At eight years old, finding a pillow and laying on the floor as close to the TV screen as possible was a part of my everyday routine. The blue light constantly flickered in front of my glazed eyes and entertained me for hours. In the summer, I used TV to escape the heat, and in the winter, I cozied up next to the fire to watch every holiday special imaginable.

Coming from experience, I believe a significant portion of Gen Z would agree this is how they spent the larger amounts of their childhoods. Everyone my age knows the iconic titles like “Hannah Montana” or “iCarly”- I can’t go a day without hearing the recurring “were you allowed to watch Spongebob?” debate. While TV has been a staple in American culture for decades, my experience as a teenager has allowed me to realize Gen Z was the last to be truly impacted by traditional cable television and its way of setting impossible standards.

Television has come a long way from when I was an impressionable kid. When I was watching TV after a hard day of fifth grade, I was met by the same toxic ideologies over and over. It not only kept me from socializing or going outside, but provided me with unrealistic standards that I believed I was expected to meet.

Every show had the same basic pretense; a (most commonly) white girl of small stature facing the wacky adventures of her high school life, accompanied by boyfriends, bullies and besties. For impressionable young individuals like myself, this ideal life is what I absorbed 24/7. I truly believed this is what life as a high-schooler would be.

Dressing up as Hannah Montana for Halloween hardly seemed like a costume for me- I figured that once I reached high school, I would look like that all the time. I would be popular with dozens of friends, probably have some sort of a secret alter ego, and stay up all night texting a significant other. That’s what every teenager’s life on TV looked like, so why wouldn’t it be mine?

I think that’s why high school hit many individuals in Gen Z like a brick. We were suddenly faced with what we excitedly anticipated for years prior, except it didn’t look quite like the fake sets we were used to seeing. High school was finally real.

We didn’t get back at our bullies with some quirky plan alongside our best friends. We realized how difficult, destructive and elusive prom queen really was. We were forced to stay up for hours on end doing homework instead of texting.

I still find myself trying to live out high school like a movie. Because I was raised on shows built to be entertaining every second, I unintentionally trained myself to believe that high school would be the same. I regularly feel like I’m wasting away my high school days because I’m not doing something new and exciting every minute of every day.

Even though my generation has been heavily impacted by the reign of Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and every other famous kids network, I do have hope for the future. The inclusivity, diversity and standards I was raised to believe are being crushed in new series such as Disney’s “The Owl House” and “High School Musical: the Musical: the Series,” or Nickelodeon’s “The Loud House.”

These shows are light years away from what I was used to seeing. LGBTQ+ relationships, inclusion of different cultures and body positivity are just a few topics discussed in these programs. Kids today are being raised to form a much more inclusive future.

While the next generation has a lot more to worry about than the influence of TV, I’m glad that its influence is moving towards inspiration and growth. It’s something I wish I had as a kid, and I think society will see a change as these young individuals grow and reach their teenage careers.

While I recognize my relief for the generations after me, I often find myself sad when I look back at my memories in front of the screen. I grew up with those networks and shows, and I credit them for building my sense of humor and honor them for the nostalgia they provide me. Even so, I also have to make myself admit how they negatively affected my expectations and emotional growth as I reached my teenage years.

As much as I love and miss the wacky adventures of characters like Alex Russo, Carly Shay and Teddy Duncan, I know that their stories have been told. It’s time for new, inclusive stories to shine-and I can’t wait to see them evolve.