>>512284420
I’m sorry, my first response was harsh. Gen-X didn’t like partying and music, they wanted intimacy. Once they got it they realized partying and music for what they were, short lived tools that had a time and place.
Gen-Z craves intimacy as well (shocking) but their rituals are different, song and dance are too ambiguous and socially dangerous with camera phones and social media. Gen-Z craves intimacy by sharing in ideas. Many Gen-X men begin feeling this way after their wives turn into someone they don’t recognize. These men will seek male companionship but find that society is increasingly hostile to male only spaces, or even spaces where you can hangout without the expectation of spending money. Enjoying things ironically is a form of protection, a social insulator and signal broadcast that you don’t take things too seriously. Even strong men in Gen-Z hold these nowadays simply to hold jobs and appease at least 1 woman.
But you are correct, these walls of irony, these lies we zoomers tell ourselves are the same walls that keep us from intimacy. What would happen if we tore them down? Perhaps it’s best we don’t.