Gen Z Student: Smartphones have replaced cameras, alarms, menus... and real-life conversation

I know I’m probably being dramatic about this. But I understand totally what people mean when they say technology has a tendency to make things worse

Jane Cowan: "Even though I am what they call a digital native, I found myself yearning for the good old days. The ones before restaurants had concepts and I needed to use my phone to order some pasta." Picture: Moya Nolan

I’ve been branded as someone who hates my elders at times. This was never my intention, but here we are. I’m the ‘ageist young one in the Irish Examiner’, or so I’ve been told.

But today I’d like to offer my defence. It was never about a disdain for anyone over the age of 40. It was more a general rejection of things going on around me: nightclubs being commandeered by men in suits or receiving overly punctuated text messages.