On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Young America’s Foundation spokeswoman Kara Zupkus joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss how the last year of government-mandated lockdowns and COVID-19 mitigation techniques have affected people in Generation Z.
“I think they’re absolutely more addicted to social media now … they literally live on social media because they couldn’t go outside during quarantine,” Zupkus said. “Social interaction is definitely going to be something that we need to look for going back this coming fall. Seeing if students are willing to go to these student org events, go out to different events happening on campus.”
Academics and critical thinking, Zupkus said, are also at risk due to the amount of time Gen Z spent on electronic devices since the pandemic began.
“It’s absolutely going to affect critical thinking, specifically, when students are writing papers, if they have to have an opinion on something, they’re like, ‘I don’t really know what my opinion is or what the right opinion is. Let me Google what other people have written about this and they have a whole plethora, a whole library of entires papers written on that topic … their opinions aren’t their own opinions.”
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