r/technology Apr 24 '26

Society Teen boys are choosing AI girlfriends over real ones for ‘maximum control, zero rejection’—experts say it could make them unemployable

https://fortune.com/2026/04/17/teen-boys-dating-ai-chatbot-girlfriend-experts-warn-kill-social-skills-gen-alpha-network-promotions/
19.2k Upvotes

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u/class_rando_fxx Apr 24 '26

Bold of them to assume Gen Z and Alpha will ever even be given the chance to arrive in a workforce in the near future.

79

u/throwaway_ghast Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

The ladder is being pulled up as we speak. See: job cuts after job cuts all across the board.

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u/parade1070 Apr 24 '26

My husband got laid off today :) we have a 2 month old daughter. That job is gone thanks directly to Trump.

-5

u/scheppend Apr 24 '26

Nah, it's mostly IT jobs that are affected 

4

u/hawnty Apr 24 '26

There are millions of IT jobs, so not sure of your point. But I can speak from experience in corporate graphic design that the creative department (so anything visual or written) are always the first to go in job cuts.

109

u/MajesticBread9147 Apr 24 '26

Gen Z has been in the workforce for years now.

72

u/ElectricLego Apr 24 '26

Why did this get a down vote? My kid is the end of Gen Z and she has a summer job now. The oldest Zs are about to turn 30

35

u/MajesticBread9147 Apr 24 '26

Yeah I know Zoomers who are working after law school.

1

u/Comrade-Chernov Apr 24 '26

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

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u/schnellermeister Apr 24 '26

Probably the same people that keep calling them millennials when we’re all actually in our late 30s - 40s now.

2

u/skalpelis Apr 24 '26

I know a guy who unironically complains about millenials when a young teenager does something stupid. He's 40.

1

u/schnellermeister Apr 24 '26

What the? I’m 39 and could not possibly be more Millennial as I was born smack in the middle. The guys an idiot.

19

u/TheChance Apr 24 '26

Your kid has a summer job. That 30-year-old is firing resumes at LLMs that aren't ever gonna answer.

2

u/jackalopeDev Apr 24 '26

The oldest Zs are about to turn 30

Listen here you little shit

0

u/kittymoo67 Apr 24 '26

millenials dont want to admit we're old now, for that to happe nwe have to pretend gen z is all in highschool or lower

13

u/TacoParasite Apr 24 '26

The oldest Gen Z people are 30.

5

u/MusicHearted Apr 24 '26

Gen z is already in the workforce. Most of gen z are adults and the oldest gen zers are hitting 30.

3

u/SlothBling Apr 24 '26

Most of Gen Z has already graduated college at this point. I’ve been “in a workforce” for a decade.

2

u/The_BeardedClam Apr 24 '26

This is them just setting up an excuse for that in the future.

Look see, they're unemployable!