Why we should stop assuming that all Gen Zers are the same.

In the process of researching and exploring Gen Z, we realized that nothing would give us a better understanding of the unique perspectives of this generation than Gen Zers themselves.

So we decided to interview 3 different people to better understand the whys and hows of this generation: a 16-year-old girl from the USA, a 23-year-old girl from Singapore, and a 16-year-old girl from the UK.

These are their stories…

Alani

We did this interview as I was driving Alani to get her driver’s license. In the US you can drive a car at the age of 16, so this was a big moment for her.

Name, age, where do you live?
I’m Alani, I am 16 and I live in Austin, Texas.

Where would you live if you could choose any location in the world?
Tricky question because it depends. if it’s summer Hawaii, but also no because it’s expensive. California, but no because the avocados are bad there, and it’s expensive.
Or Spain, but also no, because it’s far away.
So here because it’s where everyone I know is.

Maybe I would just become a millionaire so I can go to any house I want.

How do you plan on becoming a millionaire?
Legally or illegally?
Right now I have a plan to rob the MoMA. So that’s how I would become a millionaire illegally but I would get in trouble for it. So I should do it the legal way; working I guess. But I want to be a teacher, so that’s probably not gonna happen. Maybe I’ll go viral on Tiktok. That’s probably the easy way.

Who would you live with?
I’ll live by me myself, and with my dogs.

What do you admire in older people?
I don’t like older people. They are condescending, they think they’re better than us.

But I guess they like to work hard,

Why do you love your device so much?
I don’t love my device. I love what I can do with the device. Listen to music, watch One direction videos, and movies, especially movies with Tom Holland.
Then, would you have an Android?
No. No, I like iPhones. if you have an Android, you’re just that type of person and I don’t think I’m that type of person

What advice do you have for younger people?
Ignore old people. So ignore me.

What don’t you get about your parents?
They are stubborn. Like oh my gosh, no need to get me started.

Do you rather get 1 million dollars, a million in Bitcoins, or a million followers?
Okay, a million dollars would be nice. I don’t get bitcoin so I don’t see that happening. But if you get a million followers on Tik Tok, you get money. So if I just get a million dollars, cool, I have a million dollars. If you get a million followers on Tiktok you can grow that following and keep just getting income from making videos. So in the long run, you would have more than a million dollars. So it’s not about the followers but it’s about the money that you get from having followers, and it’s just constant income.

How many Tik Toks are enough?
I don’t do Tik Toks every day, but I watch Tik Toks because I get informed. I don’t know how I would have any information in the world without TikTok or Instagram. For example, four songs got released yesterday by One Direction. How would I know that without Tik Tok?. I wake up, grab my phone, open Tik Tok, and the first thing I see is new leaked songs from One Direction… How would I have any information about that then without Tik Tok?

When do you know you’ve had enough selfies?
Well, I don’t think you can have enough selfies and that sounds really stupid and like oh my god, but because you’re constantly changing and evolving in how you look. You can’t have enough because you take one photo one week and then the next week you can look completely different. Then how will you see your progress? How you’ve changed, how you’ve gotten uglier, how you got prettier… it just has to be a constant.

Imagine you have your own news channel, what would you say are the top news of the day?
Can we pretend that it was yesterday? Yesterday Harry Styles leaked songs. But I would never play the leaked songs because I think it’s so disrespectful. if you leak songs, you should automatically go to jail. But I don’t think it was an accident. I think it was a purposeful leak because there is a Harry Styles new album, and he played at Coachella. So that obviously means One Direction is coming back. So that’s the biggest news of the day.

In what ways you would say being young now is better than when your parents were young?
I actually think being young now sucks. Actually, I think my parent’s freedom was better because there weren’t as many murderers. Oh, technology because there is no way I would live without technology. How would you do things? how do you get anywhere? I’d have to memorize Austin.

What do you know that older people don’t know?
Technology. You all can’t work it out. You just don’t get technology.

Who is the greatest musician of all time?
One direction, well, of all time? In my opinion, Harry Styles, because he’s a very good singer and he has a good stage presence and he’s very funny and he doesn’t take things too seriously. And also have you seen his outfits?

What is the weirdest thing older people do?
Y’all just can’t do technology to save your life. Also, you guys dress weirdly. Please keep up with the trends. Your sense of humor is really rare too. I hate old people’s humor. It’s terrible. I think it’s funny because it’s so bad. There’ll be a Tik Tok time six months ago, and then you discover it on the interwebs somehow. Like you’ll be scrolling through Instagram reels and find it and be like, Oh my gosh, guys, it’s the funniest thing ever. I’m gonna post it on my story. For everyone to see. You’re not funny. Please stop. I don’t think old people should have social media. There should be an age cut-off.
Or there should be another form of social media for old people because I can’t let these moms take their mom’s selfies and be ranting about having to go pick their kid up from school. Oh my gosh, and have to take the kids to soccer and I’m so tired and I just want wine.

Since you don’t have to remember telephone numbers or directions, what do you occupy your brain with?

I don’t even remember my own phone number. See? One direction stuff, that’s all that happens. Anything and everything related back to music, anything and everything related to Tik Tok trends.

What do you think your parent should learn from you?
Take a joke. For the love of art. Seriously. I mean, God you made fun of me. Oh my god. Make fun of me. I don’t care. We’re all stupid people. We’re just little beings on a floating ball.

Take a joke.

What’s one thing that everyone thinks about your generation but isn’t true,
That we’re stupid and don’t work hard. And that we just can’t do things because all we think about is Tik Tok.

What are you dreaming of?
I’m going to see a One Direction concert video. I actually did have a dream about that. Which means it’s going to happen.

What makes you happy?
The beach and music mainly One Direction

What makes you sad? One Direction because they broke up.
What does inclusivity mean to you? Everyone who is around you, whether that be constantly or you’re just meeting them for the first time, they are on the same playing field, we are all the same no matter what.

But then there can be times where you just shouldn’t be inclusive to people who just don’t respect you. But I still think that inclusivity means that you and anyone who’s around you are just the same and are equal

Is it okay to be intolerant of something or someone?
I don’t tolerate homophobes. I don’t tolerate racists. I don’t tolerate that. And I think that’s fine as long as you’re respectful about it. As long as you are nice about it. Not like oh my god, you’re a homophobe. I hate you for that.

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Yuet Ying

YY studies at Singapore University and she is doing an internship in Stockholm, where we met with her during a lunch break.

Name, age, and where you live.
Yuet Ying, 23, Singapore (currently living in Stockholm for a year for an overseas internship program)

Where would you live if you could choose any location in the world?
Probably a farm in New Zealand (I haven’t been there though)

Who would you live with?
With a dog and cat that I’ll adopt over there!

What do you admire in older people?
Their vast experience and life stories.

Why do you love your device so much?
There are endless things to look at and keep me occupied

What advice do you have for younger people?
Take all the advice you hear with a pinch of salt and consider different perspectives

What don’t you get about your parents?
Why do they try so hard to save money when they’ve been saving up their whole lives?

Do you rather get 1 million dollars, a million in Bitcoins, or a million followers? Why?
Probably 1 million dollars so I can invest in something else (besides bitcoin)

How many Tik Toks are enough?
When you realize you’ve spent the past one and a half hours on TikTok and feel sleepy.

When do you know you’ve had enough selfies?
When you get featured on @influencersinthewild

Imagine you have your own news channel, what would you say are the top news of the day?
Netflix prevents users from sharing their accounts with others and Putin test-launching a missile called Satan II.

In what ways you would say being young now is better than when your parents were young.
Anyone can make their voice heard with social media

What do you know that older people don’t know?
How powerful social media activism can be

Who is the greatest musician of all time? Why?
Chet Baker — I’m biased towards jazz

What’s the weirdest thing older people do?
Nag

Since you don’t have to remember telephone numbers or directions, what do you occupy your brain with?
Songs that are TikTok-famous and trying to remember what online meetings I have that day.

What do you think your parent should learn from you?
How to live, laugh, and love

What’s one thing that everyone thinks about your generation but isn’t true?
That we have an unhealthy obsession with our devices and social media

What are you dreaming of?
A world without war and climate change.

What makes you happy?
Cooking a meal and eating with my friends.

What makes you sad/angry?
Witnessing the atrocities caused by war up close on the media and social media.

Evie

We spoke to Evie via Facetime during a break from studying

Name, age, and where you live.
Evie, 16, English countryside

Where would you live if you could choose any location in the world?
That’s a tricky one, I have a few. But two very different response

I’m not sure if I want to live in a city and go out every night surrounded by lots of people in the working WORLD

OR living in the middle of no-where with monkeys, no phone, and living my own life — like Bali maybe

Who would you live with?
A partner (boyfriend)

What do you admire in older people?
Seeing people in their working life — how they manage to get up and do the same thing every day — the loop of work, watching TV in the evening, gardening on the weekend

Why do you love your device so much?
1 — communicating with friends, particularly as we start to get jobs and jobs are taking away our social time
2 — social media and self-expression — not ‘showing off’ but showing what you’re doing
3 — meeting new people and staying connected with them — I met my boyfriend on Instagram

What advice do you have for younger people?
Don’t always believe everything on social media — lots of it is fake and toxic

I overthink and stress massively — don’t do that! Let things go, it will always work out — I’ve lost friends and it felt like a massive deal but I met new better people

Don’t let your parents pressure you — make your own decisions but listen to their advice

What don’t you get about your parents?
9–5 grind of work — same thing day-in-day-out

The biggest thing is their attitudes to race, sexuality, and gender. Their opinions are set and I don’t get why they are set in their ways

Do you rather get 1 million dollars, a million in Bitcoins, or a million followers? Why?
I don’t care much for followers, so 1 million dollars

How many Tik Toks are enough?
I don’t — usually the passing of time and it’s been an hour or 2!

Usually boredom. There are lots on there about school and productivity with studies that snap me out of it, but I get so wrapped up in it, I don’t even realize

When do you know you’ve had enough selfies?
When it gets to the point where I’m looking at the same thing over and over and nothing changed. When I feel good about myself, I take a photo but it doesn’t come out as I expected so I take more and more but it still doesn’t work and I get sad

Imagine you have your own news channel, what would you say are the top news of the day?
Ukraine should still be top of the news

Boris Johnson having parties in lockdown and breaking his own rules. It annoys me a lot!

In what ways you would say being young now is better than when your parents were young.
More research being issues e.g. smoking. My dad smoked when he was 13 because he didn’t know any better

I’d like to say social media is a good thing, but it also has its downsides

The access to unlimited information on the internet for school work

What do you know that older people don’t know?
Slang words

Understanding what’s going on with drugs

Social media — our generation is so deep into social — my mum doesn’t understand influencers. Or filters — she likes when I post photos of me looking natural

Who is the greatest musician of all time? Why?
I don’t know, so many

What’s the weirdest thing older people do?
When older people try to be cool with their children and their friends — trying to be down with the kids. This is not just my parents this is also my older siblings (in their 20s)

Since you don’t have to remember telephone numbers or directions, what do you occupy your brain with?
More stress!

What do you think your parents should learn from you?
Attitudes to race, sexism, gender — learn about the society they are now living in now, not the society they grew up in

What’s one thing that everyone thinks about your generation but isn’t true?
That we’re all self-centered, that we all are (like) revolved around what’s happening in other people’s lives/other people’s business but I really don’t care that much and just want to get on with my own thing

What are you dreaming of?
At the moment — getting good grades

In the future — getting a job that pays well, that I really enjoy and is — I don’t want to be in a job I don’t enjoy!

Wonder where life will take me — whether I’ll travel

Freedom to be my own person and not rely on my parents and (eventually) get my own house!

What makes you happy?
My new boyfriend

Spending time with friends

Me time — being able to take time to read a book and find my own space

Being around family — when my siblings come home and we’re all together

What makes you sad/angry?
Friends being childish and feeling like they ‘run the place’

Issues in society, social issues — race, gender LGBT

Climate change — lack of action (but also recognises her own inaction) from politicians. It’s a really big problem and I don’t where to start