Almost made a new thread, but I remembered this existed and I had promised to use it liberally!
Am I the only one who fails to understand this "Gifted KidTM and Now..." discourse? I tried to find the origin on the Twitter. The 'meme' has been around for at least five years and consistently creeping back much to my general annoyance/rage. At least more unbearable memes have a shelf life. I tried to find data to back up anything they are saying, but prominent sources say this is mostly untested and where it is estimated, it is not all that significant. I have literally no idea what point these people are trying to make. And from what I can tell, this phenomenon is even worse on the Tumblr.
Why are so many people on Twitter/Tumblr former Gifted KidsTM and why are they so focused on the person they were at age 8? There is no way this is an accurate reflection of either the general population or any definable subset of it. I really just don't understand how this is relatable or funny. It just sounds like a humble-brag about being talented but actively choosing to be stupid instead. Why is this cool?
As a former Gifted Kid
TM it's not that simple. If you get singled out as "smart" early on that ends up setting unreasonably high expectations for a little kid.
Speaking from my experience, I started out pretty smart. Taught myself to read, preschool teacher said "that kid is gonna be valedictorian someday", could name all the countries of the world (and presidents of the United States) by like 6 or 7. Now all through elementary school everything came easy to me, I never had to put any effort into anything. Once I hit middle school that changed as my personality also changed from very confident to not-so-much. So never being taught not to take things for granted (at least academic-wise) really screwed me over there. And it's something I still struggle with a lot. I usually give up way too quickly now even, if it doesn't come easily to me.
The number of times someone told me "you're so smart, you just don't apply yourself enough" is, well, a lot. Is that my fault? Not really. Those things need to be instilled from a young age. If I had been challenged more as a kid I would have gotten used to that. And it's something I've seen happen so many times.
