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The Bridge
The general consensus among Z-llennials seems to be that Elon Musk hit his peak trendiness about 2 years ago. Today, none of them really seem to care what he’s up to – though he’s making noise in the mainstream headlines today for things that would have gotten him crucified back then. Is the younger generation signaling that they need a new kind of role model?
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Daddy Elon is up to his usual wacky antics, this time going toe-to-toe with tech giant Twitter; and as usual, the story is more interesting than it seems on the surface.
The breakdown goes like this:
Elon Musk, South African diamond mine heir with a bewildering self-made millionaire backstory has somehow gone from king of memes to social pariah and back.
Somewhere along this wildly swinging social pendulum, he’s asserted his intention to get mankind to mars, launched thousands of satellites to bring internet to the underserved, announced his intention to buy Twitter to allegedly crush censorship, dug a couple of giant tunnels in Nevada, and openly mocked his opposition on Twitter. All while fathering 9 children with multiple women, staying cool with Joe Rogan by smoking that sweet sweet kush on air, and keeping his cool when his stock prices inevitably tanked.
Changing of the (Role Model) Guard?
What kind of a role model is Elon Musk? It’s hard to say how relevant he is in the feeds of the younger generation – he’s all but missing from open discussion, save for a few “Musk worship is pathetic” posts. On the surface, it seems that Gen-Z may not have much interest in him at all.
It would appear that Z-llennials are selective about whose hype train they get on these days – and they’re quick to jump back off if there’s a whiff of hypocrisy (see: Sandberg, Zuckerberg from our past editions). As for how long the Musk Mobile will stay in motion, who knows? He’s being taken to court over his withdrawal from the Twitter deal, but as usual, he’s dealing with it in a series of memes.
Young people want the ways of the past – old iterations of social media, freer dialogue, and a clear path away from centralized leadership. We trust that Z-llennials will choose role models that prioritize these values.
