There’s a movement happening quietly, emotionally, almost desperately. I call it The Great Unplug.
For Gen Z, the Zoomers, raised on swipe screens and cloud-based everything, ownership is virtual and fleeting. Their books? In the cloud. Their music? Streamed. Their social lives? Curated, filtered, and timestamped. They don’t collect things, because they were never taught to… not physically, anyway. Yet, something primal is pulling at them.
At my gallery, I see it every day. These young people, supposed digital natives, sprint to the print bins like they’re starving. They flip through paper. Real paper. Ink. Texture. Human touch. It’s like watching someone rediscover fire.
Why? Because they’ve been trained to trust the tablet more than the human. That screen was their babysitter, their classroom, their emotional regulator. And now we say: “Actually, with AI in the mix, even that can’t be trusted.”
The Exodus from the Machine
Post-pandemic, the migration is real. Cities are being traded for small towns. The pace is slowing. The soul is stirring. And amid all this, the arts tactile, expressive, rebellious are emerging as the counterpunch to the machine.
Art is one of the few remaining things that guarantees a human had to touch it. Make it. Feel it. Bleed into it. And that’s not just comforting it’s essential.
Gen X The Disillusioned Dreamers
Let’s be real. Gen X is done. Burnt out. Bankrupted by broken promises. We were sold a dream that if we studied hard and played by the rules, we’d land the job, the house, the security. Instead, we’re deep into our fourth or fifth act, pivoting careers, drowning in student debt, and watching every institution implode while being told to “reskill” again.
Guess what? We’re not reskilling. We’re creating.
Screw the lie. We’re unplugging too, not because it’s trendy, but because it’s the only way we can breathe. With AI encroaching on every profession and even creativity, Gen X is saying: if everything’s going to collapse anyway, I might as well chase the wild dream that’s been clawing at me since ’82.
The Collision of Generations
Here’s the magic: as Gen X walks away from the system, Gen Z runs toward authenticity. They’re not interested in curated reality; they crave texture, truth, and touch. Together, they are co-fueling this artistic outpour. It’s revolution meets rebirth. And it’s happening in studios, galleries, zines, pop-ups, and collective spaces where real stories and real objects matter again.
The Great Unplug isn’t just aesthetic it’s existential.
Art is how we unplug. It’s the proof that something real still exists in a world that increasingly doesn’t.
