"Something is really wrong."

At the Sohn Investment Conference in May 2023, OpenAI founder Sam Altman, in an interview with Stripe founder Patrick Collison, pointed out that there have been no prominent entrepreneurs under the age of 30 in Silicon Valley since the 1970s. It was a statement that implied surprise that there were suddenly no more entrepreneurs in their 20s in Silicon Valley, an industry known for its youth.

It is interesting that this phenomenon is perceived by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and professor at New York University, as a reflection of the characteristics of Generation Z, who are shy, risk-averse, and have less ambition. He further argues in his upcoming book, "The Anxious Generation," that smartphones have been the most hostile element in the development of Generation Z's childhood. He argues that from the early 2010s, when smartphones became ubiquitous and increasingly common in the hands of children, to the present, when they are nearing their late twenties, smartphones have been a key factor in the deterioration of mental health and the difficulty in finding meaning in life, which are some of the overarching characteristics of Generation Z.

In general, our society has come to compare social media companies like Meta, which operates Instagram, and TikTok to tobacco companies. This is because both industries sell products that are harmful to teenagers and focus on making changes to their products to maximize customer retention, i.e., addiction. However, there is a significant difference in that while teenagers can choose not to smoke, social media pressures non-users at a much younger age and in a more subtle way, preventing them from breaking their addiction.

University of Chicago economist Leonardo Bursztyn conducted an experiment on over 1,000 college students to see how much they would be willing to pay to deactivate their Instagram or TikTok accounts for four weeks. This is a common question used by economists to determine the social net worth of a product, and they received an average answer of $50 to stop using the product. However, when the same group of students were presented with the premise that most other students would also stop using the accounts, the average answer was $0. In other words, it was confirmed that social media, a network effect, has a sense of belonging to the surrounding group at its root.

How many Generation Z members can easily say they don't have a social media account when confronted with the question, "Do you want to follow each other?" from their friends? In that sense, while tobacco led individuals to biological addiction, social media has trapped an entire generation in collective action problems. From about 9 to 15 years old, a period of high sensitivity in learning socialization, smartphones emphasize endless comparisons and aimless time spent looking at other people's lives. They grow up watching meaningless 30-second challenge videos selected by algorithms.

Of course, the generations before Generation Z were caught up in the potential of the technological artifact called the smartphone, but they couldn't know what impact it would have on the generations that would go through their entire growth after them. Perhaps they were tired of daily debates about technology designed to keep their children's attention and not let go of it.

And now everyday technological artifacts incorporating AI are starting to become commonplace. For generations after Generation Z, who will experience puberty in the future, conversations with ChatGPT may be accepted as meaningful growth experiences. Then, how can we teach them the meaning and how to respect their counterparts in terms of attitude and posture, not just the content of the conversation? What will children learn and what new opportunities will they miss in conversations with AI that can't understand common sense rather than complex calculations? It seems we need to think about whether we're just excited about the relationship and experience we have with artificial intelligence, or whether it's just a reaction to our excitement.

References

Sohn 2023 | Patrick Collison in conversation Sam Altman

Is Silicon Valley Ageist Or Just Smart?

The Terrible Costs of a Phone-Based Childhood

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

When Product Markets Become Collective Traps: The Case of Social Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠