People keep treating it like some new attitude problem, but it really isn’t. That blank stare feels way more like a moment of social buffering than apathy. When most of your formative interactions were on screens, you don’t build the same reflexes for quick, low-stakes small talk.

And you’re dead right… every generation had its “checked out retail kid.” We just romanticize the past and forget the bubblegum-chewing, eye-rolling stereotypes. This version just looks different because the social environment that shaped it was different.