argumentative essay generation z

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Social Issues That Matter to Generation Z

With tech­nol­o­gy at their fin­ger­tips — and a reg­u­lar tool in their grow­ing hands — Gen Zers have been able to con­nect to cul­tures around the world and learn about issues and news ear­li­er and more often than any gen­er­a­tion before them. This broad cul­tur­al expo­sure from an ear­ly age like­ly con­tributes to Gen­er­a­tion Z’s ten­den­cy towards open-mind­ed­ness, lib­er­al views and advo­ca­cy for the fair and equal treat­ment of others.

Eight Top Social Issues for Gen Z

Eight issues, in par­tic­u­lar, have com­mand­ed the atten­tion of Gen­er­a­tion Z so far. These are: 1 ) health care access; 2 ) men­tal health; 3 ) high­er edu­ca­tion; 4 ) eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty; 5 ) civic engage­ment; 6 ) racial equi­ty; 7 ) the envi­ron­ment; and 8 ) gun violence.

1 . Health Care Access

Health care is a core issue for Gen­er­a­tion Z. Almost nine in 10 Gen Zers ages 18 to 24 view access to health care as a human right , accord­ing to a nation­al poll in 2022 . In addi­tion to access, they see afford­abil­i­ty and qual­i­ty as key sys­tem issues to improve. As part of this issue, access to repro­duc­tive health care, specif­i­cal­ly, has emerged as a top pri­or­i­ty for Gen Z young adults.

When it comes to their own health care, near­ly one in five ( 17 %) Gen Zers ages 18 to 24 did not have ­health insur­ance  in the fall of 2022 , accord­ing to Cen­sus Bureau data. This high unin­sured rate is espe­cial­ly con­cern­ing giv­en that ado­les­cents and young adults gen­er­al­ly have low lev­els of health care access to begin with — and this is a vul­ner­a­ble phase of devel­op­ment in which sig­nif­i­cant phys­i­o­log­i­cal changes are tak­ing place. 

The age span of 14 through 24 , which cur­rent­ly rep­re­sents Gen Z (ages 12 to 27  in 2024 ), marks a for­ma­tive stage in the lifes­pan, when youth must nav­i­gate increas­ing auton­o­my while form­ing their iden­ti­ties and build­ing socioe­mo­tion­al and life skills. This emerg­ing inde­pen­dence is crit­i­cal in the health care con­text, as young peo­ple must learn to tra­verse the health care sys­tem, devel­op health lit­er­a­cy and take charge of their own health needs.

While young adults who have health insur­ance often are cov­ered by their par­ents’ plans, the old­est mem­bers of Gen Z have aged out of their par­ents’ plans and are invest­ing in their own insur­ance for the first time. Many can only afford cov­er­age through the Afford­able Care Act and Med­ic­aid expan­sion .

When it comes to health care, youth today gen­er­al­ly have a holis­tic view – believ­ing providers should screen for social deter­mi­nants of health such as food inse­cu­ri­ty and hous­ing needs – and they val­ue self-care, con­ve­nience and effi­cien­cy. Thanks to evolv­ing tech­nol­o­gy, they are grow­ing up with­in a med­ical sys­tem offer­ing unprece­dent­ed online options for con­nect­ing with physi­cians, health coach­es , ther­a­pists and oth­ers — as well as self-mon­i­­tor­ing dig­i­tal tools — empow­er­ing them to gath­er infor­ma­tion, learn and man­age their health needs.

At the same time, Gen Zers are less like­ly to have pri­ma­ry care providers rel­a­tive to old­er Amer­i­cans, and they fre­quent­ly pre­fer telemed­i­cine to tra­di­tion­al in-per­­son vis­its, espe­cial­ly those with geo­graph­ic or trans­porta­tion bar­ri­ers . How­ev­er, main­tain­ing con­fi­den­tial­i­ty in tele­health appoint­ments is a con­cern for some young peo­ple, espe­cial­ly when they still live at home or lack a pri­vate set­ting. Ado­les­cents and young adults often have unique and sen­si­tive health needs, such as repro­duc­tive or men­tal health issues, that require con­fi­den­tial care.

Gen Z also believes that racial inequities exist in the health care sys­tem , and many report their own expe­ri­ences of dis­crim­i­na­tion in health care set­tings. Med­ical providers can respond by ensur­ing that they pro­vide cul­tur­al­ly respon­sive ser­vices ground­ed in pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment prin­ci­ples, whether vir­tu­al­ly or in person.

2 . Men­tal Health

Men­tal health is a cri­sis in Amer­i­ca, accord­ing to more than eight in 10 Gen Zers . This gen­er­a­tion is far more like­ly to report emo­tion­al health prob­lems than old­er age groups. A  2022 sur­vey of U.S. young adults ages 18 to 29 found that about half report­ed ​ “ always” or ​ “ often” feel­ing anx­ious in the past year, com­pared to one-third of adults over­all. In addi­tion, a  mul­ti-year Gen Z study found that they were 83 % more like­ly to report anx­i­ety issues and 86 % more like­ly to report depres­sion com­pared with oth­er gen­er­a­tions. Mem­bers of Gen Z are con­cerned about this cri­sis affect­ing their age group , but they tend to be prag­mat­ic about address­ing it and they are help­ing to des­tig­ma­tize the issue. They are more accept­ing of and open to talk­ing about depres­sion, anx­i­ety and oth­er emo­tion­al chal­lenges than old­er generations. 

While tech­nol­o­gy and social media can fos­ter crit­i­cal social sup­port and con­nec­tions for young peo­ple, they can also aug­ment anx­i­ety, depres­sion, low self-esteem and stress . Con­tribut­ing to this, trag­ic U.S. and world news is now deliv­ered faster than ever — and dif­fi­cult to avoid — via an assort­ment of apps and out­lets. Gen Zers report seri­ous con­cerns about home­less­ness, gun vio­lence, sys­temic dis­crim­i­na­tion, cli­mate change and more . Oth­er major stres­sors for Gen Z in recent years include the COVID- 19 pan­dem­ic, high hous­ing costs, and per­son­al finances.

For­tu­nate­ly, today’s young adults are more like­ly to seek treat­ment for their anx­i­ety and depres­sion than old­er age groups. Near­ly one in three ( 31 %) young adults ages 18 to 29 report­ed receiv­ing men­tal health care in the pre­vi­ous year, com­pared to one in four ( 25 %) adults ages 30 to 49 and less than one in five ( 18 %) ages 50 to 64 , accord­ing to the 2022 sur­vey not­ed above. Oth­er stud­ies note sim­i­lar trends. At the same time, young peo­ple who need treat­ment do not always get it. In 2022 , almost half ( 47 %) of young adults said they did not get men­tal health care when they thought they might need it in the pre­vi­ous year, with cost cit­ed among the top bar­ri­ers. Low­er-income and LGBTQ groups tend to be par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble, both in terms of access­ing treat­ment and expe­ri­enc­ing poor men­tal health outcomes.

Read more about Gen­er­a­tion Z and Men­tal Health

3 . High­er Education

High­er edu­ca­tion is one of the top issues Gen­er­a­tion Z cares about. The vast major­i­ty ( 83 %) of U.S. Gen Zers ages 12 to 26 believe a col­lege edu­ca­tion is ​ “ very impor­tant” or ​ “ fair­ly impor­tant,” accord­ing to a  2023 Gallup sur­vey. Con­sis­tent with this, mem­bers of Gen­er­a­tion Z are the least like­ly to drop out of high school and the most like­ly to go to col­lege com­pared to old­er gen­er­a­tions, accord­ing to the Pew Research Cen­ter .

How­ev­er, only about half ( 53 %) of col­lege-bound Gen Zers thought they could afford it , based on the same 2023 sur­vey. While con­cerns about col­lege afford­abil­i­ty were con­sis­tent across all demo­graph­ic groups, Black Gen Zers were the least like­ly to think they could afford it ( 39 %). Researchers note that this could con­tribute to low­er col­lege enroll­ment and com­ple­tion rates among Black students.

As learn­ers, Gen Zers are inter­est­ed in acquir­ing career skills, and they val­ue flex­i­ble and per­son­al­ized teach­ing approach­es. They are inde­pen­dent, cre­ative, hands-on and tech-savvy stu­dents who pre­fer immer­sive, active edu­ca­tion­al expe­ri­ences ver­sus pas­sive­ly sit­ting and lis­ten­ing to lec­tures for hours. Of course, they are a diverse group with dif­fer­ent back­grounds and learn­ing styles, which is part­ly why flex­i­bil­i­ty and mul­ti­ple modes of learn­ing (e.g., visu­al, audi­to­ry, kines­thet­ic, e‑learning, self-dis­cov­ery, etc.) work well for them.

The pan­dem­ic knocked a sig­nif­i­cant share of stu­dents off their aca­d­e­m­ic path. For instance: In Octo­ber 2020 , more than 40 % of house­holds report­ed that a prospec­tive stu­dent was can­celing plans to attend com­mu­ni­ty col­lege, accord­ing to data from the U.S. Cen­sus Bureau . Since the pan­dem­ic, col­lege enroll­ment rates have con­tin­ued to decline , espe­cial­ly among two-year insti­tu­tions, and grad­u­a­tion rates have stag­nat­ed . Gen Zers are increas­ing­ly tak­ing uncon­ven­tion­al path­ways through high­er edu­ca­tion, such as chang­ing schools, mov­ing across state lines, adjust­ing course loads and/​or paus­ing and restart­ing enroll­ment. It remains to be seen how Gen Z uncer­tain­ty about col­lege afford­abil­i­ty may affect future atten­dance rates.

Rec­og­niz­ing the range of issues fac­ing Gen Z, lead­ers in high­er edu­ca­tion and oth­er sec­tors can pri­or­i­tize a holis­tic approach to stu­dent well-being that address­es their finan­cial, men­tal and phys­i­cal health needs, as well as racial, gen­der and LGBTQ + equity.

Read more about Gen­er­a­tion Z and Education

4 . Eco­nom­ic Security

Eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty mat­ters to Gen Z. Mul­ti­ple stud­ies have report­ed that per­son­al finances, jobs, debt, the cost of liv­ing and hous­ing inse­cu­ri­ty are major sources of stress for Gen Z. In 2023 , almost two-thirds ( 64 %) of Gen Zers ages 12 to 26 said finan­cial resources were a bar­ri­er to their future goals. They want to have sta­ble, well-pay­ing jobs, afford­able hous­ing and to avoid crip­pling col­lege debt. Many also see a role for gov­ern­ment in sup­port­ing the eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty of Amer­i­cans. More than two-thirds ( 70 %) of Gen Zers think the U.S. gov­ern­ment should pro­vide a uni­ver­sal basic income for all indi­vid­u­als, com­pared to 61 % of the over­all pop­u­la­tion, accord­ing to the Cen­ter for Gen­er­a­tional Kinet­ics’ 2023 State of Gen Z report .

Gen Z has been through con­sid­er­able tur­moil, eco­nom­ic and oth­er­wise, in their young lives to date — a glob­al pan­dem­ic and eco­nom­ic down­turn, cli­mate dis­as­ters, numer­ous polit­i­cal and soci­etal crises, his­tor­i­cal­ly fast inter­est rate hikes, high infla­tion and more. But they are resilient and con­tin­ue to adapt. When asked in 2023 about their finan­cial goals, Gen Z over­whelm­ing­ly report­ed that they are cur­rent­ly focused on sav­ing and earn­ing mon­ey, with old­er Gen Zers also focused on pay­ing off debt. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, two in five ( 41 %) mem­bers of Gen Z say they have no mon­ey saved for an emer­gency, accord­ing to the State of Gen Z report.

When it comes to earn­ing mon­ey, Gen Zers are career-focused, com­pet­i­tive and inter­est­ed in forg­ing their own paths. They have an entre­pre­neur­ial mind­set and are open to chal­leng­ing the tra­di­tion­al rat race. Quite a few of these youth believe that col­lege isn’t the only path to reach their goals, with near­ly one in five say­ing col­lege is not that impor­tant , and near­ly half hav­ing an infor­mal or for­mal job on the side (a ​ “ side hustle”).

When it comes to choos­ing career paths, only 29 % of Gen Zers plan to pur­sue an occu­pa­tion relat­ed to sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, engi­neer­ing and math ( STEM ), which are wide­ly con­sid­ered the jobs of the future. STEM sec­tors are already expe­ri­enc­ing labor short­ages, and jobs in these areas are expect­ed to grow sub­stan­tial­ly in the com­ing decades. U.S. lead­ers are grap­pling with how to pre­pare today’s young peo­ple for tomorrow’s work­force needs. 

5 . Civic Engagement

Mem­bers of Gen­er­a­tion Z are pas­sion­ate about advo­cat­ing for social change.

They are polit­i­cal­ly engaged and believe that the gov­ern­ment should do more to address­ society’s prob­lems. Recent sur­veys show that the top pri­or­i­ties for Gen Z include: cli­mate change, access to repro­duc­tive health care, cost of liv­ing (and hous­ing), jobs that pay a liv­ing wage, gun vio­lence and racial jus­tice. A  2022 poll also found that about three-quar­ters of Gen Z young adults (includ­ing polit­i­cal­ly con­ser­v­a­tive young peo­ple) sup­port gov­ern­ment poli­cies to reduce the wealth gap between the rich­est and poor­est Americans.

Gen Zers see vot­ing as a respon­si­bil­i­ty and a way to achieve change . Accord­ing­ly, in the Novem­ber 2022 elec­tion, Gen Z vot­ers turned out at a high­er rate than mil­len­ni­als and Gen Xers at the same age. This is part of an ongo­ing trend in which Gen Z’s 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion turnout was almost a  10 -point increase from their 2016 rate, and they are cred­it­ed with help­ing to shape the 2020 elec­tion results. Since 2022 , Gen Z has added 8 . 3 mil­lion eli­gi­ble vot­ers, and they are on track to have more than 40 mil­lion total eli­gi­ble vot­ers in 2024 .

Gen Zers are also com­fort­able dri­ving change. A  2023 report on Gen Z found that they are 92 % more like­ly than pre­vi­ous gen­er­a­tions to engage in pub­lic protests. Using plat­forms like Snapchat, Insta­gram, Twit­ter and Tik­Tok, these youth have helped move activism into the dig­i­tal age. And, along the way, they’ve offered the world a mas­ter class in har­ness­ing the pow­er of social media to spot­light a spe­cif­ic cause or an issue that they want to see change. Gen Z is 68 % more like­ly to engage in polit­i­cal issues through social media than mil­len­ni­als, Gen Xers or oth­er gen­er­a­tions, accord­ing to the same report.

Some exam­ples to date: Mem­bers of Gen­er­a­tion Z orga­nized march­es nation­wide after a gun­man killed 17 peo­ple at Mar­jo­ry Stone­man Dou­glas High School in Park­land, Flori­da. Swedish teen and envi­ron­men­tal activist Gre­ta Thun­berg lever­aged social media to cap­ti­vate the world and chal­lenge lead­ers to take action against cli­mate change. And 23 -year-old Malala Yousafzai, who blogged about her right to edu­ca­tion, kicked off a fem­i­nist move­ment in the Mid­dle East en route to win­ning a Nobel Peace Prize.

Gen Z rec­og­nizes the pow­er of social media to mobi­lize the pub­lic, and near­ly all U.S. mem­bers of Gen Z — 98 % — report dai­ly use of at least one major social media plat­form .

6 . Racial Equity

Racial equi­ty is a key social issue for Gen­er­a­tion Z.

Gen Zers are more racial­ly and eth­ni­cal­ly diverse than pre­vi­ous gen­er­a­tions, with near­ly half of the group’s mem­bers rep­re­sent­ing com­mu­ni­ties of col­or . Fit­ting­ly, this group strong­ly val­ues inclu­sion, cul­tur­al diver­si­ty and racial and eth­nic equal­i­ty. Today’s young peo­ple are also acute­ly aware of the nation’s steep racial divides.

One recent poll — con­duct­ed by the Asso­ci­a­tion of Amer­i­can Med­ical Col­leges Cen­ter for Health Jus­tice with Gen Zers ages 18 to 24 — found that three in five respon­dents believe racial jus­tice should be a top pri­or­i­ty for the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. Fur­ther, the poll found that:

• Two in three Gen Zers think sys­temic racism is a pub­lic health cri­sis and makes it hard­er for peo­ple of col­or to access health care.
• More than three-quar­ters believe that racial res­i­den­tial seg­re­ga­tion and dis­crim­i­na­tion in hous­ing should be a pri­or­i­ty for the fed­er­al government.
• Three in five have lit­tle to no con­fi­dence in the U.S. crim­i­nal jus­tice system’s abil­i­ty to treat indi­vid­u­als equal­ly. Trust in the police is par­tic­u­lar­ly low among those who have per­son­al­ly expe­ri­enced discrimination.

Gen Z does not stop at racial equi­ty, though. They val­ue fair­ness and equal­i­ty in all facets of life , and they are pas­sion­ate about LGBTQ + rights, as well. To date, they are the gen­er­a­tion most like­ly to have mem­bers who iden­ti­fy as non-bina­ry or third gen­der . More than one in five U.S. Gen Z adults iden­ti­fies as LGBTQ + , accord­ing to a  2023 survey.

7 . Envi­ron­ment

The wors­en­ing effects of cli­mate change are impact­ing the lives of Gen Z, spurring deep anx­i­ety but also activism .

Gen Zers around the world are expe­ri­enc­ing ​ “ eco-anx­i­ety.” A recent inter­na­tion­al study of 10 , 000 young peo­ple ages 16 to 25  in 10 coun­tries found that over 80 % were wor­ried about the cli­mate cri­sis, with many report­ing feel­ings of sad­ness, anx­i­ety, anger, pow­er­less­ness, help­less­ness and guilt. In the Unit­ed States, more than 70 % of Gen Zers ages 18 to 24 believe cli­mate change is an imme­di­ate and long-term threat to the planet’s safe­ty and that the gov­ern­ment should strength­en poli­cies to reduce CO 2 emissions.

Not sur­pris­ing­ly, Gen Zers believe that insti­tu­tions and busi­ness­es have an oblig­a­tion to take a stand on envi­ron­men­tal issues, accord­ing to a  2023 Gen Z study . And these young peo­ple will sup­port those that do. For exam­ple, one in five Gen Zers said that a brand’s posi­tion on issues would affect whether or not they buy from them. Addi­tion­al­ly, near­ly a third said they would buy more sus­tain­able goods if brands had clear­er labels or bet­ter infor­ma­tion on the product’s cli­mate impact. 

Beyond expect­ing com­pa­nies to fall in line, young peo­ple are also com­mit­ted to lead­ing by exam­ple. Sev­er­al recent stud­ies have found that Gen Z is will­ing to pay more for sus­tain­able prod­ucts, with one find­ing that 90 % of Gen Zers pur­chased such prod­ucts, while the same was true for 85 % of mil­len­ni­als, 84 % of Gen Xers and 78 % of Baby Boomers.

8 . Gun Violence

Gen Z con­sid­ers gun vio­lence a major issue. As a gen­er­a­tion grow­ing up with mass shoot­ings and active shoot­er drills in schools, they are more like­ly than mil­len­ni­als to rank gun vio­lence among their top three pri­or­i­ties , accord­ing to a  2022 nation­al sur­vey by Tufts Uni­ver­si­ty. Anoth­er poll that year found that sev­en in 10 Gen Z young adults see this as a pub­lic health issue .

Trag­i­cal­ly, the data bear out their con­cerns. A  2023 analy­sis by the Johns Hop­kins Cen­ter for Gun Vio­lence Solu­tions found that firearm deaths are at an all-time high: 48 , 830 Amer­i­cans died as a result of gun vio­lence in 2021 (the most recent data in the report), more than 2020 ’s record-break­ing num­ber. The rate of gun deaths also increased by 22 % between 2019 and 2021 . This increase has been fueled by both gun homi­cides and sui­cides. Gen Z’s focus on gun vio­lence, includ­ing sui­cides, close­ly con­nects to their con­cern about the men­tal health crisis.

Guns are also the lead­ing cause of death for chil­dren, youth and young adults, as report­ed in the Johns Hop­kins analy­sis. Black young peo­ple expe­ri­ence gun vio­lence at espe­cial­ly alarm­ing rates. For instance, in 2021 , more than half ( 51 %) of all Black Gen Zers ages 15 to 19 who died were killed by firearms. Fur­ther, Black kids and teens were about five times as like­ly as their white peers to die from gun vio­lence that year, accord­ing to the Pew Research Cen­ter . The dis­pro­por­tion­ate impact of firearm vio­lence on peo­ple of col­or inter­sects with Gen Z’s strong focus on racial justice.

Rec­og­niz­ing Gen­er­a­tion Z’s pas­sion and will­ing­ness to engage in social activism, they will no doubt con­tin­ue to make their voic­es heard on this issue.

Learn More About Gen­er­a­tion Z

Under­stand­ing Gen­er­a­tion Z is crit­i­cal for shap­ing the future of the nation in a pos­i­tive way. Explore addi­tion­al Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion resources to learn more about America’s younger gen­er­a­tions, includ­ing Gen­er­a­tion Z and Gen­er­a­tion Alpha:

• What the Sta­tis­tics Say About Gen­er­a­tion Z
• Sta­tis­tics Snap­shot: Gen­er­a­tion Z and Education
• Core Char­ac­ter­is­tics of Gen­er­a­tion Z
• The Chang­ing Child Pop­u­la­tion of the Unit­ed States
• KIDS COUNT Adds New Dataset on Youth and Young Adults Ages 14 to 24 , Cap­tur­ing Most Gen Zers 
• Gen­er­a­tion Z and Men­tal Health
• Social Medi­a’s Con­cern­ing Effect on Teen Men­tal Health

KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter indi­ca­tors on Gen Z and oth­er generations:

• Pop­u­la­tion size by Gen Alpha, Gen Z, mil­len­ni­als, Gen X and baby boomers, by race and ethnicity
• Peo­ple liv­ing in pover­ty by generation
• Peo­ple liv­ing in pover­ty by gen­er­a­tion and race and ethnicity
• Peo­ple liv­ing in low-income house­holds by generation
• Peo­ple liv­ing in low-income house­holds by gen­er­a­tion and race and ethnicity

Sign up for our newslet­ters to get the lat­est data and oth­er resources.

This post is related to:

• Assets and Savings
• COVID-19 Responses
• Generation Z
• Health and Child Development
• Youth and Work

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It’s Time to Stop Talking About “Generations”

By Louis Menand

The discovery that you can make money marketing merchandise to teen-agers dates from the early nineteen-forties, which is also when the term “youth culture” first appeared in print. There was a reason that those things happened when they did: high school. Back in 1910, most young people worked; only fourteen per cent of fourteen- to seventeen-year-olds were still in school. In 1940, though, that proportion was seventy-three per cent. A social space had opened up between dependency and adulthood, and a new demographic was born: “youth.”

The rate of high-school attendance kept growing. By 1955, eighty-four per cent of high-school-age Americans were in school. (The figure for Western Europe was sixteen per cent.) Then, between 1956 and 1969, college enrollment in the United States more than doubled, and “youth” grew from a four-year demographic to an eight-year one. By 1969, it made sense that everyone was talking about the styles and values and tastes of young people: almost half the population was under twenty-five.

Today, a little less than a third of the population is under twenty-five, but youth remains a big consumer base for social-media platforms, streaming services, computer games, music, fashion, smartphones, apps, and all kinds of other goods, from motorized skateboards to eco-friendly water bottles. To keep this market churning, and to give the consulting industry something to sell to firms trying to understand (i.e., increase the productivity of) their younger workers, we have invented a concept that allows “youth culture” to be redefined periodically. This is the concept of the generation.

The term is borrowed from human reproductive biology. In a kinship structure, parents and their siblings constitute “the older generation”; offspring and their cousins are “the younger generation.” The time it takes, in our species, for the younger generation to become the older generation is traditionally said to be around thirty years. (For the fruit fly, it’s ten days.) That is how the term is used in the Hebrew Bible, and Herodotus said that a century could be thought of as the equivalent of three generations.

Around 1800, the term got transplanted from the family to society. The new idea was that people born within a given period, usually thirty years, belong to a single generation. There is no sound basis in biology or anything else for this claim, but it gave European scientists and intellectuals a way to make sense of something they were obsessed with, social and cultural change. What causes change? Can we predict it? Can we prevent it? Maybe the reason societies change is that people change, every thirty years.

Before 1945, most people who theorized about generations were talking about literary and artistic styles and intellectual trends—a shift from Romanticism to realism, for example, or from liberalism to conservatism. The sociologist Karl Mannheim, in an influential essay published in 1928, used the term “generation units” to refer to writers, artists, and political figures who self-consciously adopt new ways of doing things. Mannheim was not interested in trends within the broader population. He assumed that the culture of what he called “peasant communities” does not change.

Nineteenth-century generational theory took two forms. For some thinkers, generational change was the cause of social and historical change. New generations bring to the world new ways of thinking and doing, and weed out beliefs and practices that have grown obsolete. This keeps society rejuvenated. Generations are the pulse of history. Other writers thought that generations were different from one another because their members carried the imprint of the historical events they lived through. The reason we have generations is that we have change, not the other way around.

There are traces of both the pulse hypothesis and the imprint hypothesis in the way we talk about generations today. We tend to assume that there is a rhythm to social and cultural history that maps onto generational cohorts, such that each cohort is shaped by, or bears the imprint of, major historical events—Vietnam, 9/11, COVID . But we also think that young people develop their own culture, their own tastes and values, and that this new culture displaces the culture of the generation that preceded theirs.

Today, the time span of a generational cohort is usually taken to be around fifteen years (even though the median age of first-time mothers in the U.S. is now twenty-six and of first-time fathers thirty-one). People born within that period are supposed to carry a basket of characteristics that differentiate them from people born earlier or later.

This supposition requires leaps of faith. For one thing, there is no empirical basis for claiming that differences within a generation are smaller than differences between generations. (Do you have less in common with your parents than with people you have never met who happen to have been born a few years before or after you?) The theory also seems to require that a person born in 1965, the first year of Generation X, must have different values, tastes, and life experiences from a person born in 1964, the last year of the baby-boom generation (1946-64). And that someone born in the last birth year of Gen X, 1980, has more in common with someone born in 1965 or 1970 than with someone born in 1981 or 1990.

Everyone realizes that precision dating of this kind is silly, but although we know that chronological boundaries can blur a bit, we still imagine generational differences to be bright-line distinctions. People talk as though there were a unique DNA for Gen X—what in the nineteenth century was called a generational “entelechy”—even though the difference between a baby boomer and a Gen X-er is about as meaningful as the difference between a Leo and a Virgo.

You could say the same things about decades, of course. A year is, like a biological generation, a measurable thing, the time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun. But there is nothing in nature that corresponds to a decade—or a century, or a millennium. Those are terms of convenience, determined by the fact that we have ten fingers.

Yet we happily generalize about “the fifties” and “the sixties” as having dramatically distinct, well, entelechies. Decade-thinking is deeply embedded. For most of us, “She’s a seventies person” carries a lot more specific information than “She’s Gen X.” By this light, generations are just a novel way of slicing up the space-time continuum, no more arbitrary, and possibly a little less, than decades and centuries. The question, therefore, is not “Are generations real?” The question is “Are they a helpful way to understand anything?”

Bobby Duffy, the author of “The Generation Myth” (Basic), says yes, but they’re not as helpful as people think. Duffy is a social scientist at King’s College London. His argument is that generations are just one of three factors that explain changes in attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. The others are historical events and “life-cycle effects,” that is, how people change as they age. His book illustrates, with a somewhat overwhelming array of graphs and statistics, how events and aging interact with birth cohort to explain differences in racial attitudes, happiness, suicide rates, political affiliations—you name it, for he thinks that his three factors explain everything.

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Duffy’s over-all finding is that people in different age groups are much more alike than all the talk about generations suggests, and one reason for all that talk, he thinks, is the consulting industry. He says that, in 2015, American firms spent some seventy million dollars on generational consulting (which doesn’t seem that much, actually). “What generational differences exist in the workplace?” he asks. His answer: “Virtually none.”

Duffy is good at using data to take apart many familiar generational characterizations. There is no evidence, he says, of a “loneliness epidemic” among young people, or of a rise in the rate of suicide. The falling off in sexual activity in the United States and the U.K. is population-wide, not just among the young.

He says that attitudes about gender in the United States correlate more closely with political party than with age, and that, in Europe, anyway, there are no big age divides in the recognition of climate change. There is “just about no evidence,” he says, that Generation Z (1997-2012, encompassing today’s college students) is more ethically motivated than other generations. When it comes to consumer boycotts and the like, “ ‘cancel culture’ seems to be more of a middle-age thing.” He worries that generational stereotypes—such as the characterization of Gen Z-ers as woke snowflakes—are promoted in order to fuel the culture wars.

The woke-snowflake stereotype is the target of “Gen Z, Explained” (Chicago), a heartfelt defense of the values and beliefs of contemporary college students. The book has four authors, Roberta Katz, Sarah Ogilvie, Jane Shaw, and Linda Woodhead—an anthropologist, a linguist, a historian, and a sociologist—and presents itself as a social-scientific study, including a “methodological appendix.” But it resembles what might be called journalistic ethnography: the portrayal of social types by means of interviews and anecdotes.

The authors adopt a key tenet of the pulse hypothesis. They see Gen Z-ers as agents of change, a generation that has created a youth culture that can transform society. (The fact that when they finished researching their book, in 2019, roughly half of Gen Z was under sixteen does not trouble them, just as the fact that at the time of Woodstock, in 1969, more than half the baby-boom generation was under thirteen doesn’t prevent people from making generalizations about the baby boomers.)

Their book is based on hour-long interviews with a hundred and twenty students at three colleges, two in California (Stanford and Foothill College, a well-regarded community college) and one in the U.K. (Lancaster, a selective research university). The authors inform us that the interviewees were chosen “by word of mouth and personal networking,” which sounds a lot like self-selection. It is, in any event (as they unapologetically acknowledge), hardly a randomized sample.

The authors tell us that the interviews were conducted entirely by student research assistants, which means that, unless the research assistants simply read questions off a list, there was no control over the depth or the direction of the interviews. There were also some focus groups, in which students talked about their lives with, mostly, their friends, an exercise performed in an echo chamber. Journalists, or popular ethnographers, would at least have met and observed their subjects. It’s mystifying why the authors felt a need to distance themselves in this way, given how selective their sample was to begin with. We are left with quotations detached from context. Self-reporting is taken at face value.

The authors supplemented the student interviews with a lexical glossary designed to pick out words and memes heavily used by young people, and with two surveys, designed by one of the authors (Woodhead) and conducted by YouGov, an Internet polling company, of eighteen- to twenty-five-year-olds in the United States and the U.K.

Where there is an awkward discrepancy between the survey results and what the college students say in the interviews, the authors attempt to explain it away. The YouGov surveys found that ninety-one per cent of all persons aged eighteen to twenty-five, American and British, identify as male or female, and only four per cent as gender fluid or nonbinary. (Five per cent declined to answer.) This does not match the impression created by the interviews, which suggest that there should be many more fluid and nonbinary young people out there, so the authors say that we don’t really know what the survey respondents meant by “male” and “female.” Well, then, maybe they should have been asked.

The authors attribute none of the characteristics they identify as Gen Z to the imprint of historical events—with a single exception: the rise of the World Wide Web. Gen Z is the first “born digital” generation. This fact has often been used to stereotype young people as screen-time addicts, captives of their smartphones, obsessed with how they appear on social media, and so on. The Internet is their “culture.” They are trapped in the Web. The authors of “Gen Z, Explained” emphatically reject this line of critique. They assure us that Gen Z-ers “understand both the potential and the downside of technology” and possess “critical awareness about the technology that shapes their lives.”

For the college students who were interviewed (although not, evidently, for the people who were surveyed), a big part of Gen Z culture revolves around identity. As the authors put it, “self-labeling has become an imperative that is impossible to escape.” This might seem to suggest a certain degree of self-absorption, but the authors assure us that these young people “are self-identified and self-reliant but markedly not self-centered, egotistical, or selfish.”

“Lily” is offered to illustrate the ethical richness of this new concern. It seems that Lily has a friend who is always late to meet with her: “She explained that while she of course wanted to honor and respect his unique identity, choices, and lifestyle—including his habitual tardiness—she was also frustrated by how that conflicted with her sense that he was then not respecting her identity and preference for timeliness.” The authors do not find this amusing.

The book’s big claim is that Gen Z-ers “may well be the heralds of new attitudes and expectations about how individuals and institutions can change for the better.” They have come up with new ways of working (collaborative), new forms of identity (fluid and intersectional), new concepts of community (diverse, inclusive, non-hierarchical).

Methodology aside, there is much that is refreshing here. There is no reason to assume that younger people are more likely to be passive victims of technology than older people (that assumption is classic old person’s bias), and it makes sense that, having grown up doing everything on a computer, Gen Z-ers have a fuller understanding of the digital universe than analog dinosaurs do. The dinosaurs can say, “You don’t know what you’re missing,” but Gen Z-ers can say, “You don’t understand what you’re getting.”

The claim that addiction to their devices is the cause of a rise in mental disorders among teen-agers is a lot like the old complaint that listening to rock and roll turns kids into animals. The authors cite a recent study (not their own) that concludes that the association between poor mental health and eating potatoes is greater than the association with technology use. We’re all in our own fishbowls. We should hesitate before we pass judgment on what life is like in the fishbowls of others.

The major problem with “Gen Z, Explained” is not so much the authors’ fawning tone, or their admiration for the students’ concerns—“environmental degradation, equality, violence, and injustice”—even though they are the same concerns that almost everyone in their social class has, regardless of age. The problem is the “heralds of a new dawn” stuff.

“A crisis looms for all unless we can find ways to change,” they warn. “Gen Zers have ideas of the type of world they would like to bring into being. By listening carefully to what they are saying, we can appreciate the lessons they have to teach us: be real, know who you are, be responsible for your own well-being, support your friends, open up institutions to the talents of the many, not the few, embrace diversity, make the world kinder, live by your values.”

I believe we have been here before, Captain. Fifty-one years ago, The New Yorker ran a thirty-nine-thousand-word piece that began:

There is a revolution under way . . . It is now spreading with amazing rapidity, and already our laws, institutions, and social structure are changing in consequence. Its ultimate creation could be a higher reason, a more human community, and a new and liberated individual. This is the revolution of the new generation.

The author was a forty-two-year-old Yale Law School professor named Charles Reich, and the piece was an excerpt from his book “The Greening of America,” which, when it came out, later that year, went to No. 1 on the Times best-seller list.

Reich had been in San Francisco in 1967, during the so-called Summer of Love, and was amazed and excited by the flower-power wing of the counterculture—the bell-bottom pants (about which he waxes ecstatic in the book), the marijuana and the psychedelic drugs, the music, the peace-and-love life style, everything.

He became convinced that the only way to cure the ills of American life was to follow the young people. “The new generation has shown the way to the one method of change that will work in today’s post-industrial society: revolution by consciousness,” he wrote. “This means a new way of living, almost a new man. This is what the new generation has been searching for, and what it has started to achieve.”

So how did that work out? The trouble, of course, was that Reich was basing his observations and predictions on, to use Mannheim’s term, a generation unit—a tiny number of people who were hyperconscious of their choices and values and saw themselves as being in revolt against the bad thinking and failed practices of previous generations. The folks who showed up for the Summer of Love were not a representative sample of sixties youth.

Most young people in the sixties did not practice free love, take drugs, or protest the war in Vietnam. In a poll taken in 1967, when people were asked whether couples should wait to have sex until they were married, sixty-three per cent of those in their twenties said yes, virtually the same as in the general population. In 1969, when people aged twenty-one to twenty-nine were asked whether they had ever used marijuana, eighty-eight per cent said no. When the same group was asked whether the United States should withdraw immediately from Vietnam, three-quarters said no, about the same as in the general population.

Most young people in the sixties were not even notably liberal. When people who attended college from 1966 to 1968 were asked which candidate they preferred in the 1968 Presidential election, fifty-three per cent said Richard Nixon or George Wallace. Among those who attended college from 1962 to 1965, fifty-seven per cent preferred Nixon or Wallace, which matched the results in the general election.

The authors of “Gen Z, Explained” are making the same erroneous extrapolation. They are generalizing on the basis of a very small group of privileged people, born within five or six years of one another, who inhabit insular communities of the like-minded. It’s fine to try to find out what these people think. Just don’t call them a generation.

Most of the millions of Gen Z-ers may be quite different from the scrupulously ethical, community-minded young people in the book. Duffy cites a survey, conducted in 2019 by a market-research firm, in which people were asked to name the characteristics of baby boomers, Gen X-ers, millennials (1981-96), and Gen Z-ers. The top five characteristics assigned to Gen Z were: tech-savvy, materialistic, selfish, lazy, and arrogant. The lowest-ranked characteristic was ethical. When Gen Z-ers were asked to describe their own generation, they came up with an almost identical list. Most people born after 1996 apparently don’t think quite as well of themselves as the college students in “Gen Z, Explained” do.

In any case, “explaining” people by asking them what they think and then repeating their answers is not sociology. Contemporary college students did not invent new ways of thinking about identity and community. Those were already rooted in the institutional culture of higher education. From Day One, college students are instructed about the importance of diversity, inclusion, honesty, collaboration—all the virtuous things that the authors of “Gen Z, Explained” attribute to the new generation. Students can say (and some do say) to their teachers and their institutions, “You’re not living up to those values.” But the values are shared values.

And they were in place long before Gen Z entered college. Take “intersectionality,” which the students in “Gen Z, Explained” use as a way of refining traditional categories of identity. That term has been around for more than thirty years. It was coined (as the authors note) in 1989, by the law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. And Crenshaw was born in 1959. She’s a boomer.

“Diversity,” as an institutional priority, dates back even farther. It played a prominent role in the affirmative-action case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, in 1978, which opened the constitutional door to race-conscious admissions. That was three “generations” ago. Since then, almost every selective college has worked to achieve a diverse student body and boasts about it when it succeeds. College students think of themselves and their peers in terms of identity because of how the institution thinks of them.

People who went to college in an earlier era may find this emphasis a distraction from students’ education. Why should they be constantly forced to think about their own demographic profiles and their differences from other students? But look at American politics—look at world politics—over the past five years. Aren’t identity and difference kind of important things to understand?

And who creates “youth culture,” anyway? Older people. Youth has agency in the sense that it can choose to listen to the music or wear the clothing or march in the demonstrations or not. And there are certainly ground-up products (bell-bottoms, actually). Generally, though, youth has the same degree of agency that I have when buying a car. I can choose the model I want, but I do not make the cars.

Failure to recognize the way the fabric is woven leads to skewed social history. The so-called Silent Generation is a particularly outrageous example. That term has come to describe Americans who went to high school and college in the nineteen-fifties, partly because it sets up a convenient contrast to the baby-boom generation that followed. Those boomers, we think—they were not silent! In fact, they mostly were.

The term “Silent Generation” was coined in 1951, in an article in Time —and so was not intended to characterize the decade. “Today’s generation is ready to conform,” the article concluded. Time defined the Silent Generation as people aged eighteen to twenty-eight—that is, those who entered the workforce mostly in the nineteen-forties. Though the birth dates of Time’s Silent Generation were 1923 to 1933, the term somehow migrated to later dates, and it is now used for the generation born between 1928 and 1945.

So who were these silent conformists? Gloria Steinem, Muhammad Ali, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Noam Chomsky, Philip Roth, Susan Sontag, Martin Luther King, Jr., Billie Jean King, Jesse Jackson, Joan Baez, Berry Gordy, Amiri Baraka, Ken Kesey, Huey Newton, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol . . . Sorry, am I boring you?

It was people like these, along with even older folks, like Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, and Pauli Murray, who were active in the culture and the politics of the nineteen-sixties. Apart from a few musicians, it is hard to name a single major figure in that decade who was a baby boomer. But the boomers, most of whom were too young then even to know what was going on, get the credit (or, just as unfairly, the blame).

Mannheim thought that the great danger in generational analysis was the elision of class as a factor in determining beliefs, attitudes, and experiences. Today, we would add race, gender, immigration status, and any number of other “preconditions.” A woman born to an immigrant family in San Antonio in 1947 had very different life chances from a white man born in San Francisco that year. Yet the baby-boom prototype is a white male college student wearing striped bell-bottoms and a peace button, just as the Gen Z prototype is a female high-school student with spending money and an Instagram account.

For some reason, Duffy, too, adopts the conventional names and dates of the postwar generations (all of which originated in popular culture). He offers no rationale for this, and it slightly obscures one of his best points, which is that the most formative period for many people happens not in their school years but once they leave school and enter the workforce. That is when they confront life-determining economic and social circumstances, and where factors like their race, their gender, and their parents’ wealth make an especially pronounced difference to their chances.

Studies have consistently indicated that people do not become more conservative as they age. As Duffy shows, however, some people find entry into adulthood delayed by economic circumstances. This tends to differentiate their responses to survey questions about things like expectations. Eventually, he says, everyone catches up. In other words, if you are basing your characterization of a generation on what people say when they are young, you are doing astrology. You are ascribing to birth dates what is really the result of changing conditions.

Take the boomers: when those who were born between 1946 and 1952 entered the workforce, the economy was surging. When those who were born between 1953 and 1964 entered it, the economy was a dumpster fire. It took longer for younger boomers to start a career or buy a house. People in that kind of situation are therefore likely to register in surveys as “materialistic.” But it’s not the Zeitgeist that’s making them that way. It’s just the business cycle. ♦

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Discussion of Gen Z’s Core Beliefs Essay

Introduction.

In an increasingly growing skills gap across many industries in the United States, it is direr than ever for companies and institutions to replace their talent pipelines. While executives have tried to comprehend and work coherently with millennials in recent few decades, they must now accustom to even a younger and larger demographic of Generation Z (Gen Z). From this perspective, Millennials are a population group born from around the early 1980s to 2000 (Feingold, 2019).

The generation experienced vast technological revolutions as most of these advancements started from the era they were born. Contrarily, Gen Z refers to individuals born from around 1997 to 2012, translating to more members than millennials in the United States (Feingold, 2019). The essay provides deepened analysis of the core beliefs that guide Gen Z’s daily lives while also reflecting how this generation differs from others.

Core Beliefs of Gen Z and the Differences from Millennials and Other Generations

First, Gen Z principally believes in turning to the web for practically everything, from news and lifestyle to entertainment. Just like Millennials, Gen Z has been nurtured in the era of social media, and most of them acquire smartphones as early as ten years old. Recent generational research conducted by Fullscreen reveals that Gen Z devotes roughly fifty hours each week surfing social networking channels (Bond, 2020). Social media and such similar outlets make them feel motivated and empowered coupled with availed opportunities to make instant connections through stories, reposting content, or direct messaging. Therefore, Gen Z has natural relations with technology more than any other demographic cohort.

Second, Gen Z is pragmatic when matched with Millennials who appear idealistic. Millennials are an optimistic generation regularly seen to be pandered by their parents as ostensibly reflected in the axiomatic millennial involvement trophy. Gen Z experiences the challenge of being raised during the global financial recession but can withstand and comprehend the economic pressure, which communities and even most of their parents encountered. The group saw their parents struggle with financial and employment issues but have remained rational about the situation. Millennials are idealists nurtured during a period of economic boom (Bond, 2020).

Consequently, the global economic meltdown positively impacted Gen Z by becoming exceptionally practical with money. They are more oriented to saving money compared with Millennials during that age who are inclined in having wholesome experiences. Gen Z would love to make acquisitions that maximize the value of the money spent, perhaps a direct consequence of growing up during economic turmoil where conspicuous consumption looks unattractive.

In conclusion, I believe Gen Z is an interesting demographic cohort that manifests positive values. The analysis shows the core beliefs that guide this generation’s daily lives while also reflecting how it differs from others. Born from around 1997 to 2012, Gen Z has been natured at the heart of the social media epoch that has positively impacted their lives. They principally believe in consulting online resources for practically everything.

However, they are also a pragmatic group that believes in saving money and venturing into things that can optimally maximize their value compared with Millennials who are keen on product experience. Moreover, both Millennials and Gen Z were raised in different periods, but the latter has a stronger connection with technology, a different standpoint on money, and show resiliency despite harsh economic situation at childhood.

Bond, C. (2020). There’s a big difference between Millennials and Generation Z . Huffpost. Web.

Feingold, L. (2019). Not sure if you’re a Millennial or part of Gen Z? We want to hear from you . NPR. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2022, July 19). Discussion of Gen Z's Core Beliefs. https://ivypanda.com/essays/discussion-of-gen-zs-core-beliefs/

"Discussion of Gen Z's Core Beliefs." IvyPanda , 19 July 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/discussion-of-gen-zs-core-beliefs/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Discussion of Gen Z's Core Beliefs'. 19 July.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Discussion of Gen Z's Core Beliefs." July 19, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/discussion-of-gen-zs-core-beliefs/.

1. IvyPanda . "Discussion of Gen Z's Core Beliefs." July 19, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/discussion-of-gen-zs-core-beliefs/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Discussion of Gen Z's Core Beliefs." July 19, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/discussion-of-gen-zs-core-beliefs/.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Gen Z — What Generation Comes after Millennials? Meet Generation Z

What Generation Comes after Millennials? Meet Generation Z

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Published: Dec 5, 2018

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Generation Z by Nicole Villarreal

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What Can Older Generations Learn From Gen Z?

What is unique about your generation? What attitudes about fashion, work-life balance or political activism might benefit older generations?

By Nicole Daniels

What is unique about Gen Z ? What are some of the qualities — good and bad — that define your generation? Have you found older generations accepting of those qualities?

In “ The 37-Year-Olds Are Afraid of the 23-Year-Olds Who Work for Them ,” Emma Goldberg writes about generational differences related to work and beyond:

As a millennial with a habit of lurking on TikTok, Jessica Fain understood that skinny jeans and side parts were on the steady march toward extinction. But when Ms. Fain, who works as a product manager at a large tech company, heard that some of her favorite emojis might also be confronting retirement — namely that laughing-sobbing face — she decided to seek the counsel of her junior colleagues. “I heard that using this emoji isn’t cool anymore,” Ms. Fain, 34, said she wrote in a water-cooler-type Slack channel. “Yeah I only use that emoji at work for professionalism,” she recalled a younger employee replying. “H8 2 break it to 2 u Jess.” Ms. Fain is old enough to remember when millennials determined what was in vogue: rompers, rose pink, craft beer, Netflix and chill. Now, she gets the foreboding sense from colleagues that her AARP card awaits. Subtly yet undeniably, as generational shifts tend to go, there’s a new crop of employees determining the norms and styles of the workplace. And they have no qualms about questioning not just emoji use but all the antiquated ways of their slightly older managers, from their views on politics in the office to their very obsession with work.

The article continues:

It’s a fault line that crisscrosses industries and issues. At a retail business based in New York, managers were distressed to encounter young employees who wanted paid time off when coping with anxiety or period cramps. At a supplement company, a Gen Z worker questioned why she would be expected to clock in for a standard eight-hour day when she might get through her to-do list by the afternoon. At a biotech venture, entry-level staff members delegated tasks to the founder. And spanning sectors and start-ups, the youngest members of the work force have demanded what they see as a long overdue shift away from corporate neutrality toward a more open expression of values, whether through executives displaying their pronouns on Slack or putting out statements in support of the protests for Black Lives Matter. “These younger generations are cracking the code and they’re like, ‘Hey guys turns out we don’t have to do it like these old people tell us we have to do it,’” said Colin Guinn, 41, co-founder of the robotics company Hangar Technology. “‘We can actually do whatever we want and be just as successful.’ And us old people are like, ‘What is going on?’” Twenty-somethings rolling their eyes at the habits of their elders is a trend as old as Xerox, Kodak and classic rock, but many employers said there’s a new boldness in the way Gen Z dictates taste. And some members of Gen Z, defined as the 72 million people born between 1997 and 2012, or simply as anyone too young to remember Sept. 11, are quick to affirm this characterization.

Students, read the entire article , and then tell us:

What is your reaction to the article? Did any of the examples of Gen Z perspectives, ideas or actions — whether about work, political activism or anything else — resonate with your beliefs or experiences? Why or why not?

How do you feel about older generations characterizing Gen Z? Is it flattering to hear their views on your generation? Are their views frustrating or reductive?

In your opinion, what are the most important things that older generations, and even future generations, could learn from yours? What valuable things have you learned from older generations?

Describe a moment from your life that illustrates a generational difference. It could be a time when you helped someone older understand an important issue in a new way, or when you felt misunderstood because of stereotypes about your generation. Describe the situation, how you felt and why it matters.

What do you think this article is missing, if anything, about Gen Z? Are there perspectives or conclusions that you believe the writer misunderstood or misinterpreted? What else do you think she, and readers of the article, should know about people your age? (You might scan the 2,800-plus reader comments on the piece. This article prompted a lot of conversation!)

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Nicole Daniels joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2019 after working in museum education, curriculum writing and bilingual education. More about Nicole Daniels

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The New Faces of Climate Justice

My environmental students are diverse, motivated, and love humanity, but the more they learn, the more they despair.

Illustration by Be Boggs .

by Sarah Jaquette Ray | July 22, 2020

According to polls, Generation Z—people born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s—share some startling characteristics. Surveys show that they are more lonely, depressed, and suicidal than any previous generation. They are more likely than earlier generations to be economically poorer than their parents, and they are the first generation expected to live shorter lives than their parents. As the most ethnically diverse generation of Americans, they care deeply about racial justice and are leading the George Floyd protests . They also led the largest climate strikes in 2019. Indeed, this generation seems to combine their efforts for both racial and climate justice for the first time in history.

But my experience of this generation, as a college professor of environmental studies, centers on another salient quality: Young people aren’t just motivated by climate change, they are downright traumatized by it. They are freaked out about the future of our planet, with a sense of urgency most of the rest of us haven’t been able to muster. This has profound political implications: Young people like my students are committed to making our world a better place. It’s my job, I’ve begun to think, to make sure that people in this “climate generation” don’t get swallowed up in an ocean of despair along the way.

The Gen Z students I am teaching now are different from those I’ve taught for 12 years. The students who used to choose environmental studies as a major, even as recently as five years ago, were often white outdoorsy types, idealistic, and eager to righteously educate the masses about how to recycle better, ride bikes more, eat locally, and reduce the impact of their lifestyles on the planet. They wanted to get away from the messiness of society and saw “humanity” as destroying nature.

By contrast, my Generation Z students care a lot more about humans. They flock to environmental studies out of a desire to reconcile humanity’s relationship with nature, an awareness that humanity and nature are deeply interconnected, and a genuine love for both. They are increasingly first-generation, non-white, and motivated to solve their communities’ problems by addressing the unequal distribution of environmental costs and benefits to people of color. They work with the Movement for Black Lives, Indigenous sovereignty groups fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, and organizations that dismantle barriers to green space, such as Latino Outdoors. Unlike my students from earlier days of teaching, this generation isn’t choosing environmental studies to escape humanity; on the contrary, they get that the key to saving the environment is humanity.

It’s a vision of wholeness and hope—but it comes with a dark side. Digging into environmental studies introduces young people to the myriad ways that our interconnectedness in the world leads to all kinds of problems. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports predict that climate change and habitat destruction will increase the spread of infectious disease; climate also exacerbates health disparities between white and African American people in the U.S., including Black women’s pregnancy risks . Studying these sources makes it clear that the devastations of climate change will be borne unequally.

Some of my students become so overwhelmed with despair and grief about it all that they shut down. Youth have historically been the least likely to vote; but I’ve also seen many stop coming to lectures and seminars. They send depressed, despairing emails. They lose their bearings, question their relationships and education, and get so overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness that they barely pass their classes. One of my students became so self-loathing that she came to think the only way to serve the planet was to stop consuming entirely: reducing her environmental impact meant starving herself. Most young people I know have already decided not to have children, because they don’t want their kids growing up on a doomed planet. They barely want to be alive themselves. They often seem on the brink of nihilism before we even cover the syllabus.

The young people I am teaching say they will bear the worst consequences of processes they did not initiate, and over which they have little or no control. They speak of an apocalypse on the horizon. My students say they do not expect to enjoy the experiences older adults take for granted—having children, planning a career, retiring. For many youth, climate disruption isn’t a hypothetical future possibility; it is already here. They read the long predicted increases in extreme weather events, wildfires, sea level rise, habitat destruction, worsening health outcomes related to pollution, and infectious disease as clear signs that their worst fears will be realized not just in their lifetime, but right now .

This sense of doom is more widely felt, beyond college classrooms. Psychologists and environmental scholars are coming up with a whole new vocabulary to describe these feelings of despair, including solastalgia , climate anxiety , eco-grief , pre-traumatic stress , and psychoterratic illness .

Whatever one calls it, all of this uncertainty can immobilize young people when they feel they can do nothing to fix it. Their sense of powerlessness, whether real or imagined, is at the root of their despair. I have found that many young people have limited notions of how power works. My students associate “power” with really bad things, like fascism, authoritarianism, or force; or slightly less bad things like celebrity, political power, or wealth. They have little imagination about how to engage in social change, and even less imagination about the alternative world they would build if they could.

Without a sense of efficacy—the feeling of having control over the conditions of their lives—I fear some may give up on the difficult process of making change without even trying. Psychologists call this misleading feeling of helplessness the “ pseudoinefficacy effect ,” and it has a political dimension that may keep individuals from working to help others. This feeling may also sync up with Americans’ recent cultural and economic history of seeing ourselves as consumers. Some scholars have argued that limiting our ability to imagine ourselves as having agency beyond being consumers has resulted in the “ privatization of the imagination .” The combination of the feeling of misplaced despair and the feeling that they can only make changes through lifestyle choices creates a sort of ideological box that blocks real democratic political change.

Meanwhile, there is very little in the mass media to suggest that young people have real power over changes in the climate at large—or even our political system. The 24/7 news cycle thrives when it portrays a world on fire . And mainstream media offers few stories about solutions or models for alternative, regenerative economies. The stories that are covered often only tackle technological or market solutions that have yet to be invented or produced. By portraying climate change as a problem that is too big to fix, and suggesting that the contributions of any single individual are too small to make a difference, these messages leave young people with little sense of what can be done. Amid the clamor of apocalyptic coverage, few are talking about what it would take to thrive in, instead of fear, a climate-changed future.

We cannot afford for the next generation of climate justice leaders’ dread to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Their psychological resources of resilience, imagination, efficacy, and, against all odds, their fierce capacity for joy, are just as necessary for the future of a viable planet as natural resources like clean air and water. Activists and teachers of my generation must help Gen Z learn to push on the levers of technical, political, cultural, and economic change, and to draw on existential tools or “ deep adaptation ” in times of crisis.

There’s hope in the images on the streets and on social media: Today’s protests against police brutality are a testament to young people’s power and evidence of their commitment to their future. It isn’t an especially large leap from fighting a racist justice system to improving the planet; indeed, many in this generation see them as inextricably connected—that’s the point. And the rapid and radical changes that society has undertaken in response to COVID-19 is further evidence that change is possible. Humans can sacrifice and make collective changes to protect others—hopefully, in these difficult weeks, my students will be able to see that.

The trauma of being young in this historical moment will shape this generation in many ways. The rest of us have a lot to learn from them. And we would do well to help them see that their grief and despair are the other side of love and connection, and help them to channel that toward effective action. For their sake and that of the planet, we need them to feel empowered to shape and desire their future. They have superpowers unique to their generation. They are my antidote to despair.

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But what are these differences? This is the first generation that cannot imagine a life without having a mobile gadget with an access to the Internet. Z people never lived in times without Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social media services. Whatever they need, they can easily find on the Internet right at their fingertips (thanks to smartphones), and mostly for free.

This has its good and bad sides. From one point of view, Generation Z is native to the Internet: they are more savvy with it, and they navigate it with an ease that their Y predecessors, the millennials, could only dream of; in the age of digital technologies, it is a valuable trait. On the other hand, Generation Z no more have a need to use their long-term memory and to be perceptive: all knowledge they need is saved on the cloud or on distant servers. This has lead to a drastic result: the average attention span of a Generation Z teen is only 8.25 seconds! This means they are unable to focus on something for more than eight seconds. Even a goldfish has a larger attention span of nine seconds ( The Telegraph ).

Considering the enormous daily flow of information, Generation Z cannot afford paying attention to everything around them; they have to be picky, to fish out valuable information from the flow. Their attention span is shorter, but they can sort the information out easier and faster , so one cannot say Generation Z is less effective when working, or less capable than millennials. Besides, when they find something truly worth their attention, they demonstrate commitment and the ability to instantly focus on what they find interesting ( Co.Exist ).

The ability to quickly navigate through a large amounts of information allows the representatives of Generation Z to develop more diverse personalities. Generation Z representatives often have unusual hobbies and interests (sometimes not typical for teenagers and young people—astrophysics, for example), and obtain knowledge from a wider range of disciplines compared to their predecessors, although this knowledge may be superficial (IFR).

At the same time, there is a number of difficulties and drawbacks typical for this generation. One of them is having unrealistic expectations for themselves and for other people. This is often fueled by a rampant celebrity culture. Chloe Combi, a consultant on youth issues for the Mayor of London, and the author of research dedicated to Generation Z, explains it by the fact that, “Gen Z has grown up with reality TV stars, social media celebrities and world-famous twenty-something billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg.” What is more important and dangerous is that the accessibility of any Internet content—including porn—has negatively affected the way Generation Z representatives treat personal and sexual relationships. Generation Z is obsessed with sex, and sexual insults. Harassment is also becoming more common among its representatives (The Telegraph). Women are more objectified within this generation, and abnormal sexual behavior—like in porn movies—is often imitated and considered normal.

Generation Z is a new generation that sociologists are actively studying at the moment. Consisting of digital natives, Generation Z heavily relies on the Internet and other technologies in their daily lives. This makes its representatives more diverse personalities with knowledge in a wide range of disciplines, with unusual hobbies and interests, and with a superior ability to instantly sort out information and find something worth attention. At the same time, Generation Z representatives have alarmingly-short attention spans on average (less than a goldfish), and demonstrate unrealistic expectations towards themselves and surrounding people. They are also more sexually active, and because of an easy accessibility of pornography, they tend to misinterpret sexual relationships, and imitate abusing sexual behavior demonstrated in porn movies. Therefore, American society needs to find ways to make use of Generation Z’s positive traits, and at the same time somehow neutralize the negative ones.

“What is Generation Z, And What Does It Want?” Co.Exist. N.p., 04 May 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

“Look Out, Generation Z is about to Enter Your Workplace.” The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

Doe, John. “Something You Didn’t Know about Gen Z.” IFR. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

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What's Missing From the Cultural Narrative About Gen Z

Young people today display remarkable maturity under economic stress..

Much attention has been given to a recent study that analyzes the mores of a generation: the Zoomers, or Gen-Z. The study, in brief, shows that the Zoomers in high-income countries have become markedly risk-averse in all sorts of ways. They drink less, drive less, smoke less, and have less sex.

According to some commentators, these trends are evidence that Gen Z is stuck in a state of perpetual adolescence. Kat Rosenfield, for example, writes that Zoomers have “persuaded themselves that independence is too fraught with danger to be worth it.” She argues that helicopter parenting and over-exposure to the internet have left Zoomers coddled and unused to risk. Extrapolate from these influences, the argument goes, and you have explained the strange behaviors of this generation, which are a grave cause for concern. The Zoomers are a great shut-down generation, avoiding character-building risks of all kinds. They are retreating ever further into the parental bubble. In time, they may also become a failed generation, never reaching various “adult milestones” that members of the Millennial generation are struggling with too.

I believe that this narrative fundamentally misconstrues the issue. While I take aim directly at Rosenfield’s piece here, this is because it is a more than usually careful and compassionate account of Zoomer woes. Because it’s an essay of substance, and I disagree strongly with its conclusions, it demands an attempt to make an alternative case.

Also read: " The Illusion of a Frictionless Existence " by Kat Rosenfield, originally published by Boston Globe Ideas and republished in Persuasion.

First, if we dig into the evidence , many of the “aversions” being described here are not the result of coddling or puritanism, but are to a large extent adaptations in the face of economic trends. Second, regardless of the underlying causes, a great number of these abstinences should be applauded, not condemned. They represent major improvements in the quality and length of people’s lives: the fruits of a more conscientious generation and a sign of true maturity and adulthood.

Let’s begin with housing. Rosenfield labels the parental bubble with the rhetorical moniker “cocoon”—something protective that young people are increasingly unwilling to give up. But are young people really “less interested in ever leaving the cocoon”? On the contrary: the evidence shows that Zoomers want the responsibility of living independently. Studies from the United States , Britain , and Australia all show that around 80% of young people strongly aspire to own their own home. (Ironically, in a British survey of private renters from 2019, one of the few groups shown to be private renting because they “don’t want the responsibility of owning a home” were baby boomers.)

The problem for young people is that the current economic environment makes it extremely difficult for them to get on the housing ladder. The whole Anglosphere is gripped by a housing crisis . The United States is suffering from a shortage of roughly 3.8 million homes , while the figure in the UK stands at an estimated 3.1 million (proportionally much higher). The result has been a huge increase in house prices in recent decades. In the 1970s, the ratio of house prices to earnings in the UK was about 4:1. In 2020, it was about 9:1. In the United States the ratio is hardly better, particularly in the nation’s most productive cities: the San Francisco earnings to house value ratio is about 10:1. Generation Z and younger Millennials have been the worst affected. Many can’t afford to move out of their parents’ house. Those who take that step are either massively overreaching to get a mortgage, or—more likely—they are eking out what little is left of their earnings after rent. Little is left behind after housing costs for personal luxuries... or personal emergencies. 

So, it’s not by choice that many Zoomers are staying in their parents’ homes. It is the result of cold economic logic. Living with mom and pop is not enjoyable—it is a considerable sacrifice. But it is perfectly sensible given the landscape of economic hardship and frankly, stress, that renting piles on the tenant. To say that Zoomers are missing out on “adult milestones” like getting out of their parents’ bubble is rather like saying that pigs are missing out on flight—technically true, but the implication is deeply misleading.

What about the other abstinences exhibited by Zoomers? The number of youngsters driving in the United States has halved since the 1980s, and the amount of sexual activity they report has also decreased.

But if we dig into the data, the story is complicated. Many of the factors behind the decrease in driving are economic. For many young people, driving is simply too expensive . This attitude is correlated with a decline in disposable income, living with parents longer, and a decline in private home ownership. Fear of “risk” barely makes an appearance in surveys. And, regardless of the underlying causes, a reduction of vehicles on the road is hardly a bad thing. Road vehicles have eliminated many of America’s historic neighborhoods and segregated its cities; their emissions are enormous, accounting for about 15% of the planet’s total CO2 pollution. By moving their dollars and pounds away from cars, young people are inducing demand for clean and safe public transport—which benefits us all.

Then there is the reduction in Gen Z sexual activity. Studies attribute this to a series of causal factors—and it turns out that at least some of them are just concomitants of what I’ve discussed above, such as living with parents. In other words, the declines in driving and sex are, at least in part, a predictable response to economic pressures that have been decades in the making. 

Rosenfield puts much of the blame on Zoomers’ obsession with sexual consent. She writes: “one gets the sense that relationships are not so much an exciting chance at romantic connection as a terrifying midnight sprint through a minefield full of rapists.”

It is undoubtedly true that an increased concern for consent among younger generations has reduced the frequency of sexual contact. And I can imagine some kind of hypothetical situation where anxiety over the nuances of consent becomes so debilitating that no two people try again. I don’t think we’re there yet. One study of high schoolers found that those who held strong beliefs about consent were just as likely to have had a sexual experience as those who didn’t. And in any case, isn’t consent worth taking seriously? Perhaps we are witnessing a generation attempting to understand that consent requires a concerted attempt to communicate, to pay attention to one another’s words and expressions. If a renewed concern over these questions is a new experiment, it seems to be a pretty ethical one. I don’t see this wariness as a danger of getting used to “frictionless living,” but as quite the opposite: a very adult sensitivity to the frictions of living. 

A similar case can be made for Gen Z’s other abstinences. One of the most striking is their reluctance to indulge in alcohol. Zoomers should be applauded for this, not condemned. Like smoking, the scientific studies which condemn alcohol have been piling up. Ethanol is not only a toxic carcinogen for all parts of the human body that it touches, but the first metabolite of alcohol, ethanal , is also a toxic carcinogen. In other words, in the human body’s attempt to rid itself of one poison, it produces another.

The truth is that avoidance of excessive risk is a characteristic feature of adulthood, not of adolescence. It is associated with a more developed prefrontal cortex, as well as a decline in juvenile crime. Those on snowflake watch would do well to remember this. Because, for the most part, the Zoomers are not parasites upon their parents, they are not cowards who excessively avoid risk. They are a generation behaving—perhaps for the first time—like adults.

Alfie Robinson is a heritage consultant who has written about housing, liberalism and cultural history.

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The cultural impact of Generation Z

The world is already aware of Generation Z’s impact. 

Born between the mid-90s and the early 2010s, Generation Z has been through an insurmountable amount of societal highs and lows. Coming into this world during a recession isn’t the optimal position to be in when it comes to a society that proves human worth on the human work ethic.

However, Gen Z is surviving worse: an on-going climate crisis, the Coronavirus pandemic and systematic racism, to name a few. 

Generation Z is (rightfully) displeased by the oppression that plagues our nation and our world, and isn’t scared to team up and address these issues. According to junior Criminal Justice major Kylie Carroll, Gen. Z listens to research and offers empathy, which is the perfect combination for growth. 

“We are teachable and we’re able to kind of soak in information as it comes at us, and we’re not so quick to dismiss it,” Carroll said. 

Statistically speaking, Gen Z tends to lean more liberal, like the Millennials born before. A survey completed by the Pew Research Center in 2018 showed that 70 percent of Gen Z wanted an activist government.

“I feel like Generation Z is driven by diversity. We grew up with a bunch of technology, which exposed us to a whole bunch of different varieties of things. So, we now know about more Middle Eastern culture and what they’re going through and understand some of their struggles,” freshman Political Science major Sam Millerd said. “Now we’re advocating for them. We’re also now advocating, even more, because we’re coming of age, for minorities in America as well.”

Gen Z tends to advocate for those who are in situations where suffering can be combated with government assistance. The amount of knowledge this generation has available at practically any second of the day makes Gen Z aware of the issues that plague our communities, nation and the world around us. 

“That can be a really good thing and a really bad thing because, with all the ways that information can be spread now, I think it can lead to a lot of misinformation,” junior Musical Theater major Ryan Heinsheimer said. “But it allows people to be educated in ways maybe previous generations haven’t been able to [be].”

Globally, Gen Z has created its own culture of knowledge, comedy, slang terms and wisdom within different types of social media platforms. Creative platforms like TikTok allow this generation to connect with more than just those within our community. Gen Z can also be made aware of firsthand accounts from practically any individual in the world. 

As for traditional education, Gen Z has more opportunities to pursue their education further than many generations before, with more and more first-year generation students attending college, deeming education a priority and understanding that it goes hand in hand with success. 

Despite Gen Z’s need for instant gratification within the daily facets of their life, they are forced to wait for the societal changes so desperately sought after.

Waiting patiently may be difficult, but it will be worth it. Gen Z strives towards forward ways of thinking with consideration of the planet and those whose voices have historically been oppressed. 

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Generation Z Engagement in Politics: Preferences and Perspectives

Scholars and academics have explored the unique characteristics, values, and perspectives associated with different generational cohorts for thousands of years. By doing so, they have deepened our understanding of how generational differences can shape society and influence its trajectory over time [1] . Before delving into the differences between age brackets, it is essential to define the word “generation”. In essence, a generation refers to a group of individuals who were born around the same time and grew up in similar surroundings. These individuals within the same birth cohort tend to display similar traits, values, and preferences throughout their lifetime.

The study of differences between and among generations has been known since the times of ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato [2] . In the 19th century, Giuseppe Ferrari, who wrote Teoria dei Periodi Politici, observed that every 30 years a new set of leaders take over the government, bringing new ideas and perspectives that differ from their predecessors [3] . One of the causes of sociological change is human biology. Just as the cells in our bodies constantly change over time, so too do a society’s norms and ideologies [4] . The 19th-century French philosopher August Comte observed that the evolution of society is driven by the process of generational turnover. Each successive generation introduces new ideas, practices, and values and thus play a vital role in shaping the culture [5] .

In the 20th century, prominent Hungarian intellectual Karl Mannheim advanced the theory that each generation learns from the traditions and norms of the society and ancestors that preceded them. In a series of essays, Mannheim observed that as new generations mature and become more involved in society, they begin to develop unique perspectives, ideas, values, and behaviors, which they carry with them through their lifetime [6] . As older generations die off, these new ideas and practices shape a new society. More recently, American political scientist Ronald Inglehart’s work in the 1970s provided an example of how generational differences manifest in society. Inglehart found that in contrast to the pre-World War II generation in Western Europe, who placed great importance on security and political order, the post-war generation tended to prioritize self-expression and freedom. This shift in attitude was eventually reflected in broader societal changes that liberalized Western democracies [7] .

Today, one in five Americans belong to the cohort known as Generation Z, Gen Z, Zoomers, iGeneration, centennials, post-millennials, or Homelanders. This demographic, the largest in the world today [8] , usually describes anyone born between 1997 and 2012, although precise birth year is not as important as other socio-economic factors in defining the group [9] . Gen Z are characterized as being digitally savvy, racially diverse, and socially aware. According to the global web index, Gen Z spends more time on social media than “millennials” — those born from the early 1980s to the late 1990s [10] . Furthermore, Gen Z is particularly drawn to visual content over written content as social media encourages them to share their perspectives, and pictures and video translate better to a wider audience. As more Gen Zers come of voting age, they will have more electoral influence [11] , and they will most likely use the digital space to communicate their opinions on politics, including foreign policy. This article seeks to understand the perspective of Gen Z regarding foreign policy, and specifically their attitudes toward global issues.

The Digital Dilemma: The Effects of Tech on Gen Z

Gen Z has witnessed the emergence of tremendous technological change, which has impacted society. The emergence of social media platforms such as Facebook and Friendster in the early 2000s represented the beginning of an important shift in society. They have helped individuals connect regardless of their religion and cultural or geographical location, and allowed members of Gen Z to share their thoughts and ideas with a global audience. There remains, however, a lack of debate about the benefits and drawbacks of social media on a societal scale.

Technology allows people to communicate more quickly in case of accidents or disaster, and can be utilized to raise awareness of social issues. In Abu Dhabi, for example, the police department uses Instagram to promote safe driving practices [12] . Yet, technology also has a dark side. Powerful people such as businessmen and politicians can use social media to shape public opinion, and recently concerns have been raised about the negative impact of social media on individuals [13] . The addictive nature of digital media has led to an increase in inactivity, which brings with it a variety of health concerns such as obesity. The bombardment of imagery on minds that are not yet fully developed has also led to psychological issues such as anxiety and depression [14] .

Global Politics and the “Solidarity Generation”  

Those born between 1997 and 2012 have witnessed a number of global events such as the emergence of the blockchain market and the rise of Artificial Intelligence. The reaction to the global Covid-19 pandemic severely impacted the global economy, which had a direct impact on Gen Z. Many experienced lay-offs, wage cuts, and other socio-economic challenges [15] . As a result of their experiences, members of Gen Z are likely to bring a new perspective to the role of government in addressing both domestic and global issues. Social justice and climate change are expected to be particular focuses of Gen Z, who have been characterized as a “solidarity generation” because of their inclination to join with like-minded people who share their values and ideals [16] . A 2017 global study of 20 nations and a 2021 study that surveyed 45 countries showed that climate change was the most significant issue of concern among the younger generation [17] .

One of the possible reasons for Gen Z’s focus on climate change and human rights rather than the global power competition, is that the United States has reigned as the dominant global player, with only China recently posing any kind of threat to their hegemony. Almost half of Gen Z prioritize climate change as a major threat compared to only 12% who believe countering China is a major concern [18] . A significant proportion of this cohort expressed a preference for a cooperative approach to China rather than embracing a new Cold War paradigm. Moreover, seven in 10 Zoomers believe that the U.S.’s military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan were ill-advised and have had negative repercussions, as have the country’s policies regarding the Syrian civil war and Iran. The prevailing sentiment among Gen Z, who are characterized by extensive global connectivity, demonstrates a propensity for embracing collaborative foreign policies instead of aligning themselves with specific major political actors [19] .

Some policy makers might stereotype Gen Z as being distracted by the digital world and therefore less concerned about national security issues; however, this cohort exhibits a level of voting engagement approximately 20% higher than that shown by the previous generation, according to the Census Burea [20] . The Brookings Institution, a liberal American think tank, reached a similar conclusion about Gen Z’s level of political engagement after one of their seminars featuring expert policy makers discovered that 50% of the cohort they surveyed believed an increase in the national debt over the next three years could be a major problem in the future [21] .

In the United Kingdom, some of Gen Z’s formative years were spent during the Labour Party’s 13-year reign, from Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997 [22]  to Gordon Brown’s historic  91-seat loss that led to his resignation in 2010 [23] . It can be argued that these political events have influenced this cohort’s political views and that — especially in the aftermath of Brexit — many have a tendency to align themselves more closely with the Labor Party. They believe that social welfare should be prioritized, and that the government’s role is to redistribute wealth, even if that means an increase in taxes [24] .

In the Middle East, the so-called “Arab Spring” in 2011 had a profound impact on the political outlook of Gen Z. After a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in protest of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s policies, widespread protests erupted that forced Ben Ali to resign on January 14, 2011. Eleven years later, a survey found that individuals from the Zoomer cohort, who matured in the aftermath of the turmoil, tend to perceive the era of Ben Ali as being relatively tranquil and prosperous. Conversely, the millennial generation, who were old enough to actually participate in the revolution, tends to believe the opposite [25] .

Given their large demographic representation, Gen Z is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of government and individual rights. Many of these individuals have not yet fully matured in the realms of politics and foreign affairs, making it premature to pass definitive judgments on their beliefs and actions, but a few trends are already beginning to emerge.

Naturally, the interests of each cohort within this generation are influenced by their specific domestic needs. However, Gen Z tends to be driven by shared global values and thus issues such as climate change remain high on their agenda. The experiences of Gen Z, particularly their encounters with the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges of low employment, have exerted a profound impact on their perspectives. Consequently, it is highly likely that they will want to focus on strengthening social affairs.          

[1]  Troksa, Lauren M. The Study of Generations: A Timeless Notion within a Contemporary Context. Undergraduate Honors Thesis. Boulder: University of Colorado, 2016. — 95 p. URL:  http://bitly.ws/J2Iz

[2]  Ibid.

[3]  Ferrari, Giuseppe. Teoria dei Periodi Politici. Milan: Hoepli, 1874. — 620 p. URL:  http://bitly.ws/Ku6L ; Delli Carpini, Michael X. Age and History: Generations and Sociopolitical Change // Political Learning in Adulthood: A Sourcebook of Theory and Research / Edited by Roberta S. Sigel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. P. 11-55. URL: http://bitly.ws/J2Pn

[4]  Ibid.    

[5]  Origin and Use of Generational Theories // Are Generational Categories Meaningful Distinctions for Workforce Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2020. URL:  https://doi.org/10.17226/25796

[6]  Ibid.

[7]  De Witte, Hans. Ideological Orientation and Values // Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology / Edited by Charles D. Spielberger.  Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2004. P. 249-258. URL:  https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-12-657410-3/00693-0

[8]  Branka. Generation Z Statistics – 2023 // TrueList. URL:  http://bitly.ws/J9eB

[9]  Age Range by Generation // Beresford Research. URL:  http://bitly.ws/Bbto

[10]  Branka. Generation Z Statistics – 2023 // TrueList. URL:  http://bitly.ws/J9eB

[11]  Barnett, Samuel; Thompson, Natalie; Alkoutami, Sandy. How Gen Z Will Shake Up Foreign Policy // Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. December 3, 2020. URL:  http://bitly.ws/JrCC

[12]  Abu Dhabi Police Launched Online Awareness Campaign // Gulf News. July 13, 2013. URL:  http://bitly.ws/JrHo

[13]  Ghosh, Dipayan. Are We Entering a New Era of Social Media Regulation? // Harvard Business Review. January 14, 2021. URL:  http://bitly.ws/JrIB

[14]  Sharma, Manu; Kaushal, Deepak; Joshi, Sudhanshu. Adverse Effect of Social Media on Generation Z User’s Behavior: Government Information Support as a Moderating Variable // Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. № 72. May 2023. URL:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103256

[15]  Sajuria, Javier. Generation Z and Political Participation: A Comparative Analysis with Previous Generations // Politics and Governance. Vol. 7. № 4. 2019. P. 192-201.

[16]  Kelly, Diann Cameron. Inspiring Gen Z Voters to Participate in Voting and Volunteering // Advances in Applied Sociology. Vol. 13. № 1. 2023. P. 43-46. URL: https://doi.org/10.4236/aasoci.2023.131004

[17]  Ibid.

[18]  Barnett, Samuel; Thompson, Natalie; Alkoutami, Sandy. How Gen Z Will Shake Up Foreign Policy // Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. December 3, 2020. URL:  http://bitly.ws/JrCC

[19]  Ibid.

[20]  Ibid.

[21]  Gray, Gordon. The Politically Active Generations: Millennials, Gen Z Care About the Debt — and More // American Action Forum. February 7, 2020. URL:  http://bitly.ws/JrEG

[22]  The Labor Party won the 1997 general election by the largest majority of seats since 1945. See General Election Results // UK Parliament. May 1, 1997. URL:  http://bitly.ws/CTtu

[23]  In 2010, the Labor Party leader Gordon Brown stepped down, which paved the way for the Conservatives to return to power. See Booth, Robert. Gordon Brown Resigns // The Guardian. May 11, 2010. URL:  http://bitly.ws/CTvC

[24] Generation Z – Do They Exist and and What Influences Them? //  Ipsos. January 19, 2023. URL:  http://bitly.ws/JrGo

[25]  Boussen, Zied. Youth Perceptions of Politics in the Post-2011 Tunisia: Giving the Floor to Millennials and Gen Z // Arab Reform Initiative. May 25, 2022. URL:  http://bitly.ws/JrGZ

Key words: Modern Technology, Global Security

Introducing Generation Z: Who Are They and How Will They Impact the Clinical Research Workplace?

Barbara van der Schalie, MS Learning and Professional Development Manager   Clinical Monitoring Research Program Directorate Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Sponsored by the National Cancer Institute

Abstract : Generation Z, the postmillennials, are the latest addition to the extremely generationally-diverse American clinical research workplace. Their preferences for critical workplace parameters, including workplace engagement, communication, leadership approaches, and flexibility, differentiate them from even their most closely age-aligned colleagues, the millennials. This article describes the differences between and preferences of the generation and provides ways to optimize the integration of Generation Z into the current clinical research workplace.

Disclaimer: This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. HHSN261200800001E. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Introduction to the Generations

Between 1970 and 2015, the global age distribution has changed significantly to include many older workers. This trend is projected to continue. In the past, Americans regularly left the workplace at age 50, but that is not happening now. Reasons for staying in the American workplace longer include the need for money and healthcare insurance as well as a new realization that people are more valuable, not less, as they mature in their careers. Instead of being put out to pasture as in the past, they are invited to stay longer and add age diversity and organizational memory to the workplace. Thus, the composition of the American workplace is changing.

A generation is a group of people who live in the same time period and live through the same events that occur in that time period. People are most familiar with the four generations that currently compose the American workplace: 

• Traditionalists (1925-1946)
• Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
• Gen X (1965-1979)
• Gen Y (1980-1999) (also known as the “millennial” generation).

The dates for the beginning and end of each generation may differ, depending upon the researcher and the area of the culture being studied. For example, the defining years for generations might be slightly different when considering trends in employee training preference and generational sales trends. 

Changes to the Mix of Generations in the Workplace

By 2020, approximately 42% of the workplace will be made up of Gen Y, known as the millennial. The preferences and characteristics of the millennials are extremely important, as they will soon be the predominant generation in the workplace. For example, the millennials are multi-tasking masters. Colleagues who need to concentrate on one job at a time may be confused by seeing the millennials do two things at the same time, thinking they are doing them equally well. This could create friction, especially when trying to train clinical research professionals.

Gen Z (2000-2015) was expected to be an enriched version of Gen Y, but based on what has been seen so far, Gen Z is different than the millennials. Most members of Gen Z are in high school, with the oldest ones now entering the American workplace. In response to the school shootings that occurred in high schools in the United States in 2018, Gen Z took action. Members of Gen Z said that they have had enough, and they marched on Washington. They are pushing hard to be able to vote younger, at age 16. Gen Z is very socially aware, and very visible. Gen Z will be a power to be contended with.

The mix of generations in the workforce has changed between 1995 and 2015 and will continue to change (Table 1). By 2025, Gen Z will be about 20% of the workforce, while millennials will be 42% of the workplace by 2025. Millennials and Gen Xers will be managing Gen Z, so knowing their activities and workplace preferences will help shape managing styles. Many influences will shape the workplace of 2025.

Cuspers in the Workplace

Along with the generations in the workplace, there is also the phenomenon of “cuspers.” Lancaster and Stillman define “cuspers” as: 

“Persons born within 3-5 years of a generational divide are referred to as Cuspers and may favor and display characteristics from both relative generations. They are the folks that cement the generations together. They function as mediators, translators, and mentors.” 

The number of cuspers between the millennials and Gen Z is quite extensive. There are also many cuspers between Gen X and the millennials, while there are fewer cuspers between Gen X and the Baby Boomers. The significance of the number of cuspers is that it indicates that more members of the workforce are moving away from a single-generation identity; they are identifying with select generation-specific values and perspectives.                                                                

Generation Z 

The newest addition to the American workplace is referred to as “Generation Z.” This demographic is people born from 2000 to the present; however, some experts report as early as 1995 as the start of Gen Z. This would make Gen Z older than age 18. Gen Z is referred to by many names:

•  Generation 9-11
•  Generation V (virtual)
•  Generation C (community, content or cell phone, click, connected, community, or celebrity)
•  Generation NOW
•  Gen @.

Before 2000, many aspects of our current culture did not exist, including iPhones, Facebook, YouTube, and iTunes. This generation was born into a world where these now common electronic resources already existed. In addition, Gen Z has a huge global footprint. They do not think in terms of geographical limitations. India has the most Gen Zers, followed by China and the United States.

Members of Gen Z are agents of change, as they are characterized by open-mindedness, social impact, and inclusion. Gen Z is interested in authenticity and their values are key. As digital natives who were born into digital life, they need speed. Everything happens to them in warp speed: entertainment, transportation, and growing up. They are collaborative partners, which is important for clinical research professionals. As micro-miners, information must be broken up into bite-sized manageable pieces for Gen Z. They also want to understand why they need information.

Comparison of the Generations

The preferences of different generations are an important consideration in the workplace. Many traits of Gen Z have not yet emerged. As previously mentioned, they are digital natives and fast decision makers who are highly connected. 

On the other hand, Gen Y believes that respect must be earned. They are technologically savvy and goal- and achievement-oriented. Different still, Gen X is comfortable with authority and does not challenge it. They were the first generation to focus on the importance of work-life balance. Baby Boomers expect some degree of deference to their opinions and are workaholics. Traditionalists value authority and a top-down management approach. They are hard working.

Risk management is a key part of clinical research. Gen Yers are risk takers who take calculated risks. If the research team has older generations who are risk adverse and Gen Yers who are risk takers, risk management is more difficult. Gen Yers are emotionally stable and intellectually curious, wanting to know why things need to be done a certain way. 

Table 2 compares the five generations in the workplace. Gen Z will be larger than the millennials. Their parents are from Gen X. One of the ways that Gen Z is characterized is as more mature millennials. They are learning from the challenges that they saw the millennials having and they will do things better. 

Gen Z is less likely to job hop and has only ever known smart technology. They prefer face-to-face communication and are very interested in money, job security, and independence. While other generations might measure people based on seniority, Gen Z measures people by merit.

Under aspiration, Gen Z is looking for security and stability because they see the struggle of the generations before them, but do not want to be tied down. They are also technoholics. That is different than being digital natives. Technoholics cannot live without technology. They are always connected to their hand-held communication devices. As aforementioned, Gen Zers are career multi-taskers. For example, they may be working in clinical research while doing computer repair or making jewelry on the side. Their signature products are nano-computing, 3-D printers, and driverless cars. 

Table 3 highlights the following critical characteristics of the generations:

• Attitude toward technology
• Attitude toward career
• Signature product
• Communication media.

The Gen Z Effect

Gen Z lives in what is called a post-generational world, meaning they do not think a person’s generation matters and are looking to break down the generations. Gen Z is shifting the paradigm from affluence to influence; affluence, being the people who have the most money and the most access to knowledge; and influence being people who have the most influence. Gen Z is interested in this information, which makes sense considering that they live in a world of MOOCs (massive open online courses), where massive amounts of information are available for free on the Internet. Gen Z will be the generation that makes sure that across the world, everyone has access to electronic knowledge.

Life hacking and slingshotting are characteristics of Gen Z. Life hacking is taking shortcuts and finding easier ways of doing things. Slingshotting is accelerating things. Gen Z wants to move forward quickly. Table 4 highlights six forces that will be shaping the future of business through Gen Z.

The Next Generation: Gen Alpha

People born starting around 2017 are part of Gen Alpha. Gen Alpha will be the most formally-educated generation in history, beginning school earlier and studying longer. Some kids are now in school as early as three months old. They go to daycare centers that have early childhood education. Globally, it is predicted that 90% of Gen Alpha will complete high school with the majority going on to some sort of college.

Gen Alpha will be the job-fickle generation, having an average of six careers, which could have a sizable implications in the clinical research workplace. 

When members of Gen Alpha start to enter their 20s, there will be an unprecedented demand for workers. More people will be exiting the workplace than entering it because the birthrate is going down. The ratio of workers to retirees, currently 5:1, will decrease to 3:1. It is predicted that the newer entrants to the job market will be working fewer hours per week with job tenure at an all-time low. All indications suggest that the workplace will look significantly different than it does now.

Members of Gen Alpha are likely to have 1.5 children. They will have a global perspective, especially for shopping. In terms of social life, Gen Alpha will team up with neighbors, friends, and nearby shops to make shopping a social experience. By 2027, there will be six generations in the consumer marketplace.

Managing Five Generations in the Workplace

By 2020, five generations will be working side by side: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen Y, Gen X, and Gen Z (Table 5). Managers of clinical research professionals will need to mind the gap, that is, consider the differences between the preferences of the generations.

Each generation contributes to a rich diversity of experience, creativity, and problem-solving approaches. The traditionalists believe in a hierarchy in management style. They have a strong work ethic and are loyal to their company, something that no longer exists. Traditionalists are slow to adapt to new technology.

Baby Boomers have a more reserved communication style. They value traditional instructor-led courses. They also like self-learning tools; however, they want support from instructors who care about them and will consolidate their learning. Their top qualities for a manager are being ethical, fair, and consistent.

Gen X views change as a vehicle for opportunity. Baby Boomers hate change. Gen X likes a hands-off management policy. They have an entrepreneurial spirit and are results oriented.

Gen Y (the millennials) really want to be coached or mentored. A mentor provides a more global look at advancing one’s professional persona, whereas a coach is task oriented. The millennials are the first generation that really wants to learn from others. Once they learn what is expected, they take off. The millennials prefer collaborative and technology-centric training. Thus, they do not mind if they are not in the same room with other learners. Values drive millennials, who work for companies whose values are aligned with their own values.

Gen Z is accustomed to change and expects it in the workplace. For them, change is cool. Gen Z values in-person interactions and looks for frequent, ongoing feedback. They want to see the person who is giving them the feedback.

When working with cross-generational teams, managers should: 

• Rethink the boring stuff
• Flex the hours
• Help people learn
• Give people good reasons for doing things
• Help people learn from each other.

No one likes to do the boring stuff. Managers should consider exploring new technology offered by tech-savvy younger employees to reduce repetitive and routine work for everybody. They should let younger employees be good at the things that they are good at.

Managers should offer flex work hours if possible. No matter what age employees are, they want a life outside of work. Managers should balance off-hours coverage so that no one has to work 24/7.

Asking employees about what they need to learn is a great way to help them learn. Managers should instruct employees about what must be done and the salient points, and then let older and younger employees mentor each other in different ways. For example, older employees are organizationally savvy while younger employees are technology savvy.

All employees want to be given good reasons for doing things. Managers should not insist on doing something just because that is the way it has always been done. All generations and age groups can offer wisdom to one another if they are open to hearing it.

Managers must consider the generational diversity that is currently in their organizations and what is being done to retain the oldest members of their workforce while inviting and enticing the newest members of their workforce. Action will be necessary in order for clinical research sites to have access to the required number of highly-technical workers for clinical research.

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Home / Essay Samples / Sociology / Generation / Who are the Gen Z: An Overview of the First Fully Digital Generation

Who are the Gen Z: An Overview of the First Fully Digital Generation

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