Generation Z, I believe, is the most combative, aggressive, impatient, of all generations, their inflexibility and ability to escalate even the most simple debates, the hallmark of their time. I want to say they are simply robust and resilient, but they would not be truly descriptive, as most are parasites.
Generally accepted to be products of the late 20th century, and the early 21st, they are the first truly digital generation, and what have they done with that gift, that power? While we can accept theorist August Comte’s view that generational change is the engine behind social change,” this generation has bent, to breaking point, the traditional societal and family units with their aggressive pursuit of gender issues.
They have destroyed our rights to privacy, with their determination that anyone and everyone is ‘fair game,’ and their images can be broadcast and distributed without our permission. Worse, they take offence so easily that you can’t have a decent discussion without tears, tantrums, or a walkout. But, worst of all, there is no negotiation, no dialogue or conciliation. It’s their way, or the highway. They perpetuate their version of the blame game with outstanding vigour, blaming their forebears for all the wars, conflicts, environmental, conservation, and global-warming, as if they can just do that, and not take any responsibility at all.
The Gen Zed’er, buys, sells, dates, reads, learns, and communicates online, all day, half the night, and then wonders why they don’t have the energy for work, school, or play. Between Snapchat, Instagram, X, Tick Tock, Facebook and K Pop, they occupy, and fund media giants, living off the news feeds, apps, and entertainment designed purely to make their Internet ‘bigger than Gene Autrey’s saddlebags,’ to use a pre-Internet catchphrase. J M Finn writes that ‘Gen Z are more driven by jobs and money, than love.” Interesting that, jobs, not work, and money, not pay... and they make so much noise about love, well I never.
What ego, but at least they are consistent as Max Brooks writes, “Gen Zed, they are cleaning up their own mess,” and even more, Sushmita Shekar, an urban designer posits that her (Z) generation is the only one that can function between tech and real life, because we are completely comfortable with it! And they are so certain of their own infallibility. Mia Travulto, CEO of SecondLyf, an online shopping site, says “Gen Zed holds the power to shift fashion trends with a burst of artistic expression and a new ethical consciousness.” Yes, and they have reinvented the wheel too I suppose?
The complexity of the gender debate is enough to drive us to drink! We are born either males or females, and what we become is a matter of individual choice, but it’s never going to change what you are. It can only change who you are! And the reality is that saying you identify as something, is the same as pretending to be something isn’t it? I’m all for falling in love, for finding love, and I want everyone to be happy and in love, but surely it’s a private thing, and not for the broadsheets, is it?
Gen Zed are idealistic, progressive, dreamers, who demand accountability, from earlier generations, but don’t really deliver it themselves. The poor hard done by tweenies. Don’t they realise that every generation has fears for the next, and the next? I fear for the world my granddaughter will grow up in, but I can’t make it all better, and neither can anyone else. Do your best. Vote, don’t complain! And for goodness sake, exercise a little tolerance and respect. You’ll be a lot better for it, and so will we.
My generation saw electricity and running water as necessities, those before prioritised shelter and fire, this mob want 4G and WiFi as necessities. I wonder which generations really understand where they have come from, and where they are going?
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
