Molly

Well now really when we go back into falling in love. And say, it’s crazy. Falling. You see? We don’t say “rising into love”. There is in it, the idea of the fall.

And it goes back, as a matter of fact, to extremely fundamental things. That there is always a curious tie at some point between the fall and the creation. Taking this ghastly risk is the... See more

The trend combines two of Gen Z’s favorite things: nostalgia and self-mythologizing!

One result is that we feel increasingly alienated from the people who cook and serve our food. It’s no wonder we are always hearing about diners acting like entitled jerks — they’ve been trained to expect that everybody who works in a restaurant should be as fast and compliant as a touch screen

Other periods of profound technological and political change have been accompanied by a mania for the past. The Victorians, as their society was transformed by the industrial revolution, became obsessed with dinosaurs, ancient Egypt and classical civilization. Amid the social revolutions of the era after World War II, Hollywood’s biggest... See more

Irony is already a hallmark of Gen Z’s cultural expression and a coping mechanism honed in the hyper-visibility of the internet. When you’ve grown up always aware that anything you post could become part of a permanent digital footprint, doing something “ironically” offers a kind of social insurance. If it lands poorly, you were never serious. If... See more

This creates an unchecked culture of humiliation, and makes the social media world for Gen Z a place where accountability is absent and cruelty is rewarded. Each viral clip brings more attention to not just the one in front of the camera, but behind the camera as well. While the person being filmed is embarrassed, the one filming walks away with a... See more

It occurs to me, much later than it occurred to the archivists, that we have never possessed such a complete and damning record of our past interactions. I can tell you every college scholarship I never got. Every sale at The Gap for the past 18 years. Every flight I’ve ever taken, anywhere in the world. Most grocery lists, news alerts,... See more

Nothing changes if nothing changes. — Kristine Tobin Balasz, Charlevoix, Mich.