The Ice-Cream Women of Seneca County - Part two

Editor's note: This is part two in a lifestyle column "The Ice-Cream Women of Seneca County" In 2003 my wife began undergoing some major behavioral changes; a resulting MRI detected a golf-ball sized tumor on the covering of the frontal lobe of her brain – a meningioma. During the time prior to this discovery, she started having a craving for Oreo flurries, with chocolate ice-cream, extra Oreo pieces and three whole cookies on top. The young women who served at that time were curious about my unusual choice; when I explained, they were both intrigued and concerned about my wife's condition. Until and after her successful surgery, the girls were very supportive and kindly towards me, and thus began the tradition that continues until this present time. I cannot say enough about the current crop of workers; although they know nothing about why I still order these Oreo flurries, they continue to show the kindness and tremendous good nature that their predecessors did. As I have grown older (and the girls seem so much younger) I have read a great deal about "this current generation" of young people – how they are unmotivated and undisciplined and how they are so into the modern era of the electronic world that they have lost the ability to communicate with others, particularly those of a decidedly older generation. These girls are not like that at all! Thus, I began to wonder; why are these young women so nice? Is it simply a matter of good business – be nice and you may get a decent tip? Be nice and the customer may come back at a later time and therefore improve business. Be nice and my personal mistakes may be overlooked? Are these girls of Seneca County raised in some special manner or is their behavior indicative of many of this generation? And so, I decided to ask them. The questionnaires were divided into six main sections: 1) Education; 2) Social Media; 3) News & Current Events; 4) Social Issues; 5) Religion and 6) General Information. Social Media What a difference there is in the world today. We are brought intrinsically closer together to the point where we can, and often do, share our intimate moment-by-moment lives. We can let others know how we are from half-way around the world. Wow, what a remarkable achievement! Yet that same achievement opens us up – strips us bare – to the many who use the social media for personal gain, personal retribution, personal crime. Like so many technologies it is neither heavenly nor evil – it is what we make of it, and so often, particularly if we are young, we are not careful with our postings. And yet we do it – we continue, no matter the warnings. I say "we" but I will admit – I do not use social media in any form. I know – I'm an ancient Luddite but somehow I feel all the better for it. Certainly, ice cream girls are a part of this SM (Social Media, not Sado-Masochistic) generation. Of the 13 women, 13 use a variety of platforms. Of the 13, 12 actively participate while one scrolls but does not post. Nationally, 93% of high school females are on social media, averaging 5.3 hours each day. Our 13 individuals are on SM for 244 hours each week, which figures out to be roughly 2.5 hours per day, less than half of the national average. There is a major variation, however, among the responders. The range is from 1 hour/day (Megan) to 5 hours each day (Willow & Missie Mae) or, put another way, from five hours each week to 35 hours per week. As all of you are aware, there are a number of social platforms that high school girls utilize. A simple chart will show the comparison between the national average for teenage girls and the average for our 13 ice cream girls. Platform National Average Ice cream average + (raw number) Ice cream number of platforms used Tik-Tok 73% 85% (11) 2 (1) Instagram 69% 92% (12) 3 (5) Snapchat 64% 92% (12) 4 (5) Facebook 38% 46% (6) 5 (2) Twitter (X) 13% 23% (3) average 3.6 VISCO 53% 15% (2) 3.5 national average BeReal 19% 8% (1) *Mostly from Pew Research Center (2024) As can be noted, the national trends coincide pretty closely with the usage by the young women of the study. Even the number of platforms used nationally (3.5) is virtually identical (3.6) to what the girls in the study use. As we have seen, a previous question asked about bullying and/or harassment in the schools. A similar question was also asked about bullying and/or harassment on social media. In the school setting, 10 or 12 (83%) respondents stated they had no problems with either negative behavior; however, in their own personal social media experiences only 6 responded with a definitive "No." (50%). Four (4) others were "No, but…" While they (33%) had not been bullied or harassed, they had friends who had shown them their own media problems: "Seen a lot," "Seen much," "No, but others." And then we had two "Yes" answers to the question. One young woman told me how much the comments directed at her "had hurt," while another stated she had been "both bullied and harassed." These two girls (17%) plus the four girls who had seen others with negative interaction means that 50% of the respondents have experienced negative interactions on social media. This is very worrisome but far from surprising. Given the above numbers, it is again not surprising that all of the girls spend more time on social media than they do watching television. While one of the young ladies does not watch television, the other twelve listed a total of 17 different shows that are "favorites." There was little unanimity, but two of the shows were favored by three girls each. "New Girl" is a series that aired from 2011 – 2018. It was a comedy-drama about a single girl becoming a roommate of three young male strangers and the subsequent interactions among them and friends. It was extremely popular; in fact, it was one of Netflix's biggest hits. In a sense, it appears to be an updated version of the ever-popular show "Friends" (1994-2004). Among the three ice creamers who chose this show as a favorite, (Ashlyn, Carolyn and Kayle), the latter also picked "Friends" as an additional favorite of hers. A second popular show picked by another three was the long-running medical drama "Grey's Anatomy." Now entering its 21st season, this program is loved by Kennedy, Ari and Sidney. Two shows also attracted two of our viewers, "Gilmore Girls" watched by Karina and Gwen, who calls it "her comfort show," and "The Good Place" (Carolyn and Kayle).