Social media is making Gen Z all look and dress and sound the same — and our country is suffering for it |
The internet appears to be causing young people to lose their Southern drawl — and our unique regional accents aren’t the only thing it’s taking from us.
Research from the University of Georgia shows that, generation over generation, regional Southern accents are declining, thanks in no small part to social media. It’s just another way that the internet is making us all a little more the same.
Young people who grew up online learn from strangers how to dress, what to listen to, how to act, and even, apparently, how to speak.
It’s stripping away our individual differences, and our regional differences, and transforming us all into digital copycats.
Our accents, our tastes, even our personalities have been steered by algorithms. Do we even really know who we are?
Johns Hopkins associate professor Margaret Renwick analyzed a collection of recordings of Southerners going back to the 1960s and