Tween culture: Is it dead or are we old?

With 2016 coming back, I can’t help but feel the nostalgia of my tween-age years.

Has a decade seriously flown by? Was 12-years-old truly that long ago?

Apparently so, since kids don’t know One Direction, and stream the same series as their older siblings and cool aunts — like Euphoria.

I can’t claim to be so retro. I was online at 12. But Vine and Instagram differ from the TikTok of today.

We had mannequin challenges and unironically used Instagram’s “Rio de Janeiro” and Snapchat’s dog filter. The content consumed today is from sponsored influencers with affiliate links, encouraging kids to shop, shop, and shop — and don’t forget the endless AI brainrot slop.

Sure, we twirled fidget spinners, much like how kids now have squishy dumpling toys or Labubus.

But the latter’s popularity isn’t necessarily a tween craze. It’s driven by adults buying these children’s toys in bulk like there’s a buy-one-get-one-free deal at Costco.

While we posted our late afternoon quests at the park on Snapchat, hunting down Geodudes on Pokémon Go, the Pokémon scene today is overshadowed by scalpers much older than 12 looking to make a killing on what was a children’s game. 

I miss the days when I knew to expect a lineup by the garage bins at recess, where my classmate would be taking Rainbow Loom orders, noting down which colour rubber bands her customers wanted for their homemade bracelets.

Grounders, manhunt, four-square, and even tetherball were all seriously respected — and dangerously competitive — sports played before, during, and after school. 

I can only imagine those games are abandoned, or unfavourable at the very least, compared to playing Roblox or doomscrolling Instagram reels and YouTube shorts.

But kids in every generation enjoy different hobbies, so is it really necessary to nitpick something we’ve aged out of? Have those of us in our 20s today become the same Buzzfeed millennials who criticized us for finding Fred funny? When popular mobile apps were still games like Dumb Ways to Die, instead of solely social media platforms? 

Perhaps the criticism is rooted in some minor hypocrisy — the generational curse of “We had it the best!”

In our defense, the transition from tween to teen now has a very thin line as opposed to before.

With the rise of streaming, network television has become obsolete. It’s no wonder tweens watch Euphoria — they don’t have an iCarly, Jessie, or Gravity Falls episode to look forward to after school.

They also don’t have their own clothing stores anymore. Brands plan their marketing so that the same Artizia set that older teens and adults wear are also tailored to 11-year-olds.

It doesn’t help that more affordable brands like Forever 21 and Urban Planet focus solely on mass-producing major fashion trends.

Who wants EOS and Baby Lips balms when the algorithm only promotes Rhode, Summer Fridays, and Fenty Beauty?

Even Toys “R” Us is closing stores. Tweens today know that modern gaming and the digital world is accessible at the touch of a button. Who needs Cuponk, Bakugan, Furbies, Barbies, or Nerf Guns?

It isn’t about the death of a culture or the reluctance to accept our age. The matter of tween culture rests in bigger hands, puppeteering what a tween can be — and that is whatever’s most profitable.