A Return to the Tangible: Why a new generation of students is rebelling against some technologies to embrace real connections
Thumbing through the pages of a book. Putting a needle on the edge of a record. Shopping in person in department stores. Feeling the grass beneath our feet. Things one generation may have lived and taken for granted could now very well be exactly what is attracting a new generation – discovering that a real life exists outside a virtual one – and embracing the old with a new methodology.
Contrary to what could be a common misconception, college students are not addicted to computer screens. In fact, just the opposite could be taking shape. There is a growing trend at Potomac State College – first observed by the staff of the Mary F. Shipper Library - to return to the tangible, to seek less of the digital universe and more of the physical world.
It’s a pendulum that has swung back. The movement just a generation ago was to embrace modern technologies and to download books and reading materials onto screens – from Kindles to personal cell phones. Now, in what could be a natural trend, the children of those who helped foster in the digital age are coming into their own, discovering analog, and returning to the physical for entertainment and recreation – items they can feel, touch, and carry - like a book, for instance.
“Our students do much of their coursework online and tend to use our digital library resources for their research assignments,” said Nicholas Gardner, library director. “So, when it comes to leisure, they tell us they don’t want to be looking at screens. They are checking out books. Our number one category of checked out materials is fiction.”
A recent in-house study by the library shows that 48% of all material being checked out of the library are fiction books and 11% are graphic novels. Nonfiction material accounts for 41% of the materials borrowed, but most students say they’re still borrowing those titles for personal interests, rather than coursework..
“We have noticed this trend, and we are reacting to it. We carried out a signage overhaul in the past few years with a focus on making it easier for students to explore the stacks and find what they want.”
The library has always had a “homey and warm” feeling, with soft seating, oversized parlor armchairs, and live plants complementing more austere study tables and carrels. But the stacks have always been very traditionally presented, and many students can find that overwhelming, especially if they didn’t get free time in their school libraries in K-12. Crediting rural entrepreneurship librarian Emily Zumbrun, the library has added new wayfinding signage along with display endcaps.
The paraprofessional staff and student workers regularly rotate books on display throughout the stacks, making the interior resemble a cozy bookstore that invites readers to browse and leaf through titles, rather than a warehouse where books are tightly crammed in on shelves. Program assistant Madeline Jackowski, who orders and catalogs books among her other duties, noted, “Sometimes we are the first library these students have ever called their own.”
“The library should be a welcoming place for everyone and should invite use by students and even by the community, and the way you do that is by creating a space that people want to come to,” Gardner said.
Gardner said he is impressed that students are even gravitating on their own accord toward classic literature. Noting that a copy of Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald was very ragged and had not been checked out of the library in some time, the library ordered a replacement copy.
“When it came, we displayed it on the shelf with the title and cover facing out, and it checked right out!” Gardner said. “It was constantly being checked out. Gen Alpha and Gen Z are big into books; just check out #BookTok on TikTok. Students tell us screens are for work, and books are for pleasure.”
Gardner notes that the library offers the same research support to students and employees it always has, with comprehensive digital access to millions of books, journal articles, and more through the Library’s website, and continues to support the development and care of a local history collection for area researchers (including its very popular West Virginia Newspapers Portal). Students can also get free tutoring and career coaching in the library.
“When I started here more than ten years ago, books seemed to be on their way out, and everything was about helping students find information online and teaching them to evaluate sources,” Gardner said. “This remains the core of the work for Zumbrun, our other professional librarian, and myself, especially with the new challenges brought by GenAI. I never thought buying fiction collections at a college library would be a concern, but it’s been a pleasant surprise.”
The Generation Gap
Gen Z refers to the generation born between 1997-2010. Generation Alpha includes those born from 2010 on and who have therefore grown up in a fully digital world. The term was coined by Mark McCrindle, founder of the Australian media consulting firm, McCrindle Research.
“It conforms to the scientific nomenclature of using the Greek alphabet instead of the Latin alphabet and there was no point in going back to A, after all they are the first generation born fully into the 21st century,” McCrindle found in his theory.
However, theory and practice are two different beasts as it turns out. Gen Alpha is, in fact, trending to more traditional means of recreation. Screen time is limited to learning and to social media exposure. Late Gen Z and early Gen Alpha are craving real-time experiences – from books to vinyl albums, to board games and outdoor activities.
According to a September 2025 study from the online research firm, GWI, Generation Alpha is showing a notable return to tangible, offline, and physical experiences, despite being the most digitally immersed generation in history. This trend is not a full abandonment of technology, the study concludes, but rather a “recalibration” or a craving for balance, with many seeking tactile, in-person experiences, often described as “touching grass.”
Key evidence of this shift towards tangible, offline, and sensory experiences includes:
· Physical Toys and Games: There has been a 16% increase in children adding physical toys to their wishlists since 2023. Furthermore, board game popularity among this group is up by 8%.
· Physical Media over Digital: Despite high daily screen time, 72% of Gen Alpha prefers physical books over digital formats.
· More Gen Alphas are choosing in-person social activities, with a 15% increase in those seeing friends on weekends, according to 2025 data.
· Interest in going to a movie theatre as a social activity has also significantly, with a 44% increase in those who prefer watching movies in theaters rather than via streaming.
· There is an increased desire for experiential, in-person, and hands-on activities, such as visiting cafes or going to malls.
According to an article in the July 2025 edition of Vogue magazine, as the first generation to be born into a fully digital world, many Gen Alphas are experiencing burnout from screen-heavy, algorithm-driven lifestyles, and indicates that since Gen Alpha was “born into a digital world,” tangible items like books and record albums are seen as something new and exciting to them. However, Gen Alpha is not totally detoxing from digital. While this is a generation returning to the physical, Gen Alpha still expects what is called a “phygital” (physical + digital) experience. They value in-store, tangible shopping, but expect it to be enhanced by technology and other immersive experiences.
Here at Potomac State College
WVU Potomac State College Behavioral Health Therapist Michelle House said she started to notice a shift in the mindset of students before she realized it was becoming a movement.
“I think Gen Zs in general have craved more genuine connections rather than digital connections, for years,” she said.
Mandi Larkin, director of athletics at Potomac State, says the athletes on campus tend to be centered on physical activity by nature and so the trend toward the physical may be one in which they have been unknowingly engaging for some time.
“I think our population of student-athletes is already pretty active,” she said. “They tend to gravitate this way anyway because they have been athletes since they were five or six-years old. They enjoy spending time with their teammates and the main screen time I see is usually making TikToks.”
Similarly, Kara Hotchkiss, director of residence life and coordinator of student engagement, said it is part of her department’s mission to promote the accessibility of campus activities that pull students out of a virtual world and toward one that promotes social skills. For her, if this trend continues, it means she has been successful in accomplishing that goal.
“We try to host a variety of events - ones that involve physical activity like pickleball, dodgeball, cornhole, and ones that don’t involve much socializing like movie nights, watch parties, crafting, and events that are truly designed to be social and highly interactive,” she said. “I do see a few new faces every now and again.”
Creating more critical and ethical thinkers
According to a study by Dr. Gordon Fletcher of Salford Business School, late Gen Zers and early Gen Alpha are showing signs of more critical and even ethical thinking.
“Alphas are showing signs of being critical, ethical, and conscious consumers, even pushing back on their own parents’ online behaviors,” Fletcher said. “Unlike millennials, they are more likely to put down their device and do physical activities.”
Gen Alpha and Late Gen Z folks are also exhibiting more empathetic notions, taking their eyes from a screen, and embracing the world around them, Fletcher said.
“Alphas are also developing signs of romanticizing their grandparent’s generation. Boomers may have a reputation for creating the climate mess we’re in now, but it’s important to remember that those born between 1946 and 1964 also initiated some of the most influential environmental movements of our time. Gen Alpha may go searching for the life that existed before we were all glued to a screen.”
In other words, like one student on campus - who wished to remain anonymous – pointed out: “We got off Facebook when our parents got on it.”
‘We’ll be ready’
While late Gen Z is already on campus as students, early Gen Alpha will arrive as freshmen in a short two years. Gardner said the changes being made currently under this movement will prepare the library for the needs of the next generation when they begin their studies. He said his staff is keeping an eye on the growing trend and adapting as student needs change.
“We try to stay alert to student needs and stay on top of those. Whatever our students tell us they need, we’ll be ready,” he said. “I think we are really good here at the library at seeing a trend start, seeing a need, and then serving it. For people wondering if printed books are a thing of the past, the answer is no. And I don’t think they will ever be.”