America, 2046. The youngest of Millennials will be middle-aged. Their children, Generation Alpha (disparagingly referred to as the "Children of COVID"), will be just getting out of college. Twenty-two years of perpetual cynicism and emotional numbness will create a generation of timid, antisocial brainiacs. There'll be ten billion people in the world and not nearly enough work to go around.
Quentin will only know a world enshrouded by the Internet, an algorithmic world, a hindered world. A botched suicide attempt in his late twenties will inspire a revelation, an impulsive declaration online urging fellow young folk to boycott the Internet in the hopes of reverting society back to its pre-digital existence. Quentin's manifesto will strike a chord with Gen A and the Unplug Movement will be born. But as America's greedy present finds itself in conflict with America's neglected future, #Unplug will explode into a generational culture war that cannot be stopped, cannot be tamed, and cannot be won.
David Schulze's unplugged imagines a world just around the corner, a satire on nostalgia, fickle capitalism and emotional activism that's just as relevant today as it will be when it's all too late.
