In the past, the car represented the ultimate escape, a portal to exciting opportunities, risk-taking, and adventure. It was the only way a teenage boy could get out of the house, hang out with his friends, impress a romantic interest, and even get laid in the backseat. In the primitive MySpace era of the mid-2000s, digital communications were still too unsophisticated to offer any of that to a teen spending the weekend at home on his own.

Now teenagers don’t seem to go anywhere at all, or at least anywhere that requires a car.

Instead, they go deep into apps, social media, and online porn. As psychologist Jean Twenge notes in her book about Gen Z: “The party is on Instagram and Snapchat now.”

And when you don’t ride in cars with other boys and girls, you don’t tend to do the things that teenagers do in the backseat. Though perhaps Gen Zers would argue that you don’t need a car to get laid anymore because you can have synthetic sex at home.

[All of these may be contributing factors, but I wonder if those are root causes. Perhaps this is just rose-colored-lenses recollection, but earlier generations seemed more bold and more assertive when it came to life. The last couple of cohorts seem more focused on their neuroses and less interested in escaping the nests. That’s what a car represents in both mobility and responsibility. Do teenagers still want either or to leave nests that have grown too cushy and indulgent? — Ed]