Why are we no longer taking responsibility for our actions but choosing to blame others for the consequences?

Every action has an equal and often devastating opposite reaction.

The spectacle currently unfolding in a Los Angeles courtroom - where a twenty-year-old woman named Kaley G.M. sits as the face of a massive litigation effort against tech giants - is more than just a legal battle over algorithms. 

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It is a profound indictment of a society that has lost its moral compass and its sense of agency. 

Kaley alleges that her life was derailed by an "addiction" to social media that began when she was a mere child. 

Her lawyers argue that the platforms are defective products designed to hook young minds. 

While the technical arguments regarding dopamine loops and infinite scrolling are compelling, they serve as a convenient smokescreen for a much harsher reality. 

We are witnessing the ultimate culmination of a culture that refuses to look in the mirror and instead seeks to sue its way out of the consequences of its own choices.  

The fundamental question that the courts cannot answer is one that belongs at the dinner table. 

Where were the parents when a six-year-old was handed a smartphone and allowed to disappear into the digital abyss? 

To suggest that a global corporation is the primary villain in the life of a child who was given unsupervised access to the internet is a staggering abdication of duty. 

We have reached a point where we treat the provision of high-end technology to toddlers as a basic human right, yet we recoil in horror when that technology produces the very results it was engineered to achieve. 

It is a transactional failure of the highest order. 

We trade the long-term mental health and focus of our children for the short-term convenience of a digital babysitter, and then we have the audacity to act surprised when the bill finally comes due.

This crisis of accountability extends far beyond the flickering screens of our devices. 

It is a rot that has permeated every layer of our social fabric, particularly in the way we address the choices made by our youth. 

In Zimbabwe and across the globe, we see a terrifying surge in reports of thousands of young girls becoming pregnant every year. 

The heartbreak of these ruined lives is real, but the narrative surrounding them is often devoid of the one thing that could actually prevent the tragedy. 

We rarely talk about the discipline of thinking first. 

Instead, we treat these outcomes as if they were natural disasters - unavoidable events that simply happen to people. 

We have effectively decoupled action from consequence.

Consider the sheer gravity of the choice involved in sexual relations. 

We are talking about a few minutes of fleeting pleasure weighed against a lifetime of struggle, an unplanned pregnancy, and the monumental task of raising a child, often in the absence of a father. 

If we are not teaching our children to pause and calculate that lopsided math, then we are failing them as mentors and guardians. 

When we see young people driven to the brink of depression or even suicide because of the wreckage left by their own decisions, we must be brave enough to ask why they were never equipped with the "cognitive armor" to see the trap before they stepped into it. 

Compassion for the suffering is necessary, but a compassion that refuses to point out the source of the fire will only lead to more people getting burned.

The same logic applies to the twin scourges of drug abuse and alcoholism that are currently gutting our communities. 

We are quick to blame the "predatory" nature of dealers or the "allure" of the bottle, but we are slow to emphasize the power of the individual to say "no." 

When a young person chooses to pick up a needle or a bottle, they are making a decision that has a foreseeable end point. 

If our society continues to frame these choices as the result of external "systems" rather than individual volitions, we are essentially telling the next generation that they are helpless. 

We are teaching them that they have no will, no power, and no responsibility. 

This is not empowerment. 

It is a death sentence for character.

The "victimhood economy" is now the primary currency of our era. 

By turning every personal failure into a legal grievance against a corporation or a system, we are creating a generation of "permanent infants." 

If we legally establish that a twenty-year-old is a victim because they couldn't stop clicking on a screen, what message are we sending about their ability to resist any other temptation? 

If they cannot be held responsible for their digital habits, why should they be held responsible for their sexual habits, their financial habits, or their adherence to the law? 

Once you remove the anchor of personal responsibility, the entire ship of civilization begins to drift toward the rocks.

The defense teams for these tech companies have pointed toward the "turbulent home lives" of many plaintiffs, suggesting that social media use was a coping mechanism for existing family failures. 

While it is easy to dismiss this as a corporate tactic, it contains a kernel of truth that we ignore at our peril. 

A child who is grounded in strong values, who is taught to weigh the future against the present, and who is supervised by engaged parents is far less likely to fall victim to any form of addiction. 

The "algorithms" of the home—the values, the discipline, and the open communication—will always be more powerful than the algorithms of a silicon chip.

We must stop treating "thinking first" as an optional lifestyle choice and start treating it as a survival mandate. 

This applies to every challenge we face. 

Before the first drink, before the first crime, before the first sexual encounter, and before the first smartphone is purchased, there must be a calculation of the "morning after." 

We must encourage our children to be the masters of their impulses rather than the servants of their desires. 

This requires a cultural shift away from the "instant gratification" model that social media has perfected and a return to the "delayed gratification" model that built our societies.

A society that relies on litigation to fix the failures of the family is a society that has already lost its way. 

We cannot sue our way to a moral population. 

We cannot legislate our way to a disciplined youth. 

The solution lies in the reclamation of parental authority and the restoration of individual agency. 

We must have the integrity to admit that our own desire for convenience - whether it is letting a child have a phone or ignoring their risky behaviors to avoid conflict - has come at a horrific price. 

It is time to stop the endless cycle of blaming the machine, the system, or the "bad influence" and start building the individual.

The real victory for our society will not come when a jury awards millions of dollars to a victim of social media. 

The real victory will come when a parent looks at their child and says "no" because they love them too much to see them destroyed. 

It will come when a young person pauses at the threshold of a bad decision and chooses the hard path of discipline over the easy path of impulse. 

We must stop pretending that we are helpless observers of our own lives. 

We are the architects of our own consequences, and it is time we started acting like it.

© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08