Are they one of my classmates? Are they one of my friends? Are they okay?
These are the questions that immediately popped into my head when I arrived on campus Tuesday, Feb. 4, to find a student had been hit and injured by a vehicle.
Having lost a friend in a car accident in high school and having had a sister who was at Marshall when Maribeth Cox was killed in 2021, I felt terribly sick seeing ambulances and police cars outside my classroom.
However, when I turned to Facebook to try to learn more about what happened, my feed was flooded with comments like, “Get your head out of your phone,” “They’re jaywalking. This is why they get hit!” and “Maybe they should have to take Street Crossing 101 at Marshall!”
As much as I searched, I couldn’t find a single comment asking if the student was okay. A young woman, someone’s child, had just gotten hit by a car, and no one cared to ask if the girl was okay.
All they cared about was placing the blame on her – after all, she is just a mindless drone addicted to her phone like the rest of Gen Z and not, like, a human being or anything.
There is a lot to break down here, but it all ties back to one point: the older generations – Boomers, Gen X and, yes, even Millennials – are seemingly obsessed with criticizing Gen Z, and, frankly, it’s weird and disheartening.
First of all, let’s start with the fact that directly after the news reached Facebook, none of the comments addressed the driver. No one asked how fast they were going. No one accused them of being on their phone while driving even though the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported, “Approximately 660,000 drivers are attempting to use their phones while driving.”
Admit it: You’ve checked your phone at least once behind the wheel, but you’d rather focus on Gen Z’s average daily screen time of 6 hours and 27 minutes a day even though Americans, as a whole, “spend an average of 5 hours and 16 minutes per day on their phones,” according to Harmony Healthcare IT.
While we’re admitting things, let’s talk about jaywalking: We all know it’s wrong. We all do it anyway.
This is neither unique to Gen Z nor to Marshall’s campus. It’s human nature to want to do things that readily benefit us as individuals, and sometimes, that is cutting across the street even though the crosswalk is in sight.
Some Facebook commenters pulled the infamous lazy card, suggesting students wake up 15 minutes earlier in order to not get hit by a car while crossing the street, as if this is a normal part of everyone’s daily commute.
For those who left this suggestion, did you consider that a trip to the hospital seems a bit extreme as a punishment for being late to class? I’d like to think being marked as tardy would suffice.
Also, did you think about how that student could have worked a shift the night before and stayed up all night doing homework? According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 78% of part-time and 40% of full-time college students are employed.
I know several students, including myself, who work multiple jobs on top of being a full-time student in order to keep up with the ever-inflating prices of rental houses and apartments. In December 2024, Zillow reported rental prices to be up 3.4% compared to December 2023.
Many of us are working at least one job with a full load of classes and using our very little free time to do homework. If it makes me “lazy” to want to take that extra 15 minutes of sleep in the morning, so be it.
Now, let’s circle back to the ever-so popular phone, since, you know, Gen Z just can’t keep their faces out of it. If we’re going to pull that card, how about we consider who gave us those phones? Who planted us in front of a tablet or an iPod as soon as we were competent enough to use one, so we would be entertained and leave the adults alone?
Regardless of whether the student was on her phone or not, whether she was jaywalking or not or whether she worked a late shift the night before or not, it shouldn’t matter.
What does matter is the lack of empathy and the overwhelming amount of grossly hypocritical commentary she received.
When the news hit Facebook, no one could have known the details of the incident, yet users wasted no time taking their stances as keyboard warriors, feeling so comfortable harassing a young woman behind the anonymity of a screen. And if we’re going to talk about cell phone addiction, perhaps we should consider just how quickly the comments flooded in after the post was made. Take a look at your own screen time before you throw stones at someone else’s.
Sadly, this student’s experience is just one example of the unnecessary hate Gen Z receives from members of older generations every single day, and, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired.
Now, more than ever, it’s time we all start to show some empathy to one another. And it’s time to stop blaming Gen Z for the messes you created.
Baylee Parsons can be contacted at [email protected]
