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 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.
To read the full story from the source: The Guardian – International
