Breaking news Gen Z has rediscovered the ancient art of ‘silent walking,’ a revolutionary practice formerly known as 'going for a stroll without your phone LOL
I, personally, am stunned by this groundbreaking trend, where one engages in the radical act of observing the world around them, unmediated by a screen.
In related developments, ‘looking at the sky’ and ‘breathing fresh air’ are expected to be the next big things on social media.
Stay tuned for more updates on these avant-garde activities!
This is groundbreaking stuff! I can’t wait to try some of these practices. Only yesterday I appreciated some flowers I’d seen, all without the use of technology. It was hard but it does work.
Gen Z might be the first generation to walk into a tree and apologize to it, thinking it’s just another Augmented Reality character that hasn’t loaded properly yet!
I do this often. Let me tell you leaving your phone, even a dumb phone at home is a liberating experience. I often go for mindful walks where I am just paying attention to my feet, trees etc around you. The biggest problem we have as people is this constant need for stimulation. We don’t know how to be bored. We can’t STAND being with ourselves for even a second before we need stimulate ourselves by picking up our phones and checking for messages, listening to music, podcasts etc. If you have never tried going for a walk without a phone I highly recommend it, it will be difficult at first because your brain will crave its dopamine hit but over time you regain this sense of peace.
That’s awesome, It is sad though how when you say hi to someone they are shocked you are saying hi to them lol. It is awkward at first but I have tried doing this more and more and you don’t realize how nice of an effect this has on your mental health when you say hi and smile to someone you don’t even know. We all crave connection with each other, we just have to be brave enough to put ourselves out there and be more social
I’m in the process of researching an article about how social media has altered our attention spans because of the amount of information we are absorbing on a daily basis.
Here’s an interesting stat: In 2021, we were absorbing five times more information daily than in 1986, a staggering statistic that underscores the exponential growth of data in our lives. This information overload has eroded our attention spans to an average of just eight seconds, shorter than that of a goldfish.
I think the reason WHY self-checkouts are such a disaster is that people NEED that random interaction with another human being, even if it’s a stranger scanning your items at Walmart. Walmart greeters (even though they were renamed ‘customer hosts’ in 2019) were really some of the best reasons to visit a Walmart.
lol, I am very impressed by Gen Z to be honest. They have really brought dumb phones back. They have realized the effect tech is having on their mental health
This is why I really want to make something like Mudita Pure to work for me. We experience so much sensory overload on a daily basis, more than our human brains can process. It’s just a shame that everything is moving online more and more, there’s no end in sight. We must be able to strike a balance between the necessity to be online and our own decision at times to be offline. I need to think hard about doing a digital detox but I am absolutely addicted to podcasts! I really fear that I’ll miss out on what’s going on if I don’t listen to a daily fix of podcasts.
One theory is that they have hit rock bottom & they realized this constant bombardment of technology & excessive screen time are actually to blame.
Gen Z was the first generation to actually grow up surrounded by screens and a smartphone in their hand. As someone who grew up in the 80s & 90s, I know what life is like without a smartphone. I grew up without social media, so I really didn’t experience negative side effects of constant connection. Gen Z finally hit rock bottom & got into the digital detox game.
The other theory is this:
Gen Z is a generation of activists. Some time ago, I overhead two Gen Z individuals talking about the impact of BIG TECH on their privacy & mental health. They, then, discussed DISCONNECTING as a form of activism.
Basically, Gen Z realized that it is being taken for a ride with excess technology & decided to cut Big Brother off
YUP. Exactly @roberto
The way Gen X witnessed the personal computer revolution. The release of the IBM PC in 1981 and subsequent advancements in home computing drastically changed the way people worked, learned, and played, ushering in the digital age. Then the Millennial Generation witnessed the advent of the Internet and the rise of digital connectivity. The commercialization of the internet in the 1990s and the introduction of smartphones in the 2000s reshaped communication, access to information, and created a globally interconnected world.
Gen Z is definitely the social media generation. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which became widely popular in the late 2000s and 2010s, have significantly influenced how this generation communicates, consumes information, and perceives the world.
For Gen Alpha- I think advancements in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and other emerging technologies will likely shape their foundational experiences with technology.
As I read somewhere recently, Zoomers’ lives occur inside their smartphones’ social-media apps, just as the Keanu Reeves character lived in The Matrix.
Gen Z has rediscovered the ancient art of ‘silent walking,’ a revolutionary practice formerly known as 'going for a stroll without your phone LOL