being part of western gen-z cohort, the societal expectation is to life a digital life—to share every experience on instagram, to get news from youtube, to entertain ourselves on tiktok, to purchase everything from amazon, to sink hours into the latest video game, you get the point. it's how most of us live, yet rarely do we reflect upon the consequences of such a lifestyle. , given that our friends and family (and everyone around us) are digitally united, we are expected to do the same.
often times we act without thinking of consequences. we are slaves to our emotional desires. we forgo long-term thinking, and instead choose to listen to our emotive taskmasters, constantly chasing the next dopamine hit, the next new product, the newest release of x, finding ourself yet longing for y, not knowing we needed z. this masochistic cycle is what drives the lifestyles of nearly gen-z person. while it's part of human nature to desire, it's a problem when these feelings get conflated for value. the question then becomes—what brings value? currently, within our shallow existences, it's a rare discussion that seems to have been lost between generations.
gen-z, the distracted generation, the vain generation, the connected generation, the indulgent generation, this is the generation that will soon run society. being part of this generation, I can give an internal look, discuss the reasons why my generation is novel, and discuss the extrapolations of the consequences of our individual actions.
why do we live like this? why are we expected to live like this? how did we end up like this?—being a part of the anxious generation, just thinking of these questions often spurs anxiety within myself. these are important questions. they're difficult to answer, yet we have to try. if we can't understand the reasoning behind our behavior, it becomes impossible to adjust ourselves for a better life. in my opinion, there's a few reasons we've ended up like this.
chasing value is something humans have done for a long time. meaning is something gen-z is lacking. we are comfortable, pampered, and don't understand suffering. our lives have been so easy, we are uncomfortable with any sort of pain. what's unique about this generation, is our unprecedented access to distraction.
nihilism is the philosophical basis driving our lifestyles. as religion becomes increasingly unpopular, the typical goals that drove our predecessors has been lost (as well as our moral drives). because of this, it's difficult to find a guiding light in the current world. what should we chase after?—given there is no intrinsic meaning to life anyway (according to nihilism).
is it possible to live in the connected world—whilst choosing a focused lifestyle? these two seemingly dimorphic lifestyles seem to clash, each valuing different ideals differently. should we live like luddites, regressing 200 years, choosing atechnology to any technology? conversely, we could choose to live as we do, constantly connected, constantly stimulated, constantly shallow.
the virtuous life is
- a. r. brea written 06/10/24