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The generational divide between Gen-Z and everyone else was on full display at a Betoota Heights family get-together over the weekend.
This comes after a fairly in-the-know millennial became fully aware that he does not share even one remotely common cultural touchpoint with his 14 year old nephew.
Local wine rep, Benson Negges (36) has always considered himself as being on the frontline of technology.
He was part of the first cohort of Australians on Napster and Limewire. He is always the first man his grandfather calls when the WiFi router drops out halfway through an episode of Landline on ABC iView. And he’s successfully educated all of his aunts and uncles on how to avoid having their life savings scammed out of them through fake messages from the ATO and toll companies.
But it wasn’t until his sister’s birthday on Sunday that he attempted to share a laugh with his exclusively-online nephew, Freddie.
Emerging from a post-lunch nap on the couch, Benson found himself getting annoying by the pings of whatever apps Freddie was glued to on the other side of the living room.
With the kid somehow scrolling reels and playing games at the same time, Benson became alarmed by the lack of emotion on his nephew’s face – and the fact that he didn’t seem to be blinking.
“Turn that shit off” said Benson, before being outright ignored.
“You ever seen Russell Coight?”
Aside from the fact that Benson’s nephew speaks with a nondescript Lord Of The Rings style neutral accent, Benson realises that there seems to be thousands of hours of screen time that have completely reconfigured the reward systems of the young fella’s brain.
After showing the teenager some of Russell Coight’s greatest hits on the TV, Benson became aware that dry Australian comedy doesn’t exactly land with Gen-Z – not after spending their most formative years mainlining videos of foreign people being decapitated in worksite accidents.
“What” said Freddie, completely puzzled by this Boomer shit on the TV.
“Wait, check out this bit. Watch him get chased by this emu!” says a giggling Benson, whose nephew had already resumed his fixation on his phone screen, bypassing all parental controls and website blockers to divide his attention between a low-fi Subway Surfing video game, industrial fatalities compilation, and a 32-person Russian orgy.
