When the Future Sues Gen Z for Negligence in Learning
There is a scene increasingly common today in classrooms, libraries, and coffee shops: a laptop is open, a book is on the table, but attention is entirely absorbed by a mobile phone screen. Scrolling through TikTok for a few minutes turns into an hour. The intention to open lecture materials ends in jumping from one app to another. Everything feels busy, yet nothing is truly focused on. Ironically, this state is slowly being accepted as normal. We live in an era where humans find it increasingly difficult to distinguish between genuinely growing and merely appearing to grow. Many people look productive on social media, but secretly they are losing the ability to sustain deep learning.
As a lecturer and legal practitioner, I see this phenomenon as intriguing when read through the lens of civil law, specifically the concept of ‘wanprestasi’, or breach of contract. In civil law, wanprestasi occurs when a party fails to fulfil an obligation agreed upon in a contract, whether through negligence, delay, or acting in contradiction to the agreement. So, what is the connection to today’s digital generation? Unconsciously, every individual has a silent contract with their own future. When someone chooses to pursue higher education, harbours ambitions, or simply desires a better life, they are simultaneously making a commitment to learn, to train discipline, and to build personal capacity. The problem is, in the age of social media, many are beginning to violate this contract slowly. Time that should be used to build competence is wasted on aimless scrolling. Focus is drained by notifications. Energy is spent maintaining a digital existence. We end up busier beautifying the appearance of our lives than strengthening the substance of them.
Social media makes everything look fine. Today, many young people are more afraid of appearing to fail than of actually failing. They are more anxious about losing engagement than losing direction. Consequently, a performative culture is born: learning for content, hanging out for validation, and being productive only so it can be seen. Yet real life does not work like the TikTok algorithm. The algorithm rewards attention, but the real world rewards ability. On social media, someone can appear successful overnight. But in reality, competence still requires a long process that is not always interesting to show off. Skills are built through repetitive practice. Character grows from consistent discipline. And maturity is born from a process that is often silent and invisible.
Perhaps the biggest issue for the digital generation today is not a lack of information, but a loss of focus and depth. We are too distracted to truly think. Too busy building an image to truly build ourselves. In law, there is a term ‘culpa’, or negligence. When a person knows that an action harms themselves but continues to do it, that negligence becomes their own responsibility. Many of us already know that excessive scrolling damages focus. We know that digital validation is fleeting. We know that flexing does not automatically make someone valuable. Yet we repeat it every day. Social media is not the enemy; technology is merely a tool. But when the tool starts controlling the user, that is where the problem lies. Sooner or later, life will always test humans in an honest way. When a job interview arrives, the world does not ask how aesthetic your feed is. When responsibility calls, life does not care how many likes you received. Because the future never compromises with reality. And time is the fairest judge, able to distinguish who truly built their future and who was merely busy building their image.