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Dave, the protagonist of this story, is not much different than most parents of teenagers in his desperation to relate to his adolescent daughter. In particular, he is struggling to comprehend the pull of the technologies that shape his daughter’s life. As an almost 12-year-old in 2017, Ivy has easy access to massive amounts of information through her cell phone. She is also able to communicate instantly with her friends through texting and social media. Unlike the television, movie, and music heroes of previous generations, Ivy admires the influencers that dominate her YouTube feed.

Ivy is a full-fledged member of Generation Z, the first generation to spend their entire adolescence with a cell phone in their hands. Members of Generation Z, born between the mid- to late 1990s and around 2010, have a profoundly different relationship with technology than their Generation X or Millennial parents. Young people’s technology habits include checking their cell phones over 150 times and sending over 110 texts per day, and many teens feel acute distress when separated from their phones (Brody, Jane E. “Hooked on Our Smartphones.” The New York Times, 9 Jan 2017). This is reflected in Ivy’s behavior throughout the story, as she is frequently on her phone and engages with it instead of her dad. Additionally, older generations’ preferences for other media are shown in the story; Dave and Dorothy are bewildered by social media, watch the presidential debate on television, and Dave subscribes to print magazines.

Sociologist Jean Twenge identifies four specific factors that shaped the members of Generation Z: the shadow of 9/11, “No Child Left Behind” legislation, the shrinking middle class, and pervasive digital technologies (Twenge, Jean. iGen, Atria Books, 2017, pp 1-16). According to Twenge, the confluence of these factors has resulted in common traits shared by members of Generation Z. These include an aversion to risk-taking, a reliance on multitasking behaviors, and a preference for visual material over text. Her research also shows that more members of Generation Z report feeling left out, lonely, and like they cannot do anything right. Additionally, Twenge says, young people are suffering from high rates of anxiety and depression as well as technology burnout, which creates situations in which their mental exhaustion prevents them from full engagement in social interaction. These traits can be seen in Ivy throughout the story as she gets lost in social media or frets over her social standing. While Dave does not have the same generational experience as her, her preoccupation with her bullies is something that spans generations, as demonstrated by Dave’s reminiscences about his own adolescence.