Gen Z is living in an intimacy economy, where connection is commodified | Alice Lassman
My generation is struggling to find safety in our human relationships. AI companionship is filling the gap “There are parts of myself I only share
My generation is struggling to find safety in our human relationships. AI companionship is filling the gap “There are parts of myself I only share with my AI,” Jerome told me. “ Your AI?” I asked.
He was 27, three months out of a breakup, and entirely aware that his AI relationship was, as the psychotherapist Esther Perel put it, “a business product”. Still, he confided in it more than he ever had his friends.
I mention Jermoe because, in the four years I’ve been reporting on gen Z, I have watched my peers become him, one by one. We are the first generation of digital natives and the last generation to have experienced human-to-human intimacy exclusively.
Now the attention economy’s younger sister, the intimacy economy, has monetized the connection and affection that make us feel human. Continue reading...
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