I consider myself a basic Gen Z. Half, if not all my life, has involved technology one way or another. I love using social media, particularly Twitter, and I am used to doing things at a fast pace. But while some adults might think that we’re all still dancing on TikTok and hitting puberty, our generation has already actually entered the workforce. Surprise, surprise! We’re not just a generation of kids anymore, but also a group of young adults trying to navigate the real world. We’re also a generation of teens and kids, trying to create new experiences from the tools and services created for our convenience. From a perspective and from the way the world was initially headed, slowing down never seemed like an option except for self-care moments and personal time-outs.
But then the new normal hit us.
To be frank, it didn’t exactly hit me like how others make it out to be. I was already immersed in a digital media landscape. Even before quarantine, my day usually goes like this: I wake up and check if I received any messages while I was asleep. I then do my morning routine, which includes catching up on what people and the world have been up to lately. I go to work and go through my to-do list as an Editorial Assistant. I usually have my meetings after lunch as work starts at 10 a.m., like some of the classes I took in college. Then after work, I end my day watching a movie or show on Netflix, or read a book on my Kindle. As sad as this might sound, in quarantine, it’s still pretty much the same even if I’m just at home.
Sometimes the only way we can talk to our friends even in the before times is to communicate with them online regarding group projects and intense assignments. We were also the generation that forced our parents to get the Smart Bro modem before because we badly needed sufficient Internet speed to grab information off of various learning channels to finish our assignments or work. We were already a generation of e-learners, being trained to face the digital and the real-world, to begin with, and the new normal only heightened our need for faster and convenient internet speed.
But it still hit us nonetheless. When you grow up in a fast-paced world, it’s a tough pill to swallow when you’re told to put everything on pause. But it’s not in my system to stop, but everyone else says otherwise. It doesn’t help when our internet suddenly decides to give up while I’m in the middle of work. Luckily, I’ve always been a subscriber of data plans, even back in college. Smart's GIGA50 was my go-to subscription then because sometimes I can’t rely on our school’s Wi-Fi. So whenever our own internet acts up, it’s almost like a reflex at this point to just go to the GigaLife App and subscribe to a GIGA plan so that I wouldn’t miss a beat—whether it be a query for work or a message from a friend.
Now more than ever, Gen Z like me needs communication outlets more than ever. It’s our formative years that hang in the balance, and despite being away socially distanced, we want to stay connected more than ever. A day in my life may look like a boring day, but to be disconnected is like taking away a lot from us.
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