Gen-Zers are so into retro things like vinyl records that Sony Music began releasing music on them again. This is a Japanese pressing of The Beatles' final studio album, 'Let It Be' on sale in a Tokyo music shop. — Filepic/AFP
A while back I was talking with some production assistants about using ChatGPT to aid writing scripts and the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate images and videos.
I expected to be the old man speaking to the kids who had a much greater grasp of this tech – ie, young people things – but a lot of them didn’t seem to have used these AI tools. In fact, they seemed kind of unimpressed. Derisive even. When I pushed on the topic, a few of them went back to reading their books. Like, real books, with pages made out of paper. Not even on a screen. I walked away thinking, like, weirdos.
Even when it came to using things like Udio to make music, which, honestly, blows my brains right out of my head every time, when I brought that up with some Gen Z colleagues, they were like, yeah, my Dad uses that. Which is translation for: Boomer.
What the hickory is going on?
More and more Gen Z, the people who grew up on social media, are looking to get off the Internet and away from screens. They want analogue experiences. Pamela Paul, author of 100 Things We’ve Lost To The Internet, says in a recent article in Fortune magazine that younger generations feel like “so little of their life feels tangible” that they are trying to experience more of the low tech things that previous generations had as a baseline.
Say hello to using film cameras, buying vinyl records, and using running clubs over dating apps. Even sending cards, like birthday cards, is becoming a thing. Gen Z likes the personal touch of a card, and to be fair, don’t we all? But when it means getting or making the card, writing on it, going to the post office, licking a stamp? I just send a text. Happy Birthday. I don’t even send emojis. Not my vibe.
But the card is nice. I don’t appreciate them enough, I suppose.
This is showing up in the data too. Did you know that social media peaked in 2022? I didn’t! Look at social media, it looks alive and well to me. Revenue and users are growing, how can people say it peaked? Because it has peaked in meaning.
Gen Z, the same weirdos reading paper books and sending paper birthday cards, are apparently not posting as much. Or they’re favouring more authentic, less curated posts. They grew up with social media platforms and it turned identity into labour. Who wants to curate their photos on Instagram. Not me either, high five on this one, Gen Z.
What does that mean for my beloved AI? The Internet is already awash with AI slop. Fake videos of cats playing the drums, yeah it’s cute, but it’s totally fake. If Gen Z wants authentic analogue then it seems like the fake AI content on socials is just going to push them further away, leaving only us Boomers to fall for it.
But this push by Gen Z and others to get more analogue doesn’t mean social media is going to fail. Social media is there. It’s a network. The networks might change but they’re not going anywhere. People are just leaning away from posting as much of themselves online, and that’s probably a good thing.
But to be fair, saying Gen Z and people in general are choosing more real experiences is heartening. Life isn’t lived on a screen, although that’s where many of us spend the majority of our time, including yours truly. I guess the difference is I remember a time when it wasn’t like this.
And as much as I like to romanticise the past, the present and future is much easier and more convenient. So let Gen-Zers go analogue. Let them send birthday cards, listen to cassette tapes which you have to rewind if you want to listen to the same song again, and use wired headphones because: analogue.
I’ve lived in that world, and it was awesome but I’ve also written scripts from scratch, I’ve produced TV shows from nothing, and as far as AI tools go, I’ll take all the help I can get.
