I recently came across a poignant short video about how kids who grew up in the 1980s and '90s view our current world of social technology, viewable on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. First roll the tape. Then continue reading and consider each kid’s revelation of how we relate and interact in our current social tech environment. I’ve taken some excerpts from their comments to provide a point of reference to compare their past with our current lives.
Many of us are addicted to our smartphones. According to a 2024 survey of more than 1,000 Americans by the data management firm Harmony Healthcare IT, on average, Americans spent over five hours per day on their phones that year, with millennials spending about five and a half hours per day. The Gen Z group (born 1997–2010) spent about six and a half hours on their phones, and 72 percent of this group felt “their mental health would improve if apps were less addictive,” the report said. By 2026, average screen time for Gen Z increased to over nine hours per day, according to the business-insights platform DemandSage.
You don’t own the music, you just pay to borrow it.
Our migration to subscription-based software environments continues to spread. Certainly, on the consumer side of things, subscriptions to Spotify, Netflix and other streaming media services continue to expand. In corporate and educational sectors, we are familiar with examples such as software-as-a-service subscription (or pay-per-use) as a software licensing model, such as with Microsoft 365 and Adobe products. In May 2013, Adobe’s Creative Suite of software became a mandatory subscription model and a backlash from end users has entailed frustration over recurring payments, high costs and cumbersome cancellation practices.
Still, many others accepted the Adobe subscription model and continue utilizing the software suite. Subscriptions for work, education and entertainment will remain part of the culture, even with the potential of higher costs and “subscription fatigue.”
Before people eat, they take a picture and share it with strangers.
Our social interactions while eating have dramatically changed. Many heavy users of social technologies gravitate toward sharing their experiences with friends, as well as with strangers. In a 2023 column titled "What's Behind People's Passion For Posting Food On Social Media?" for the food publication Mashed, writer Ceara Milligan said, “social validation is the seasoning of the digital age.” Milligan suggested the habit of taking pictures of food was all about “boosting engagement and clout” as well as “fostering connections and celebrating our culinary quirks.” The counterargument is, if you’re in a group while you’re documenting your latest culinary endeavor, you are likely disconnecting from the people around you and sharing your social posts with strangers you likely will never meet. Many of us take photos of our food, and nearly 60 percent “have stopped friends from digging in” just to capture the moment. The question is, does the “photo moment” take away from conversations with the people right next to us?
They type messages instead of calling.
In today's social world, we tend to text more often than call, primarily due to convenience, efficiency and a desire to multitask and reduce our anxiety, especially in stressful situations. According to a 2025 blog post by the text-marketing platform SlickText, nearly 50 percent of Gen Z “check their text messages more than 10 times per day." It further noted that “Gen Z is accustomed to instant communication, making texting a natural fit for this generation. By meeting them where they are most comfortable — on their mobile devices — you can deepen relationships and drive long-term results.” On its website, higher-education software company Modern Campus writes 98 percent of text messages get read, and 95 percent are read within three minutes of delivery. Text messaging can quickly foster genuine interactive connections and engagement. However, the question remains, how much texting is too much, too fast, too impersonal? Without an in-person conversation, how you write your text, use specific punctuation, and what time you send it can have a major impact on your communication. How you compose and edit your text can dramatically change the way it's received and understood, or worse, misunderstood.
People post their diary for everyone to see.
Why do we want to publicly share our social lives with friends as well as strangers? Many people just want to share their experiences with others, while others use it to define themselves, grow, and perhaps fulfill their personal needs. In a 2024 blog post for the employee-advocacy platform EveryoneSocial, the company's Head of Client Success Cameron Yates wrote that sharing personal information is based on having a status and emotion. In our fast-paced world, many people want to tell their personal story, perhaps connect, and gain a feeling of, “I matter.”
Particularly for students, where do you draw the line? Do you want your personal information to be public or private? Managing your own information is important, but it’s equally important in how the IT department manages data in educational institutions or businesses. This is why IAM (identity and access management) has become so essential in today's world.
Everyone is connected to everything, and people are still lonely.
According to the aforementioned 2024 survey from Harmony Healthcare IT, 56 percent of respondents said friends and family are less present in social settings due to their phones, and 54 percent wished their immediate family spent less time on their phones. Commenting on a 2018 study by the American Psychological Association, Dr. Leora Trub of Pace University said, “Texting can become a crutch and eventually become a barrier to creating meaningful interactions. ... Texting all the time can also come from being lonely or bored, and that can lead to isolation and alienation.”
That said, there is a positive trend developing regarding our texting habits. A reassuring “quiet revolution” is now emerging, where people are going offline or deleting their social media accounts.
Do we stay outside until the streetlights come on?
This nostalgic look at a kid’s life reminds us of a simpler and safer time. While technology has definitely improved our lives, businesses and education, social media has also demonstrated its inherent risks and dangers. The world of AI has the potential to make this situation even more precarious. Perhaps it’s beneficial to remember how we used to interact with each other, as kids of the 1980s and 1990s remind us. Human interaction is still very important. We just have to think back and remember when you could stay outside a little bit more, “before the streetlights came on.”
