easymode

I was working at Westside Comicon (westsidecomiccon.com) this weekend and there were lots of gen-z and younger there. I came away kinda angry... and wanting to protect them... but I'm out of touch, so I'm just gonna talk from a place of ignorance so I can get it out.

They do not communicate. I mean, some kinda do, but most do not. They have an awesome sense of personal identity usually and have weird styles that I like... but they don't respond to things correctly. I'll give some examples... One person came over and started looking at the book we were selling... I talked to them and they responded with some gestures... but usually just a blank stare... They did seem interested and their eyes lit up when they looked at certain pieces of art... but eventually they put it down and slowly backed away, not responding to me.

Another came by and I noticed they never spoke to anyone either... but then they seemed to get comfortable with me. They noticed a sticker with mitarashi dango on it and said, "I love those." I told a funny story about being in a mountain town buying on that turned out to be bitter turnip flavored... so they laughed then stared at me for a minute and said, "my friend makes them for me." Then they started growling wildly like a weasel for about three seconds... and they smiled at me. It was kinda hilarious, but very weird... I mean, it was totally my vibe, which is maybe why they felt comfortable enough... but I noticed they didn't really communicate with anyone else at all.

Then there were sooooo many people in their late teens and 20s carrying stuffed animals... not like on their backpack, physically holding them... which is awkward because they had trouble holding the books and such, they'd have to tuck them under an arm. Most of them did not communicate either... I would ask the stuffed animal's name and some would respond... others would not... I don't know what's going on with that, but I'm seeing it everywhere now. In Ikea the other day I'd say 20% of the younger people had a stuffed animal.

There was a deep sense of melancholy over most of them... but also this sense that they were opting out of things... living among us, but not part of us... I don't know if that is good or bad. I mean, I want them to violently reject the societal standards... but then there's the influence from screens and social media... I don't know what to say about their inability to communicate...

Anyway, it all made me really mad... like I have this natural mother hen tendency with my friends because I'm always the biggest and meanest... but never to those close... if you bother someone I care about, I'll attack... but if you bother me, it doesn't register. Anyway, they triggered that part of me. I want them to have a future too. I think we objectively had it better... growing up in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s... it's not just a "back in my day" thing... it was statistically better in almost every way and that makes me sad for them.

I don't know if I have reason to be concerned... or if I should care... or if anything is wrong... but it feels like something has changed and local identity/personal identity is the only thing they understand... community identity is a foreign concept and I personally think it is more important than personal identity. So, yeah... What do you think? Am I being old?

I've heard some of the same things just reading online/watching stuff, I've heard about the gen z/alpha "blank stare" thing in "meme reels" when bored browsing online. I've also read a lot saying as a whole, but nonetheless on kids that were in high school and even younger years ago when the pandemic happened, that it really messed them up mentally and emotionally. I kinda just yikes nope'd out when I saw the generational gap when I considered possibly looking for some younger maybe early 20s gaming friends awhile back when I realized I don't have a ton around my age anymore or even a little older, they ended up either stopping gaming or being busy with their families, which is understandable and all but yea I felt like I had even less in common with the younger generation. This can apply to any generation, but I heard the online "brain rot" and very short form content has really ruined attention spans of people nowadays

I've found the psychology aspect of a lot of things combining into what society is now fascinating in a way, feels like we have all this new flashy technology but in-person interaction and people skills are worse than ever before, people and especially the younger gen is super stuck staring at their phones 24-7. I did hear for the younger gen especially those still in school, that you're really ostracized and considered "poor" if you don't use an iphone, I'm sure there's situations where it's even more clique-y where if you're not rocking the latest and greatest fancy one they ostracize you too, stuff seems to have become very superficial and materialistic as a whole

So, I work with kids, mostly tweens and teens, so younger than the folks you’re talking about, but it’s relevant all the same...I can’t sugarcoat it, things are bleak in a lot of ways, and I largely think it’s a sign of the turbulent and difficult times that we’re all going through. There’s a tendency among some in my profession to accuse the kids of today of being utterly apathetic and detached from the world. That concern isn’t entirely without merit, but before I dive into why I think this is happening, I want to give you a glimmer of hope...there ARE kids out there who do care and value community and connectivity. I see them every single day. Yes, the trend is worrying, but there’s always hope.

OK, let’s dig into the ‘why’. Like with everything else, there’s a ton of different things that feed into this. This detachment doesn’t come from any one thing. Trauma, economic turmoil, pandemics, sociopolitical failure, wars, genocides, algorithm-driven social media, hyper-consumption, human rights abuses, the looming climate crisis...I could go on and on, but my point is that these folks are growing up in bleak times and are more plugged in than ever. Even if they don’t grasp the finer details or the ‘how’ or ‘why’ of the current state of affairs, they see all of this shit, too. It’s really easy for them to fall into a doomer mindset or to withdraw from the world at large. It’s hard to engage when you’re constantly blasted by horrific news story after horrific news story. For most of these folks, that’s just the world now. The corporate, algorithm driven nightmare world is all they know. If I were in their position, I’m sure I would be struggling a lot with this stuff myself....

Anyway, you ARE right to be concerned. I don’t think this is just an age or generational thing. It’s the consequences of a cascade of problems...I’ll end this exhausted ramble of a reply with this: things are bleak, but things can be done about it. I do everything I can to encourage my students to get out there and engage in stuff, to slow down, to put the phone away for a bit and to check out stuff going on in my area. I’ll even tell them about various little events around town that cater to all sorts of different subcultures...a couple of them even came to the literary open mic I go to. It was cool! We can’t fix all of these problems ourselves, but we can try our damnedest to mitigate things. Keep trying to engage with young folks. I’m not saying walk up to some random teenagers downtown and talk to them, but maybe look for cool stuff and events happening in your area. See what’s out there. My local scene is mostly adults, but there’s a decent amount of people in their late teens and early 20s too. Make an active effort to get them involved if you see them out some place.