Are GenZ Scared? Confused? Worried?
Trust me, we are all there. But why is it that we have perpetually decided to be this way? Why is it that we have grown to have these emotions as ‘innate’ more often than not? This is particularly true with young people – students, recent graduates or early professionals.
This emotional confusion we sit in—between fear, nostalgia, and distraction—is especially visible in the way we consume and create on social media. Well, let’s decode this further.
Not knowing what the Future holds
We have all noticed the recent social media culture where users are putting up reels like, “The nostalgia of not knowing…”
It can be the nostalgia of not knowing when you’re going to leave your house or when you’re about to lose someone. Yes, yes – this not only seems aesthetically pleasing, with Jagjit sir’s music in the background, but also is a classic example of romanticising the past.
But the question remains – why do we keep running behind the past? Is it because the future seems daunting? Is it because we know that we are somewhat (or totally) clueless or have no idea what we are doing with our lives? Or worse still – forget the future. Is it because the present seems unbearable?
An Unbearable Present
GenZ today is constantly burdened by the fact of not doing enough. But what is it that they are not doing enough? Not focusing on studies? Not doing Internships? Not thinking about future prospects?
This rat race that they have become part of, without their choice has led them to take refuge in their past because the past not only feels familiar but gives them an authority, a power to think things over. In trying to make sense of where we’re headed, we cling to where we’ve been. How so? Let me give you an example.
“I think I exaggerated way too much in the meeting. I should learn to keep quiet. This is what I am going to do in the future meetings.” (hypothetical)
We go on to replay that meeting all night—every word, every glance, every silence. No denying, we have all been in situations like these where we ponder over the past way too hard in the hope of fixing the future, trying to illuminate the unknown with lessons we’ve already learnt.
The Algorithm – Adding Calm to the Chaos or vice versa?
The Social Media Algorithm performs its duty diligently – serving as an effective coping mechanism that not only reads the individual’s mind and pacifies them with content that they want to see but slowly and steadily, like a snake that strangles slowly, kills them as they relish in aesthetically pleasing content.
Maybe we run to yesterday because it seems controllable. Maybe we relish in the past because it provides an escape from the hauntingly unknown future.
More importantly, social media doesn’t just allow us to remember but to reframe – a struggle story from 2019 with a bit of editing – filters and some slow songs now appeases us and makes it look like times were better then. It doesn’t matter that we were struggling even back then. It only matters that now we feel worse. We keep on scrolling or rather doom scroll to escape the times that we are living in.
Perhaps we keep on going back to the past not because the present is ambiguous or the future seems dark, but perhaps it gives us a hope that we were alive once and we came out of difficult times once and will be able to do so again. Maybe it is the past that gives us a space to be vulnerable. And any hope that comes out of it is Good. So maybe the past is not bad after all? What’s your take on this?
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Also read, Whys GenZ is addicted to Romanticization here.
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