That's a good point about Gen Z. Smartphones were introduced while the older ones were in elementary school.
A lot of Millennials got their first phone before the iPhone was released in 2007. A lot of Millennials didn't have their first phone as a smartphone. Some had more basic phones as their first phone and it wasn't until high school or after age 18 that they got their first cellular phone.
In the 2008-2012 era (a time when smartphone adoption was growing), Millennials were leading the charge on this. In that time, Millennial women were getting smartphones and then expecting men they were interacting with the mating environment to also have smartphones. Circa 2010, it was a demonstration of lower value to still have a basic phone.
While this was going on, Gen Z was still in earlier childhood.
If you text them too infrequently their ADHD brains will lose interest and move onto the next stimulating thing. You're not just competing with other men but all the other bullsh!t on their phones. You can literally just send funny memes or something you don't really need to do much, just offer some sort of value.
With Millennial women, the biggest concern I've had is competing with other men.
It's been possible to say that there's competition for attention with other crap on the smartphone even about women born between 1984-1989 since the early 2010s.
I prefer to limit my texts and to arrange dates as soon as possible. For instance, if I meet a woman at the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon, I would like my date with her to be no later than Wednesday night. I don't want to have to think about interim texting. It would be ideal to have either a Monday or Tuesday night first date in that scenario.
It is tough to compete with so much crap on the phone.