Gen Z Is Pioneering a New Understanding of Truth
Key takeaways
- Beside my laptop screen lies the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
- Gen Z, the first generation to spend their earliest years in the smartphone era, has developed a fundamentally different relationship with truth.
- Starting in 2010, researchers across multiple countries began documenting a sharp rise in adolescent anxiety, depression, loneliness, self-harm, and social withdrawal.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photo-Illustration: Darrell Jackson; Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story. The polar bear video has millions of views. Set to a haunting piano score that's become ubiquitous on Tik Tok, it shows a lone bear swimming between increasingly distant ice floes. The comments section overflows with teenage grief, rage, and helplessness.
Beside my laptop screen lies the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. Same subject, different universe. The measured language of climate science stands in stark contrast to the raw emotions evoked by that TikTok. Both contain some truth, but also fundamentally different frequencies of human understanding.
Gen Z, the first generation to spend their earliest years in the smartphone era, has developed a fundamentally different relationship with truth.