The Kids Are Not Alright – Zoomers, the first fully digital generation
Tue 9:30 pm +00:00, 15 Aug 2023Official Generations:
Greatest 1901 to 1928 my parents
Silent 1929 to 1945
Boomers 1946 to 1964 my wife and I
GenX 1965 to 1980 my daughters
Gen Y [Millenials] 1981 to 1996 my sons
GenZ [Zoomers] 1997 to 2012 my first 2 grandkids
GenAlpha 2013 to 2025 my second 2 grandkids, soon to be 3 sons partner has a bun in the oven
The Zoomers could be pivotal: “More important, this cohort is going to live their prime years in a society that is in both steep cultural decline, but also economic decline. Reality has a way of fixing the mistakes of society, but reality is not ready for the Zoomers any more than the Zoomers are ready for reality. In the fullness of time, this generation may be the inflection point of Western society. They are both the end product of the long unfolding social crisis in the West, but also the last hope for arresting it”
“Every new generation gets the usual treatment from the usual suspects, always in an effort to prepare the way for their integration into the culture. The naming of generations is like the naming of weather events. It is part of shaping a narrative. Of course, it is also a way to sell the new generation cultural products by flattering them with claims that they are special unicorns here to make everything right. Generational politics is a way to condition the young to conform to the cultural norms.
The Zoomers may be an exception to this rule. They are getting the usual treatment from the usual suspects, but unlike prior generations they have been raised as consumerist bugmen from birth. Consumerism is a part of their identity, not an activity to be encourage. Popular culture and consumer goods define them on an individual basis, but also signal their participation in subcultures within the generation. They do not require a “buy signal” as that is coded into their DNA.
This is also a generation raised by women for a female dominated culture. Gen-X is arguably the first feminized generation. The explosion of divorce in the 1970’s meant that many of this cohort were raised by mothers in female led homes. The surrounding world, however, was still a male oriented world. This started to change with Millennials who came along as society rapidly feminized. The Zoomers were not just raised in the longhouse, but for the longhouse.
Then you have the totally novel socialization of Zoomers. For as long as man as lived in settled societies, children were socialized in unsupervised play, with some guidance from parents and other adults. Helicopter parenting with the Millennials changed this, but the internet revolutionized it for the Zoomers. Mom was content to let the kids play video games in their room. They were safe. Meanwhile, the kids were learning to deal with other humans through the internet.
One result is that there are two distinct groups within the Zoomer generation that have nothing to do with class or education. One group played sports or grew up doing outside activities, while the other group grew up online. The former group is better socialized and far less engaged in popular culture. The latter, a much larger portion, is socially awkward, defined by consumerism and most important, wildly unrealistic about themselves, the world, and their place in the world.
The difference between online socialization and real-world socialization is easiest to see with the males. Males learning the male role on the playground got in fights and had to navigate physical space using the limitations of their mind and body. Getting beat in a physical game by someone who is not only better but will always be better is a humbling experience that is an important lesson in life. Getting in a fight on the playground, regardless of the result, shapes your behavior.
Zoomer males socialized online never experience this. Their character in the game can be whatever they imagine. This is why male video game characters are cartoonish caricatures of the idealized male form. Unlike on the ball field or the playground, the worst thing to happen to you online is your character dies. Maybe you get blocked from a chat room. You just respawn as a new character. There are no real consequences, so perceptions and expectations are never tempered.
One result of this is the Zoomer males sound like middle-aged single women when they engage with the public. Scan their online spaces and it is the sorts of complaints you expect from women. That is, they make everything about their feelings about an issue, rather than the issue itself. Nick Fuentes does a show that is mostly him complaining about the world being mean to him. The Groyper livestreaming space is a low production value version of daytime talk shows.
This jumps out when it comes to sex. Close to 20% of this generation claim to be something other than sexually normal. Some of it is fashion, particularly with the females, but much of it is simply a result of socialization. Both males and females have been raised in such a way that the normal interaction between the sexes has been short-circuited. Identifying as trans or pansexual is much easier when the normal interaction between the sexes has been made weirdly difficult.
Female Zoomers have been raised on a steady diet of Nth wave feminism for a world run by women. They think they can do all the you-go-girl stuff they get in the classroom and the popular culture. The trouble is, none of that you-go-girl stuff prepares them to land a boyfriend, much less a husband. Yet, that age old desire to be a woman and find a man remains. The result is a generation of females frustrated by the sexual marketplace, with nowhere to turn for advice.
Male Zoomers, raised to believe that females are the dominant force in the sexual marketplace, have not developed the social skills to interact with females. They assume the female should pursue them. Compounding it is the deluge of porn that has washed over them growing up online. Their sexual attitudes have been perverted to the point where many of them are incapable of interacting with a human female. Instead, they date anime characters and simp for female livestreamers.
Another novel feature of the Zoomer generation is that their social capital is virtual, rather than practical. Status is about online clout. This can be in the form of followers on social media or traffic on a livestream. In the analog age, expensive display items indicated money, which provided status. In the digital age, the digital man wants internet clout, which signals his status. Nick Fuentes lives in his parents’ basement and has never touched a woman, but he has clout, so he is important.
This explains the endless boasting. Zoomers in the real world are quiet wallflowers, but online they are obnoxious braggarts. It is why they worship Donald Trump. So many of them have embraced his boasting style because boasting is an important part of getting clout online, so why not emulate the greatest shit-poster of all time? This is why Nick Fuentes says he is the most censored man on the internet. The absurdity of the claim is the point because it gets attention and therefore it gets clout.
This also explains the unearned confidence. The generation least prepared for the world as it is and wholly unprepared for what is coming, is convinced they will take over the world and impose their will. Again, this gets back to being raised by video games and livestreams. You can always beat the game, so they assume they will beat the game of life. They find it ridiculous to think otherwise. Those who came before them are just losers who sucked at video games.
Something that ties it all together is the lack of seriousness. Again, Zoomers engage with the world for the sole reason of gaining online clout. To gain clout first requires getting attention. Getting attention means finding a novel way to present yourself online, so anything goes. It also helps if you can get the attention of other clout merchants, so the result is ridiculous clout chasers aping the antics of clout merchants. The clout market is a freakshow as a result.
Gen-X came into a world that was never going to cater to them, so they were prepared to be ignored by the massive boomer population before them. Millennials came into the world lacking many basic skills, but the world they entered was stable and prepared to assimilate them. Zoomers have been prepared for a world that only exists online and they are entering a world that is in crisis. The result is the real world is not ready to reprogram the Zoomers for success in reality.
More important, this cohort is going to live their prime years in a society that is in both steep cultural decline, but also economic decline. Reality has a way of fixing the mistakes of society, but reality is not ready for the Zoomers any more than the Zoomers are ready for reality. In the fullness of time, this generation may be the inflection point of Western society. They are both the end product of the long unfolding social crisis in the West, but also the last hope for arresting it.”
