Everyone Is Online and No One Is Posting

Is Gen Z going analogue amid an epidemic of disconnection?

- By Ananya Rai

I rush back home after school and open Instagram on my iPhone 5. Today is the day when the winner of the Mrs Zayn Malik contest will be announced. (If you were ever a fan of the now washed up British boy band One Direction, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, congrats on not having irreparable brain damage). The rules of this competition were simple and harsh: Whoever got the most likes on their selfies—posted across the band's fan-page accounts, one for each member—would be declared his “wife” and earn the right to look down their noses at everyone who didn't win. And before you ask, yes, I won. It was not my proudest moment. Or rather, I am not proud to admit that it was a really proud moment.