Are you "following" me?: Gen Z's emotional intelligence in online activism

ABSTRACT

The author rather than accepting the prevailing narrative that adolescents are becoming socially impaired by technology, explores the ways in which digital natives have utilized and at times advanced beyond their forebears in terms of social intelligence, exploring the convergence of social, racial, gender, and political identity on the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, she considers the experience of the psychotherapist wrestling with personal loss and attunement and repair within the therapeutic relationship. The Social Dilemma, a Netflix film released in 2020, daunts a chilling narrative of the online social sphere. The Social Dilemma depicts how essentially we are puppets of digital creators and being exploited for capital gains. Technology is smart, sometimes too smart. And if we are not learning how to be responsible, mindful, productive consumers of social media and emphasizing the need to cultivate emotional intelligence traits both offline and online through social-emotional learning and digital literacy, we will most certainly find ourselves riddled with technological addictions and other significant mental health impairments inclusive of rising suicide rates among more avid online users. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)