Hey, boomer. Leave those kids alone!
They're not even kids any more...
I received an email this week saying that Gen Z are ‘the most chronically online generation’. Apparently over half of Gen Z (53%) is online for nearly a full day per week. The older you are, the less time you spend online - hardly surprising, is it? But what occurred to me is that this is another way of bashing Gen Z.
It’s that language: ‘chronically online.’ What about us boomers and Gen Xers and the stuff we like to do? No one accuses us of ‘chronically listening to the radio.’ Or ‘chronically reading a Hilary Mantel novel.’
Yes, of course Gen Zers are on their phones a great deal. Young people and their social media! You hear this a lot. But let’s not forget that this can mean sharing info and advice as well as amusing and entertaining one another. Is it really so much worse than writing to your American penpal back in the day?
Ok, so penning a missive to Bonnie in Utah didn’t pervade your every waking hour. Social media is a time sucker - but Gen Z aren’t the only ones hooked on it. Frankly I don’t know how I’d manage without it. How would life be if I couldn’t watch a video of a model making coca cola from scratch or admire my friends’ adorable pets?
How else would I waste great swathes of my day? I could fiddle about with my stamp collection but that’s long gone. I could stare out of the window or into the fridge - but then I wouldn’t be able to rail against certain individuals’ nauseatingly show-off Instagrams.
Remember life before social media? What the heck did we do? Watch light entertainment on TV. Eat boil-in-the-bag fish and be flashed at in the park.
Have your noticed the scarcity of flashers these days? Back in the 70s, I was subjected to a proper fully opened dirty mac exposure, by a man standing on a hillside. Lots of my friends had similar experiences. Maybe it was the same bloke creeping all over the UK? You never see him now. (I did not intend that to sound wistful as if I’m nostalgic about him in the way that I am about, say, Battenburg). I reckon he’s dead, or social media is keeping him off the streets.
Anyway, it’s not all social media that Gen Z are engaged with on their phones. Why do we make that assumption? They might be doing their banking, booking a train ticket, catching up with the news or trying to find somewhere to live. They might be donating to charity or composing an opera or, y’know, just communicating!
It’s a lazy stereotype that young people gawp at screens all day. Also, Gen Z aren’t even that young any more! The oldest are edging toward thirty. They own air fryers and complain about litter and the difficulties of parking. They are lawyers and fire fighters and nurses; they deliver babies and might even have produced offspring of their own. They’re not spending every spare minute shopping on Shein.
I think we should watch out for running down Gen Z or, before we know it, we’ll be today’s equivalent of the grumpy old dad in 1975, shouting at Top of the Pops:
‘IS THAT A MAN OR A WOMAN?!’
…And no one wants to be like that.
Love,
Fiona xx
PS If you’ve ever wanted to run away from Christmas then my new novel, ‘Tis the Damn Season, is for you! (It’s not about Christmas haters exactly. More about the tyranny of those colossal to-do lists and ‘some people’ not pulling their weight). If that sounds like your thing, you can order it here!
In other news, to my immense delight The Woman Who Ran Away From Everything has shot up the Kindle chart this week. (It’s my novel that came out in spring this year). For a limited time, you can snap it up in ebook for just 99p here!
A HUGE thank you if you’ve bought, borrowed, read or reviewed my books - honestly, it’s hugely appreciated and it makes all the plot wrangling, face rubbing and muttering to myself in cafes worthwhile. xx
Me and my friends were obsessed with flashers back in my childhood during the late 60s. Any poor chap who wore a mac and walking the streets (probably off to the shops to buy a packet of Benson and Hedges ) was reported to the police. We were doing our duty to keep flashers off the streets of Bristol. We thought we were the Famous Five or Secret Seven. The local police station got fed up with us and threatened to go and talk to our parents.
I'm sure that my dad had a mac!
Just received my copy of Tis The Damn Season. Can't wait to start it! xx
Well I just spent some well chosen minutes reading your thought provoking article on my iPad.
Yes I agree with you all the way - but the things that do annoy me are the mothers who push their buggies reading their phones with a crying baby and pushing it across a road without looking. Going out for a meal, at home or on holiday and every member of the family are on their phones even the high chair users and nobody knows what they are eating or enjoying each other’s company.
Anyway well said Fiona.