Kasia Delgado: “So I’m alone at home again, eating cereal and watching Netflix, while doing a skincare regime using my perfectly arranged potions” It’s 7.40 pm on Friday night and I’m in bed in my pyjamas, sipping on a green smoothie of avocado and chia seeds. I’m not entirely sure I know what chia seeds are, but here they are, floating around in this unappealing sludge. God, I wish this was a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc.
While I now go to fewer parties and clubs than I used to, an average weekend will still involve an evening at the pub, or a gig, or a meal. For a long time my friends and I would meet up for Sunday evening dinners, where one of us would cook, and we’d have funny, loud evenings to see out the weekend. I also love a bit of time on a Saturday afternoon tidying the flat while listening to a podcast, but this is always in contrast to something else involving other humans.
My boyfriend isn’t thrilled when the alarm goes off at 7am, which is fair enough, because he didn’t sign up for this Gen Z life, and had several pints last night. Never mind. Now is time for my “Slow, wellness morning.” I hope that means a big brunch in a local cafe with friends, but no. I have to, instead, drinkgreen juice, and make a to-do list of the chores I’m supposed to get through today. Then I have to “journal”, which means writing down my thoughts in a neatly sectioned day planner.
I consult my Gen Z guru about whether I’m allowed to head out for some fun. “Now, you tackle that to-do list,” she says. Oh. So more chores, which involve my changing my bedding , and arranging my skincare properly into little plastic boxes, so I know my hyaluronic acids from my peptide serums. It’s soothing to have a pristine room and all, but the sun is now setting, and the day is running away from me.
That sounds pretty wholesome and sensible. “It can be,” says Roberts, “and drinking less is certainly no bad thing. But there is also the issue of younger people staying in on their phones, and not engaging with other people in the real world, not taking on the social challenge of being out and about meeting each other, and there is space for anxiety and an insular life to also take root there.
Katie, who lives in Surrey and is turning 17 next week, tells me that she does see her friends, but she also spends a lot of time on her phone in her bedroom watching fun videos because, “what’s happening in the world, and to our planet, is so depressing and I feel helpless a lot. Sometimes it’s easy to stay at home. It’s also cheaper, and I want to save what money I have because I worry about the future, and the economic crisis that we’re in.