Imagine with me the frustration of an ambitious young woman who takes a risky and uncalculated life decision to the fear of her mother from the piercing eyes of a ruthless society. Imagine the pain of a teenage boy who swiftly leaves the dinner table with tears of anger after his father forbids him from joining a nationwide protest with his friends and comrades. Imagine the malaise of an economically successful uncle disregarding what he perceives as his niece's ridiculous infatuation with bitcoin and electric cars. Imagine the resentment of a mother who must tell her antisocial son for the millionth time to ‘get off of his damn phone and stop watching TikTok at the dinner table.’ If you are either currently part of Generation Z or have tried to raise someone in this generation anywhere around the world, I’m sure at least one of these scenarios sounds familiar to you. 

Are Gen Z a group of naive, sensitive snowflakes, or are the oldies outdated and senile?

For decades, different generations have had divisions ranging from political affiliation to popular culture, and even visions for the future. To start, it is important to know who exactly Gen Z is. People born from 1997 onward to around 2012 are all considered to be Gen Zers. Due to the differences in socio-economic circumstances that come with being born at such a time period, it is only logical that different generations see the world differently, as the life of a teenager today is completely different from that of a teenager in the 1990s. While this is not a new phenomenon, the staunch levels of misunderstanding and resentment amongst Gen Z and previous generations severely impacts the ability of the young to learn from their elders, and vice versa. When dissecting widespread political and social leanings of any large group of people, let alone entire generations, things are almost never as simplistic as a right and wrong side. With that being said, is the notion that Generation Z is an intellectually soft and weak generation fair and accurate?

Gen Z, we need a look in the mirror

If you’ve spent enough time around Gen Z, you will notice a surprising yet blatant trait that cannot be ignored: cynicism. For a generation with the least real-world experience, Gen Z is glaringly cynical when looking at the world around them. Such a phenomenon is not completely shocking when analyzing the circumstances that this Generation was brought up in. Growing up, Gen Zers observed their parents and guardians in Gen X lose over 45% of their net worth on an international scale since the global market crash of 2008. In the West, Gen Zers were raised in the wake of 9/11, the 7/7 bombings, and many other terrorist attacks, which brought with them new domestic problems of subsequent polarization, international wars, and widespread invasions of privacy. In much of the Eastern hemisphere, Gen Zers grew up as children of failed revolutions, seeing the dreams of their heroes and mentors being crushed alongside their failed endeavors. They also observed a massive trend of democratic backsliding and descent into chaos. Recently, Gen Z across the globe has struggled severely to adapt to new ways of life through the crippling COVID-19 pandemic, while simultaneously trying to enter university and the workforce.

With such extraneous circumstances across the world, one might ask what Gen Z has to be thankful for, but the answer is plenty. We have all seen quite a lot, but our severe cynicism cripples and silences those of us with creative and innovative ideas to solve and improve the problems that have forced us to be so pessimistic. Despite our hardships, there is no question that, in a holistic sense, our lives today are far better by almost every measure than the lives of our grandparents during their youth. We have more widespread equality, money at our disposal in the international economy, ability to communicate, opportunities, and career paths available to us than ever before. If this is the case, why are 68 year old world-renowned journalists like Thomas Freidman and 102-year-old lawyers who investigated Nazi war crimes like Benjamin Ferencz more optimistic about the future than you? As someone who tends to consider themselves one of the more optimistic observers of the world, there is nothing more soul crushing than being written off as naive or idiotic by your young comrades, who are supposed to be the ones who come together to fix the world's problems, and work towards a brighter future. The spread of such corrosive hopelessness and the resulting romanticization of doomsday scenarios across our generation eats away at the work of potential leaders and trailblazers. 

Double Faced Influencers 

Generation Z often seems like it's talking out of two sides of the same mouth. While we claim to be the generation most concerned with social justice and advancing climate change, we benefit from the same institutions that we claim to hate. Despite preaching that such issues are priorities for our generation, many of us merely say this while prioritizing social status and financial success above all else. 94% of cryptocurrency users are found within Gen Z and millennials. While the excitement of crypto’s potential is not inherently a bad thing, mining cryptocurrency is extremely detrimental to the environment. Bitcoin, the oldest and most popular form of cryptocurrency, takes up more energy and electricity than power grids of entire countries — including all the energy used by Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Netflix combined. Despite the damaging effect of crypto being out in the open, Gen Zers couldn’t love it more, as over 30% of Gen Zers said they would advocate for future salaries to be paid completely in crypto. Many Gen Zers are prioritizing their own investments and financial gains over environmental protections. We must realize that doing so proves we are not much different than the generations before us that did the exact same thing. Such self-centered mindsets have led to many economic disparities amongst the generations, as over 55% of the wealth in America today is owned by those over 50, despite them only making up 34% of American society. Likewise, similar trends have shown up in social justice rings. Many Gen Zers praised and supported social movements like #MeToo and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, putting in time and effort to advance social change, chanting well-known slogans like ‘silence is violence’ and ‘nobody is free until we are all free.’ Nevertheless, Gen Z has been the key demographic to prop up and bolster TikTok as the largest growing social media platform in the world. TikTok was created by Chinese company Bytedance, which is nearly entirely controlled by the Chinese government and is required to give all the information it collects to Chinese intelligent services, including users messages to friends, phone's model, screen resolution, current OS, phone number, email address, location, keystroke patterns, even contact lists. Giving all this personal information voluntarily to a brutally authoritarian state that actively commits genocide towards nearly 12 million Uighur Muslims, and constantly infringes the sovereignty of democratic nations around it like Taiwan and Hong Kong, is only setting human rights and social justice back across the world. McCage Griffiths, professor of political science at UC Davis, described in my interview with him that he believes “those who use TikTok for activism either consciously conclude that this is hypocrisy and try to live with that fact, or they consider it a useful tool or necessary evil to reach a specific audience. But for the most part Gen Zers are aware of its background.” Despite the good intentions, the reality that Gen Z continues to use the app due to its attractive and addictive nature despite its horrid and authoritarian backing is unavoidable. Once again, our hypocrisy as a generation has become our worst enemy in fighting for the issues we claim to fight for.

Friendly fire 

Gen Z has seen much unfair criticism and attacks from older generations, but on the flipside we are often far too antagonistic towards older generations that came before us. There is no question that older generations have taken certain actions that have left us in a deeply flawed world, and acknowledging that is only fair. With that being said, we must recognize that we stand atop the shoulders of previous generations regarding the fight for social justice, environmental rights, democracy, human rights, and virtually every other key issue we care about in the world. Generalizing those generations as greedy and selfish only sets us back further, as we demoralize mentors and allies who are essential in fighting such fights. Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, Gandhi, Volodymr Zelensky, John Lewis, Sardar Patel, and Jane Goodall, and the list goes on. Even on a more personal level, no Gen Zer would ever be able to build a meaningful path forward in our lives without the work and effort of our parents, teachers, and older mentors who have taught us valuable life lessons. We as a generation cannot solve any meaningful problems without first acknowledging this fact, and appreciate what other generations have built for us to continue. 

Despite our flaws, we are a truly exceptional generation

Our flaws as a generation are many, and there is still a need for systematic attention and change. But this is clearly doable, when we observe the brave and amazing strides this generation has taken worldwide at such a young age. Professor Griffiths touched on this point, explaining “Gen Z is extremely politically engaged at an especially defining political time. They have much higher levels of social and political engagement than most other generations in a much more direct and in your face way.” This isn’t specific to the U.S. as Gen Z has been a key aspect in bringing in promising new leaders into power across the world, like Chile’s new millennial President Gabriel Boric, who was able to win from the staunch support of his Gen Z supporters. In Ukraine, young Gen Z men are leaving their mothers, sisters, education, and futures to fearlessly defend their country’s sovereignty against a foreign aggressor. Gen Z has spearheaded and given older generations hope in Sudan’s peaceful revolution demanding a democratic transition of power, and have become the largest defying force in Nigeria’s #EndSARS protests against discriminatory police brutality, let alone our international efforts towards the climate crisis. 

With all of these factors in mind, I refuse to accept the notion that Gen Z is a weak and fragile generation, as those who willingly mobilize, advocate, and protest whilst running from rubber bullets and tear gas are anything but fragile. For such sacrifices and efforts for a better tomorrow, we deserve nothing but the utmost respect. As a generation that represents over 32% of the world’s population, the relationship between Gen Z and older generations must be mended in order to promote meaningful social and political change forward. Just as Gen Zers must look themselves in the mirror and respect those who came before them, the older generations must acknowledge Gen Z’s impact, ambition, and sacrifice as well as appreciate the circumstances and experiences that make our generation the enigma that it is. 

So how do we do that?

The true beacon of hope that exists through Gen Z is its engagement and activism. Despite this, it often seems Gen Z has a lot to learn in the political game of optics. Older generations are bound to look down on us if they see the consciousness of our generation being Kylie Jenner and Addison Rae. If they see Gen Z as young opportunist millionaires who prioritize flaunting their bodies, promote extreme overconsumption, and spend millions on brand name clothes all in the pursuit of clout and money, we will never earn their respect. But as we can clearly see, this is not what our generation is. There are plenty of Gen Zers fighting for their rights and their country to finally free themselves, their communities, and their minds. We must shed light on Gen Z’s unsung heroes like David Hogg, Muna Al Kurd, Angeline Makore, Hadiqa Bashir, and many others as the true conscience of our generation. Those who sacrifice their time and livelihoods for the benefit of our communities and never back down in the face of adversity, be that tear gas, bullets, and unjust prison walls, or Twitter death threats and personal demoralization. When we show the world who we truly are and what we are capable of, then our elders, mentors, and teachers will see what Professor Griffiths describes as a “remarkable and admirable generation that continues to have hope within them despite living in a world of constant crisis.”