MONTY BENFICA | Amusements | CONTACT
A recent study has revealed that a friend with a cracked iPhone screen is the Gen Z version of a friend with a droopy car roof being held up by thumbtacks in a shitbox car.
The study, which examined shared cultural experiences across several Australian generations, found that for Gen Z, the sight of a friend’s phone screen obscured by a dozen cracks evokes the same feeling that older generations get when stepping into a battered old car with a sagging roof.
“We have noticed that the feeling of loveable endearment towards a type B friend that struggles with organisation and financial responsibility is a very universal feeling amongst all the generations” explained Kerry Gould (59), a leading sociologist on the study.
Sociologists point to a cracked phone screen, in a generation averse to car culture, as the new leading symbol of disorganisation and financial irresponsibility.
“Where once friends would laugh as they climbed into a $900 Corolla with roof lining dangling into their hair, today that same laughter comes as someone struggles to swipe their phone through a unreadable smashed phone” Kerry said.
The study also noted that both experience a type of communal affection. The same way the droopy ceiling of a shitbox car was a place of shared memories and mockery, the cracked phone is now a focal point of group banter and light hearted pity.
“It’s truly fascinating that no matter the geography, time or generation, mocking a friend for having an inadequate material quality of life within a friend group is a shared experience”
