5Putting on the “Rizz”
Because VNs are exposed to so many people of their own age from all around the world through the medium of video, their notions of what constitutes authority are substantially different from those of earlier generations.
In early 2023, the Guardian interviewed a group of young people in the UK about how their lives and attitudes had changed since the Covid epidemic. One of the themes that came out in multiple interviews was the question of authority – or, rather, that these Virtual Natives learned at an early age to question it.
Lily Smith, 19, said it this way: “I've had enough of politicians, experts and authority. Now I just do what's best for me. I think a lot of other young people are doing that as well, because we sacrificed so much and we got nothing back to make up for what we lost.”1
Michael Nesi‐Pio, 21, agreed. “The conventional structure of authority has disappeared for me and my peers. We have become quite disillusioned with the idea of authority as a result. There's even contempt there.”
For previous generations, authority was embodied by older figures, predominantly male, who exuded intelligence, determination, and expertise. Think Winston Churchill, Dan Rather, even Bill Nye the Science Guy. These authority figures occupied the spotlight on the stage of the unified national media or appeared on the nightly news, watched by everyone in the country.
Virtual Natives, on the other hand, live in an era where media channels have become far more ...
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