Gen Z lives in a contradiction where being online is both a vibe and a vice. They talk about needing a break from social media, on social media. They post “no screen morning” videos that were shot on their phones. They complain about doom scrolling while staying up till 2 a.m. to watch TikToks. This love-hate relationship that Gen Z has with screens is an insight into their wonderfully confusing world.
Gen Z is growing up in a time where everyone has to be hyper-connected, hyper-aware, and hyper-relevant. From social life to self-care, everything goes online. They are constantly curating their life and critiquing others and do not know how to stop. A big chunk of this generation is tired of the endless updates, messages, and pressure to look cool. But they rely on phones to keep in touch with friends, explore new things, track their steps, swipe on dating apps, read news, Google, and more. It’s a full-time job just being online, and Gen Z finds it hard to take a vacation. Where do they go from here?
A 2024 Pew Research Center report states that “nearly half of teens say they are online ‘almost constantly.” The result of all this? Digital fatigue. It is a paradox where even “logging off” or “taking a break” from social media has become a trend. Online, you see influencers talking about relaxing mornings with no phones, a coffee date without scrolling, or videos where they connect with nature. But you don’t see the five takes it took to record their relaxing morning so they could get the aesthetics right.
The solution to this paradoxical life is slowly becoming the problem. Breaking off from using screens itself is becoming content. A vacation that should be relaxing becomes a mission to capture as many pictures as one can for their Instagram dump. BeReal updates about a quiet walk become essential. Calming things like meditation also needs apps. Escaping this vicious cycle is going to be a challenge.
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) was a term coined by Patrick J. McGinnis, a student at Harvard Business School, in 2004. Gen Z popularised it more than anyone. They started living in a loop where they got overwhelmed with excessive screen time, deleted their apps, and added DND schedules. Then, once the FOMO hit, the apps were re-downloaded. Ironically, Gen Z is very much aware of this cycle. There are memes about doom scrolling; they know that the algorithm owns them, yet keeping the phone away is not an option.
Luckily, some are trying to break this cycle. A 2024 BePresent Digital Wellness Report states, “83 percent of Gen Z feel they have an unhealthy relationship with their phones.” This weariness has given birth to The Boring Phone, a new featureless flip phone. Some are sticking to their downtime schedules. Some are curating conscious feeds on social media, some are following limited people and muting unnecessary stories, some are choosing in-person interactions over apps, and others are choosing to live the slow life.
The ultimate goal for Gen Z is to use phones more mindfully rather than eliminate them from their lives. Will they fully achieve this? Probably not, but a small step can still go a long way. Being Gen Z means living in a dichotomy, and frankly, that’s kind of their thing.
