Since childhood, Generation Z has been living in both the virtual and real worlds, and has experienced the introduction of smartphones and the development of social media during childhood and adolescence. With the increasing amount of information on social media, they can become overly receptive to this “explosion” of information, which can lead to a build-up of negative emotions, as well as consumption of emotions that carry over from digital spaces into our real lives. How do we mitigate these negative emotional impacts on real life, and how do we place and deal with them? In my practice, I try to explore the boundaries and connections between negative emotions in social media and real space. Often the way we interact with other spaces has been designed for us and I question whether this is a better way to connect with the physical space? Sometimes digital doesn’t show the extent of emotion, but can instead bind it, as we move from feeling negative emotions in one software to feeling positive ones in another. As Generation Z shifts and overlays extended emotions in digital and physical spaces, I wonder if digital will become an emotional burden for us in the future or in the present, and how our personal space is invaded in both?
