Our youngest generation of adults is much ballyhooed as a sophisticated tribe of hyperconnected “digital natives”. Members of Generation Z were practically using the internet in utero, we are often told.
And yet, our youngest generation of adults has the most difficult time connecting with other members of their own generation. In the words of the LA Times, “Gen Z is the loneliest generation of all”. What gives?
As it turns out, an exaggerated reliance on technology is a crutch. Most young adults can’t read a map. (“I’ll just input the address into my GPS!” they chirp.) Should we therefore be surprised that they also have trouble meeting new people?
In the 1980s, most social contact was direct and in-person. Want to meet someone new in 1986? Forget dating apps and social media—they won’t exist for another twenty years.
In the 1980s, you had to walk up to people and talk to them. Yes, girls and women occasionally made the first move—if you were Jon Bon Jovi or David Lee Roth. For most boys and young men, learning to meet and talk to the opposite sex was a process that involved plenty of trial and error.
I discuss some of that in the attached video. I also mention the tie-in to my novel NO SURE THING: A GEN X COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL SET IN 1988.
-ET
