What is the big deal with Gen Z? -from a Zoomer-
For the last decade, newspapers wrote dozens of hundreds of articles about Millenials. We’ve heard about their desire for happiness at work, their lack of commitment in relationships, their deeper need of therapists and much more. After covering years of Millennial despair, in 2020, media are now talking about a new generation, Generation Z. They pranked President Trump at his last Tulsa Rallye by booking a million spots but not attending, they are on the frontlines of the Black Lives Matter protests and they are globally fighting governments to act on the climate change. But what is Generation Z exactly and why are they appearing all of a sudden?
Technically, Generation Z refers to the babies born between 1997 and 2012 (more or less). They succeed to the Millennials (1981–1996) and precedes the Generation Alpha (2012-mid 2020s).
How do we create and separate generations?
Each generation throughout history has been characterized by a number of formative events. The events they lived and experienced during their childhood/teenage years have shaped their ways of thinking and perceiving life. By forming generations, we group like-minded people and what differentiates deeply GenZ from its predecessors is the rise of internet and social media. They are the first generation to have had personal computers, phones and social media at a young age and to (almost) not remember days without the internet.
What are the formative events of GenZ?
The Internet
GenZ is characterized as the iGen or generation internet. With its perks and difficulties, internet has the power to make information from all around the world more accessible and that is one possibility GenZ took to discover and understand it from a young age. Access to Youtube and global digital content since their early ages makes them a more global generation, interconnected with other sides of the world, more prone to talk multiple languages and understand different cultures. But in reality, many more events formatted their experience than just the internet.
A more accepting society but the persistence of inequalities
GenZ is the generation to have lived with a black American president and to have seen the fight for same-sex marriage come to life. They have witnessed the existence of socio-economics and racial inequalities but by their interconnection and understanding of the global world (thanks to the internet), they don’t understand the persistence of these inequalities. This makes them a more accepting generation who wants to listen to others and understand their point of view before acting. Their desire for more equality explains why many are on the frontlines of the BLM protests, and being born in a more accepting world can explain why one-third of Zoomers don’t think of themselves as exclusively heterosexual.
An unstable and dangerous world
GenZ is the generation to have lived their childhood and teenage years in the middle of an economic crisis, witnessing their parents struggle with making a living. It is also the generation that has experienced global terrorism with several attacks. Adding to these experiences the new coronavirus crisis, it’s a generation that has lived a major part of their young years in a world that seems dangerous, unpredictable and unstable. These experiences make them a much more anxious generation, but also a more hardworking one, aware of the difficulties of the world and willing to work hard to ‘survive’.
A planet in danger
One other main characteristics of GenZ is the fight for global change concerning the state of planet Earth. The issues of climate change have emerged in the public space in the late 90s to the beginning of the 20th century. This makes GenZ the first generation to have heard about the dangers of global warming during their childhood. This adds to their views of an unstable and dangerous world. Because of their young age, it also makes them one of the first generations to have to live and deal with the harsh consequences of climate change that are to come. It explains mainly why so many Zoomers are following the Greta Thunberg movement.
Nonetheless, all of these events are mainly characteristics of industrialized countries, and the term Gen Z might speak mostly these people. If everyone experienced the economic crisis of 2008 or the pandemic of 2020, not every country has had a black president or the establishment of same-sex marriage. These differences in experience shape various definitions and characteristics of GenZ depending on where you were born and what formative events you went through.
What’s to come?
What explains the sudden appearance of the term Gen Z in our media might be that they are starting to reach adulthood as we are speaking. They are beginning to take more part in society and their ideas and convictions might transform the political and social space of the years to come. For instance, if none of them could vote in 2016, they are now part of the electorate and will only take more weight in the elections of the next years.
My personal Zoomer point of view
As a part of GenZ, I am happy that we are starting to talk more and more about us in the media. After years of jokingly fighting with Millenials because we were born in the 2000s, and confronting Boomers with humor, we are starting to be taken seriously and our ideas are starting to be heard. I am (maybe naively) believing that we could and will work hard to make the society a more accepting and equal community, the world a safer and more stable space and our planet a healthier and more viable place to live.
If I should end this article in one sentence I'd say,
Believe in younger generations, do not shut them down, listen and take into account their ideas and work together to make our planet a better place.
If you are interested in understanding more about generations and discover what is yours and your formative events, I recommend taking a look at the following video.
