memes

I'd say all generations are affected by this.

My dad (gen X) for example, he has tiktok, Instagram and Facebook on his phone and watches YouTube shorts on his tablet. It's everyday life for him to scroll on these platforms for over 8 hours per day. It's like he becomes brain-dead every time he comes into contact with a glass sandwich.

For myself (gen Z), I used to scroll Instagram reels for at most 2 hours per day when I was in high school, but now I barely touch it, instead I prefer long form YouTube documentaries and sandbox games. The worst of it is my around 5 minutes or less of YouTube shorts daily and browsing lemmy for around tops 2 hours per day but effectively 1 on average.

I also believe that the stereotyping of gen Z being addicted to everything digital is a bit dubious, since we've lived through life as "digital natives" and are likely more able to avoid addiction. The ones I worry about are the older generations, since many fall into the trap of accidentally integrating these addictive services into their routines and get more severe health consequences such as early Alzheimer's or putting too much faith into LLMs and for example change their medication dosages without actual approval from their doctor, and many other examples.