Spending
your days alone in front of a computer screen–even on Zoom–is a recipe for
social disintegration. We need to get Zers more engaged.
EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V
AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1
APR 22, 2025
We already know that for
all the substantial benefits that various new digital tools and technologies
have created and notwithstanding the many ways in which they have irrevocably
altered our lives, these disruptive change agents have been accompanied by a
host of problems, trade-offs, and downsides.
Facebook may have
proposed to connect the whole world, but basically that global reach has
facilitated the company’s ability to spread its social media poison worldwide
and empower MAGAts and trolls everywhere. Targeting and tormenting vulnerable
teenage girls for creeps and corrupt advertisers isn’t exactly an achievement
that Sheryl Sandberg should be proud of leaning into. Zuck’s mindless and
shameless promotion and amplification of Russian and right-wing rumors, lies
and propaganda undoubtedly help to elect the Orange Monster who is now
destroying both our democracy and our economy.
Unfortunately, even
though we see more and more of these adverse consequences on our employees,
families, and country, we’ve decided to largely feign ignorance and to spend as
little time as possible admitting, addressing or attempting to remedy any of the
ills we’ve brought upon ourselves and our children.
Now we face the
likelihood that A.I. in all its incarnations will only exponentially accelerate
these critical threats and societal concerns. As older adults, with the benefit
of prior times and the attitudes of the good old days, we’re fairly safe and secure;
theoretically, we can consciously assume the risk of these threats in part
because we’ve had an appropriate and thoughtful foundation as we grew up. Also,
because we won’t be around here too much longer anyway to be subject to the
perils of the new world.01:49
But what about the
problems we’re foisting on our younger employees and our kids, who have no
choice in the matter? Can we give them a hand and a little help before we shove
off?
So much of what we’re
likely to see in the future will be simulated, synthetic, and soulless that
it’s extra important now to try to share and sustain a few important traditions
and rituals that were a part of our own youth. Mentors can work miracles if anyone’s
willing to listen to them. This critical sharing, spreading, and transferring
of knowledge and experience to future new business builders and leaders as well
as to our own offspring is how we can try to create compelling cultures,
preserve morals and values, and help sustain a solid societal foundation for
our country. That’s especially true in turbulent and confusing times like
these.
By simply targeting the
technologies and platforms and blaming the tools, we don’t even fairly
acknowledge our own roles in enabling some of the longer-term damage and
lasting adverse emotional and psychological effects these developments are
having, especially on Gen Zers. Surveys from Gallup and the Walton Foundation
report that this generation basically doesn’t trust anything. Not politicians,
not lawyers or courts, not academics, and not law enforcement.
Apart from the
depressing list of consistent disappointment they grew with, including 9/11,
the non-existent weapons of war offered as justifications for invasions, the
Iraq war, the financial crisis, and the pandemic, it’s no wonder that they have
no faith, no anchors, no fundamental values, and no patience. They’re all in a
hurry, they think they’re making good time, but they’re going nowhere.
Dopamine, constant consumption, and the desire for instant gratification drive
their behaviors and it’s all facilitated by our manipulative technologies.
Pervasive and
omnipresent technology has sped up every aspect of our lives (call it “hurry
sickness”) with all of us as willing participants and beneficiaries who are
pleased and grateful without really understanding or appreciating the
accompanying costs. In addition, the new tools – especially the smart phone
with its embedded camera – have done a great job of sterilizing our
interactions, hiding our appearances and emotions, and separating us from
actually and authentically experiencing so many important aspects of our
day-to-day lives.
Do you think for a
moment that anyone has actual friends on Facebook? I’ve asked dozens of these
Gen Zers how many close friends they have from their childhood, which is where
the most important connections begin or, for that matter, how many they have right
at the moment and the responses are unbelievably depressing. Most men are
lucky, if pressed, to recall a single good one that they’ve kept in regular
touch with over the years and most also report that, apart from peers at work
who they sometimes socialize with, they have no other close companions.
Families these days are also widely dispersed and no longer provide the
support, connection and stability they previously did, regardless of their
economic level.
Sitting for untold hours
in a closed room before a screen – regardless of its content – is no substitute
for face-to-face interactions with parents, peers and prospective partners.
It’s no way to form lasting memories, and it’s ultimately an emotionally sterile
and unsatisfying experience. You don’t “play” a computer game – it plays you.
You sit largely passively before a device designed to serially challenge,
seduce and reward you for a bunch of useless accomplishments and valueless
achievements. You never directly interact with another person and frankly you
ultimately learn nothing from the process. Endless effort, empty calories and
no gain.
We have kids hiding
behind keyboards to bully and torment others, and creeps spending all day
trying to seek out children for every kind of perverse purpose. Snapchat
publicly admits to receiving 10,000 reports of sextortion per month. And
with the explosion of mobile sports gambling hard on
the heels of online gaming, things will only get worse and more perilous.
We’ve made the speed (of
everything) the prime directive and objective in our lives. Time is scarce,
attention is fleeting, and the technocrats have taught us to believe that we
can have it all and have it right now as well. Our world spins faster and faster
and we never really have the time any more to luxuriate in the moment or recall
a storied past.
Everything, as President
Barlett always asked in The West Wing, is
about “what’s next?” and we quickly lose sight of and interest in virtually
everything that is and was. Thinking about tomorrow is all well and good, but
not if it immediately diminishes the value and importance of today.
This tendency is why
Trump is such a successful and perpetual liar – no one cares or even remembers
what he lied about yesterday. Driven by frenzied media, we’re always focused on
the next crisis, outrage, or blunder.
Worse yet, our kids have
lost all interest in the past, in reading virtually anything, in studying
history, in our traditions and – most importantly – in the lessons we’ve
learned and the painful experiences we’ve lived through and would love to
share. It’s hard to imagine how a culture will persist and strengthen over time
if we continue to teach the next several generations that everything is
temporary; all material matters are readily disposable or replicable; and that
there is nothing to be gained by looking backwards. And that we can
quickly and cheaply substitute artifice and artificial environments like
amusement parks for the real, hands-on, and authentic activities and the
crucial inter-personal communications and relationships that were so much an
important part of our own youth and development.
Watching concert
attendees attempting to view and capture a performance through their phones
rather than simply watching and listening is a sad sight. Seeing parents
directing and ordering their kids around and ignoring guests at the kids’ own
birthday parties in order to frantically pose all the participants for crappy
videos which few, if any, will ever see again sucks all the joy and actual
enjoyment out of the occasion. We seem to forget that as adults we’ve already
made most of our memories – now it’s our kids’ turn – but we’re intent on
enlisting our own offspring in painful and stressfully staged rituals that are
no fun for anyone and certainly nothing to fondly remember.
Or worse yet, we drag
them to Disney-like artificial environments where the entire family can
substitute conspicuous consumption for any kind of substance, learning or truly
memorable experiences. The Space Mountain in the Magic Kingdom will never
replace the Matterhorn, or for that matter, even an evening in a make-shift
tent under the stars in your own backyard.
