naturally, this philosophy goes much deeper down the rabbit hole. It is not abnormal for teenagers to think they know everything. They are developing into adulthood. They'll be getting hair in places they never had hair before, learning about things that had previously not learned about, and thinking they know more than their adult counterparts. 

Some will learn exactly how stupid adults can be, and then globally decide that if adults are stupid, then that somehow means kids are actually smart. The fact that these teenagers will one day be adults, and to become stupider would literally involve them forgetting or unlearning large quantities of what they already know seems to go beyond them.

There are shows that even capitalize this: Peter Pan and his continuing battle against adults. Are you smarter than a 5th grader? The resounding answer seems to be that adults are not. Although most of us realize that there is a large range of "intelligences" that can't be measured by IQ tests or grammar scores, however, that doesn't seem to factor into this logic.

So that brings us back to the entitlement. The internet happens to be the great equalizer of all things. It's a place where a doctoral student can have an argument with a 13 year old girl on whether her One Direction fan fiction deserves praise. It's a place where experts and non-experts get lumped in together and every opinion, no matter how asinine, is given weight.