Realisations of the fast changing world through the lens of Gen Z
The Pandemic — two words that have made their way into our daily conversations, routines, news reads… to a point where inspiration in the kitchen comes from ‘Lockdown Special’ recipes. It’s not unknown that the beginning of the pandemic took its toll on our collective mental health. My go-to response was anxiety — of what lay ahead, the uncertainties, the sudden change in schedule and its effect on my 11 year-old’s education.
For someone who’s out of the house for most of the day, with a routine of leaving home at 7:20 am, dropping and picking up my child to and from school while in the midst of office work — the sudden slowness that now defines the start of everyday took some getting used to… don’t you agree? Once I was able to see the silver lines, I realised that there was no more waking up in the wee hours of the morning, packing tiffins after tiffins or even the occasional panic buttons being pressed when shower-time exceeded by 5 minutes. More than anything, no more morning drives through a stressful pile of Bangalore traffic!
However, to reach this point of indifference to the new normal, it took me a few months… but now, I would like to call-out how incredibly insightful it’s been to watch my 11 year-old adapt so positively.
I should probably mention here that I am a millennial — in fact, I am one of the oldest Millennials (born in 1981)! The generation classification considers anyone born between 1981 and 1996 a Millennial and anyone born in and after 1997 is part of Generation Z (or Gen Z).
For many years, the world has been focused on understanding and adapting to millennials — the largest and most-educated generation in history! Now, the focus has shifted to Gen Z — a cohort that’s evolving into an influencer! Gen Zers, from the earliest youth have been exposed to the internet, to social networks, and to mobile systems and for some, these have been a part of their lives from the start — no meal goes in without YouTube playing in front of them!
However, one of the greatest lessons I learned was from a Gen Zer, my 11-year-old, who happily settled into the new normal brought to us by The Pandemic!
In the early days of this rather turbulent time, I insisted on her acquiring some new hobbies and spend her time pursuing her interests and learning basic chores. She cooperated throughout and explored her many hidden talents. To name a few, she picked up a course in drawing on ‘character designing’ in Udemy, started learning how to play basic piano notes with the help of an app, moved to higher levels of coding in her online coding course and more. When online school began, she settled rather quickly into her new routine and even managed to find ways to enjoy her hobbies alongside classroom learning.
A particularly interesting example that highlights the level of adaptability is of the time I introduced her to a website that could help her learn basic typing — a talent we Millennials went to ‘computer classes’ to acquire! She did what I expected for a few days, albeit with great resistance! One afternoon, when I peeked into her room, I saw her talking into the iPad so that she didn’t have to ‘type’ her document! Lo and behold, I wondered to myself, why was I even insisting that she learns typing? As it stands for most Gen Zers today, Google Home, Alexa or Siri serve them as their personal assistants to help accomplish most of their tasks without any contention.
Gen Z has a propensity to work around or “hack” systems. The essence of ‘hacking’ is in breaking through barriers and connecting people, mobilising communities, and driving outcomes that otherwise would not be possible.
I have in my own experience, gained so much from reverse mentoring, that is- while experienced mentors pass on the know-how to less-experienced individuals, reverse mentors, usually younger individuals who have less life experience but more experience with new technologies and behaviours, can provide insight into the social behaviours and attitudes that these new technologies create. The goal is to “push one another outside of their comfort zones and try new ways of thinking, working and being.”
There’s always so much to learn from Gen Z — they seem to pick up the latest trends (be it in fashion, technology, food, movies, OTT series and more) much faster than Millennials and Gen X can realise. They are curious and have a greater world view about burning issues like racism, global warming, US elections, NCR bill to name a few.
These Gen Zers, smart as anything and poised to stand up for themselves and for what is right, are, without question, the greatest generation there’ll ever be. Their being forced to deal with the pandemic will, at the end of the day, build into them a kind of resilience that we’ve never seen before.
Not only am I fortunate to be able to call my 11-year-old, go-getter, Gen Zer, my kid, but I’m lucky to work with some of the brightest Gen Zers in my current role at a Non-profit aiming at improving the quality of education in India for millions of children. I may well have the greatest job in the world, as far as I can tell, and helping make a difference in this next generation of leaders is nothing short of a privilege.
