Gen Z 101: All you need to know

·????????????????????Who is Generation Z?

Generation Z is a group of people born between 1996 and 2012, but that are just numbers to try to put them (us actually) in a box. The human brain has this urge to categorise everything in a hopeless attempt to understand our surroundings.

Ok, let’s get back to it: So, more important than when they were born is where they fit better. Some born in 1995 may feel better represented by Gen Z, while someone born in 1998 may still have more ‘millennial’ memories. Lesson number one, old folks (respectfully): You don’t get to decide who they are; you have to ask. Not just ask, but actually be open-minded enough to respect their answer.

Generation Z is also known as Gen Z, iGen, or centennials. Not that they (we ?? ) care about the naming. Calling them iGen created an internet fuzz (that, for a few hours, before completely abandoning the issue) advocated that we should not use branded names to address this or any generation.

Other points like the whole point of trying to divide people into generations is pointless also did come up. My personal favourite is someone who said somewhere on the web (which-I-do-not-remember-where-but-I-am-sure-I-read-it) that if there were a name for this generation, everyone outside it would not understand it. Lesson number two, old folks: they have their own language.

·???????????What shaped that generation?

Now that we have gotten past the naming thing, let’s try to understand the events that shaped Gen Z (yes, we will be using this one terminology). I must warn you: you are familiar with the events that created Zs, but their perspective is so different you may think we are talking about different things. We are not. Obama did get elected; that’s the fact. But what it means to you can be a long way from what it means to them.

Starting with the obvious: the internet. But not just the internet, but the fact that they grew as the internet did. They come to be together. They were babies, and the internet as we know it was just beginning. When they were teens internet was already highly accessible but not as indispensable as it is today. And now they are becoming adults, there’s no way you can do that (or anything at all) without some internet intervention.

Growing up with the internet it’s like growing up with a pet. Both are developing, changing, and adapting to each other. Only that the pet now sounds more like a God than just a dog. Smartphones were the push it was missing to make the internet an on-going-never-stopping thing. And social media makes sure we stay attached to that model.

Beyond the internet, smartphones and social media, Gen Z grew up in a post-9/11 world trying to figure out how the hell did we end up here. We don’t remember the towers falling, but we felt (and still feel) all the consequences of that. We went through terrorism, the 2008 crisis, and the Arab Spring Democracy Movements in a world where (almost) everybody now had a voice.

That “voice” got louder, and other social movements boomed worldwide as they boomed in our conceptions of being. Climate change, gender equality, and sexual diversity are not only causes we believe; they are what we live for. We have no idea how to fix those problems, but I dare say we won’t stop until we do. It may sound like a call for a protest, but we are probably gonna do it through Twitter instead.

·???????????????????Who are they?

So we know what they are called and what influenced them, but you still have no idea who they are. They are that group who starts with your lovely 10-year-old niece and goes until her kind of weird sister, who is now 25, has an online job, and you have no idea what that means. Gen Z are the ones too young to remember cassette tapes but definitely remember their older cousin who won’t shut up about them.

Millennials, our big brothers, cousins and maybe even teachers keep talking about how they had absolutely ruled their school because they had a Discman, or how they used to rent movies (on an actual place) and play video games with horrible graphics that were so cool at the time.

Our parents,?generation X, the first ones to grow up after the social rights movements (that they seem to forget about it when it’s convenient), saw the Berlin Wall fall, space exploration and the cold war. Events that I recall from my history books and classify as super old. Our understanding of time is different because we grew up in a world where everything needs to be not just fast, but now. That’s the only way we know.

Talking about who we are as a generation is hard because we are plural. So plural. We speak an internet language millennials don’t. We laugh at videos you would never classify as funny. We joke about our mental health, knowing full well how serious it is (but that’s also funny). We spend hours on TikTok and know every trend even if we don’t participate in them.

We are the connected ones, the ethnically-diverse ones, the gays (and open about it) ones, the ones becoming adults, ready to change the world and show it we are no longer just kids. In a short time, our generation will be the most educated and the one with the higher income that ever lived. ?And, of course, that ring many bells in the capitalist world.

·???????????????????How they behave

Gen Z was born with the internet expansion, so it’s no surprise they are deeply influenced by it. They are always connected, and a life without the internet is unimaginable, if possible at all. Life online feels natural to us; we have never experienced life 100% ‘in real life’. Especially because of the Pandemic, the online space is one where we can find some comfort; after all, that’s where we grow up.

I’m sure Zs remember a text message that broke their hearts, uploading their first profile picture into a new social media, or reading a story they would never forget online. We have online moments registered in our memories, and ironically we materialise these memories online. We have photo albums, social media, emails, notes… For the first time in human history, it is possible to record every single second of a lifetime, and the possibilities are as exciting as they are scary.

We grew up exposed to differences. Multi-racial friends, the debate about gender and gender roles, and sexual orientation not being considered taboo anymore. So, a black Professor, a gay couple in the park, or a stay home dad seems nothing but natural. Because it is and should have always been. We are not the perfect society, but I dare say we are moving more freely around society’s challenges. At least we can talk about it.

And we do. That’s another thing about Zs: they make themselves be heard, or at least noticed. They are open to the debate about mental health, and we are slowly changing how it is perceived and dealt with. We know we need to talk about mental health because we (many of us) are definitely sick, we know it, and we are more likely to go to therapy to try to fix it.

Although social media isolation triggers many mental health questions, we can’t just blame it on that. We face many problems, but now we are bombed with information about them all the time. Solve climate change. End racism. Make gender equality a reality. We interpret this news as calls to action and how frustrating it is to discover that not everything is now?!

·???????????????????Why does it matter?

The eyes of the world are on the Z generation, and the reason is the same reason why anything is: money. They are entering the workforce and are on their way to becoming one of the highest-earning generations ever. And the world is trying to predict where they will put this money. This will affect the way we work, consume and behave.

We are about 2 billion, representing almost 30% of the global population. So, you better stop making fun of TikTok trends and try to understand them. At least if keeping your job is something you are interested in. You will have a co-worker who is in their early twenties, and maybe they will even become your boss. You will be exposed to marketing directed to them. You will hear about the topics they are discussing. And that’s not bad at all.

·???????????????????What do they want?

Basically, they want two things. 1: live and 2: to be happy. First, they can only live if there’s a planet to live on, so environmental issues are an absolute priority. Second, they want to change. They don’t just want to survive and become increasingly resilient. We are done with that lifestyle. They want to live a balanced life, working to live instead of living to work.

We want equality, justice, and stability. We are trying to find where we belong, understanding we are living in both real and digital space, and our relationship with both has to be a healthy one. We are learning that we need to take that walk our therapist has been encouraging us to go on. We are figuring out how we can be the professionals we want to be through the internet. We are finding our balance between the real and the virtual, and that includes so much more than just the internet.

·????????????????????Will they get it?

The older Zs are just now entering the workspace. In the next years, they will finish college and post-grad studies, join the workforce, get married, and become parents.?The changes to come are greater than we expect. Who could predict the pandemic and how it deeply influenced our culture? Who can predict what will come next, and how fast will it come?

One thing is known, Gen Zs, like Millennials, are struggling with financial issues, especially regarding the cost of living. Economics, politics, arts and society, in general, will be deeply affected by how our generation decides to execute the changes we grew up dreaming about. I’m looking forward to our turn in decision-making. I’m looking forward to seeing my colleagues becoming city counsellors, activists, CEOs, and influencers.

I’m excited to see the things we will create and the solutions we will come up with. I’m looking forward to educating our children to deal with their feelings healthily. I can’t wait to see where we are going with all the NFTs, metaverses, and space studying. I can only dream of how technology will continue to impact our future and how it will change the way we understand our past.

·????????Should you be scared?

No doubt, a lot will change, but it already does, every day, all the time. New problems, new ideas, new people, new perspectives. We were born into the digital world, but we are not alone here, and the responsibility to care for it is ours as humans, not as generations. At the end of the day, beyond all our differences, age gaps, and cultural shocks, we are just humans trying our best.

So that’s the final lesson, old folks who are still reading: we are not afraid of change, and nor should you be. We invite you to look at the world from a new perspective, to talk about the social issues we want to discuss, and enjoy the digital world instead of being scared of it. Change is not a bad thing; it’s how we move forward. Let’s go!

#GenZ #GenerationZ