When people converse, instead of directly conveying words from their hearts and minds, they now pass them through an LLM tool for filtering and rephrasing. This process ensures the communication is not impolite to the other person, or that the sentences are more easily accepted. However, as with all things, the ability to judge what is better or more correct is acquired by delicately refining and building up the logic that takes thoughts from our minds to their output – a process uniquely honed through countless failures.

While the intention and desire to always deliver only “successful” answers are not inherently wrong – indeed, they are very considerate and thoughtful – relying on external tools for this purpose is only advantageous in short-term conversations. From a long-term perspective, the user of the LLM tool has not truly acquired that crucial ability. I wonder if a social problem might emerge, akin to “nomophobia” (no mobile phone phobia) for the smartphone generation: people experiencing great anxiety when conversing without LLM tools in real-time environments where such aids cannot be used.

In a way, it would be more accurate to say that the “Gen-Z Stare” or their seemingly robotic demeanor isn’t a conscious or purposeful act of their generation. Rather, because all their actions and conversations have consistently passed through the smartphone as a tool, they may have lost the natural behavioral patterns necessary for expressing emotions and communicating authentically with others.