(From 2019)

Data reported by CNBC shows that authenticity is an important value for Gen Z, with “67 percent of those surveyed agreeing that ‘being true to their values and beliefs makes a person cool.’” One of the biggest challenges in engaging with Gen Z will be determining how to appear “cool” and change the world while still remaining profitable.

The Gen Z preoccupation with authenticity — which has driven them away from traditional celebrities in favor of more intimate social media and YouTube influencers — makes them scrutinize the motives of large brands, presenting a challenge for today’s marketing and communications professionals.

For Gen Z, print advertising and traditional commercials can feel inauthentic in the same way that hollywood celebrities seem unrelatable. The growing consumer base is shifting as Gen Z enters the fray; 58 percent of consumers are most amenable to brands taking a social or political stance on social media and only 25 percent feel that way about print advertising.

I linked to this article from 2019 not because there’s anything particularly noteworthy about it but because it represents a certain viewpoint in vogue only a few short years ago. I can’t believe how often I heard this same refrain repeated over and over and over again, this idea that Millennials valued authenticity above all else (and Gen Z just as much if not more so). The absolute worst thing you could do as a brand trying to reach “the youngs” would be to come across as fake. As a poser. As a source of manipulative propaganda instead of speaking truth from the heart.

Either something has dramatically changed, or that was all complete bullshit. Because we now live in an age of rank inauthenticity. #GenerativeAI made sure of that. Now you simply cannot believe anything you read, hear, or watch…everything is being manipulated and remixed and regurgitated down to the nth degree.

I recall just recently I was excited that a podcaster I admire (not going to name names)—who is a Millennial themselves!—launched a new personal blog. I was enjoying reading their first few posts, and I distinctly remember feeling impressed that their writing was well put-together and made for a captivating read.

Then I heard them talk about their blog on a show where it was revealed that they put every blog post through genAI writing tools because otherwise they wouldn’t be confident in publishing any of their writing. Yes, that’s right: all of that “great” writing I had been enjoying wasn’t actually what they wrote. It was the “ideas” of what they wrote, filtered through computer algorithms into something else entirely…something they imagined was somehow better.

I felt betrayed. 😖

Because who’s to say I would enjoy their blog without the algorithmic sheen applied? Maybe I’d like it better! Who knows?!

It’s like we now have Photoshop for words. The “real” blog post had warts, wrinkles, scuffs, and sags—but after the auto word-shopping gets applied, it has all been airbrushed away.

I don’t know what happened. I don’t know how our so-called “authentic generation” has turned so quickly into embracing tools I believe are incredibly, incredibly inauthentic.

Sorry, your slop isn’t authentic. There’s nothing to admire about it. Nothing to appreciate about it. It’s as cringe as cringe can get.

Don’t you see that?

Can’t you see that?

I don’t get it.

(P.S. I never use automated #writing tools. Never. Every single word you ever see me write and publish online is 100% my own. I do use a traditional spellchecker and verify its suggestions by hand. That’s it and that’s all.)