How do middle schoolers interact with each other now?

Middle schoolers are introduced to LGBTQIA+, pronouns, friends, enemies, and a lot more. It can be shocking and unexpected, but they would have to learn about it eventually. Parents and teachers must know what its like now. Its not a bunch of kids with the same hobbies playing outside, it is dangerous and people have to be conscious of what could possibly happen. You cant protect your child from such things.

Psychological manipulation – There are a lot of different types of psychological manipulation, all unnecessary and cruel. I will write about the types that would negatively impact a child. Love bombing, guilt tripping, and gaslighting. These kinds of manipulations can change one’s personality and its more common than you might think. Children now will do anything to maintain a friend, and they are thirsty for attention. Their mindset is more friends the better, which I do not agree with.

I am writing children, not people because children are immature. Therefore, it is more likely they would do these things. It is not tolerable or acceptable for anyone to do. Nobody should experience these things but you cannot change people, they are who they are. All you can do is be aware of these things and avoid them.

I believe that you should have 0-3 friends that do not know each other. The reason they should not know each other, is so they do not talk bad about you. That could create a possibility that you could lose all of your friends at the same time with no explanation. Its also better to have no friends than to have toxic friends.

Love bombing is the cruelest one, in my opinion. It is when someone gives you all their attention and you become obsessed with them thinking you found someone you really connect with. When they take it away, you become a stranger to them. You could feel confused, shocked, or disappointed. It doesn’t end there. The “love bomber” then gives you their attention back, but not all of it. It would be like a breeze in a heat wave. The person will do that to you on repeat, over and over again, until they have slowly decreased their time for you until you have nothing left. You crave for more, but they will never give it to you. You will still be obsessed them, because you will most likely play back the memories in your head and you know what their capable of. You would think the attention will come back, but it wont.

Guilt tripping is temporary, but it is easier to notice. It is when someone makes you feel guilty for something you shouldn’t feel guilty for, or something that isn’t your fault. If your “friend” does this to you, they are not your friend. The only reason someone would do this to you, is if they have a hidden motive. They are either using you, or they are just a horrible person. The objective of guilt tripping is to make the person feel as horrible as possible, so as to manipulate you to do something you do not want to. You might think who would do this? The answer is, the world is now a lot darker than it use to be and guilt tripping is very common among children and adults.

Gaslighting is when someone brings self doubt and confusion into your mind. They could make you more self conscious and insecure so you wont leave them. It could be them talking down to you, making you feel like you need them and they are superior. Being friends with someone who does this could damage your self worth.

Bread crumbing, subtle and difficult to notice. Bread crumbing is when someone wrongs you and then tries to reassure you that they are still friends with you. They reassure you with manipulation. In this manipulation, you get ghosted, you think they were using you, or were a fake friend. Then they text you asking how you are and talking off topic so you would forget what they did to you. They don’t actually want to know how you are, they just want to change your possible opinions about them, which is considered manipulation.