Sustainable Media Center

“I have both PTSD and deja vu because I am living through it [destruction of democracy] again in America.”

Hearing this remark, I was taken aback. I wasn’t just processing the warning offered by the acclaimed activist, scholar, and builder standing before me—I felt deeply connected to her sense of PTSD and déjà vu. As a member of Gen Z, I carry vivid memories from the online world that still linger. Unwanted pictures being sent to me by strangers I did not know, content depicting the body I did not have, and hours scrolling through slop I did not want to see—these experiences left digital scars that many in my generation share.

We grew up in an unregulated and unprotected social media landscape, and we now find ourselves watching history repeat itself as AI follows the same trajectory: profit and innovation elevated above the well-being of young users.

It is now the responsibility of those of us who listened to Ressa on that stage in Munich—including myself—to become torchbearers of both her message and her warning. We must carry her insights forward: that radical collaboration is essential for change, that narrative warfare is not a distant threat but a present reality, and that generational déjà vu must not be allowed to repeat itself in the age of AI.