Gen Z Discover Walking

 ‘Silent walking’ is a movement taking Gen Z by storm, but it’s copping criticism

https://www.tiktok.com/@ariellelorre/video/7190821620087393582

In yet another groundbreaking show of innovation, Gen Z has created a new trend. This time, they’ve invented walking - without any technology.

Imagine, going for a walk, without a podcast blasting dopamine in your ears. No camera to capture those Instagram moments. No Strava to announce your exercise and home address to the world. No speakerphone call to share with other pedestrians who you’ll ignore.

Just you, the wind, and the birds.

Ms Maio said the first two minutes of her walk were “mayhem”, until she hit a “flow state”, when “suddenly you can … hear yourself.”

So stunning and brave was podcaster Maio that she was able to endure 2 whole minutes of anxiety before she was able to mellow into a state of “flow”.

Whether she then realised the anxiety reducing effects of technology-absent walking is not clear.

Following these “silent walks”, influencers then loudly post a video when they get home to make sure their followers know that they were on a silent walk. Because otherwise, how would anyone know?

As a Gen X, I’ve been silent walking since long before it was cool. In fact, I don’t even have a smart watch, so often I’ll have no idea how far I’ve walked, how many steps I’ve done, or even how long I was out. Sometimes I’ll see a nice bird, and I’ll have to look at it with my eyes for a bit before it flies off.

The other day, I was out without my phone/camera, and there was a sunset. Like the old man I am, I had to be present and enjoy it. Afterwards, I could only explain its awe in words. Words. I thought about putting those words onto a meme of some kind, but decided to cook dinner instead.

It’s great that Gen Z are discovering how great the world can be without technology. I can’t wait for their next technology-rejecting trend.

I really hope it’s letter writing, which they’ll probably name “slow messaging”.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ethical Implications of Dismantling the Planet Mercury

Image
George Dvorsky's article about How to Build a Dyson Sphere was absolutely fascinating and I feel the concept deserves much further exploration. "By enveloping the sun with a massive array of solar panels, humanity would graduate to a Type 2 Kardashev civilization capable of utilising nearly 100% of the sun's energy output. A Dyson sphere would provide us with more energy than we would ever know what to do with" Now, this is the kind of ridiculous, overambitious idea that that really captures my imagination. It would be a hyper structure, like the Hoover dam but on steroids, where we would create unfathomable devastation, calling on the skills and labour of thousands, enduring the harshest that nature can throw at us in order to tame it - all in the name of energy. Where the Hoover dam transformed a country, this would transform our entire solar system. But it's not without cost. And that's what I want to discuss. In order to get the materials to...
Read more

Guns Might Be the Least of Our Worries

Image
Whatever side of the gun debate you sit, it's important to remember why this is such a potent issue. It's not so much that guns kill, it's that they empower. Weapons have always elevated humans above other species and their peers, but none quite so much as the gun. And the ability to instantly kill without fail has been a game changer in our social order. This empowerment goes a long way in shaping our entire civilisation. In some countries, it is used to completely control the population in fear, in others, the same idea but a more subtle effect, we are forced to pay taxes and obey the law for threat of arrest at gunpoint. Guns tip the balance of power because of the ability they afford us. That it's the ability to kill is in no way insignificant, but the ability could be anything. They are an enabling technology. Enabling technology elevates individuals and shifts society's order. In the past, this has been fairly limited to weapons; guns, nuclear mis...
Read more

Living Longer - A World of Wisdom?

 Any race that cures death will end up with a very old, wise and experienced society. Who knows what sort of implications this could have on their world. The implications of more time alone would dramatically enhance one's ability to contribute. For example, time to specialise in many fields would bring about more knowledgeable scientists, more skillful musicians and sports people, and more flexible artists. Centuries of honing and refinement would give birth to unseen talent. Throw wisdom into the mix too and you have yourself an extremely enlightened society, making today's most gifted look like incapable children. Imagine an artist who masters psychology, quantum physics and child care, and is able to integrate it into their art in a way never before achieved, using skills refined over millennia. The boundaries of magnificence would continue to be pushed to extraordinary levels. This is a world of wonder the likes of which we have never seen. With vast and varied knowl...
Read more