Video: 365_hockeygirl, amora.davis, artful.allie, daydreamerthree, geo.kash, gothprincessmollie, thezenelephant, rainbowsandbiscuits via TikTok, Annike Tan, LITA, Maddy Brown |
Sometime between Elon Musk’s acquisition of X, the reelection of Donald Trump, and the mass invasion of AI chatbots, our collective relationship to tech became noticeably more fraught. Our screens, we began to fret, would destroy us. At first, the move was to unplug — to buttress ourselves against rapacious big-tech interests with dumbphones and “grandma hobbies.” The Luddites — 19th-century textile laborers who smashed industrial looms — became folk heroes for enlightened teens. But after a while, this started to feel silly, or it did for me. Though I enjoyed my rotary phone and the quiet of temporarily deactivating my socials, I felt guilty for missing protest news and updates from friends. For many people, logging off just meant buying more stuff: Bricks, “analog bags,” $30 tickets to parties monetizing the concept of “community.”
Then, in early March, the cultural winds shifted. “The hottest girls you know are getting into electronics,” declared trend forecaster Agus Panzoni. |
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