“Innovative, resilient, woke: Ready or not, Generation Z has arrived“

[TurtleWA]

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/inno...000106846.html

Generation Z. The iGeneration. Post-millennials. The Founders. There are a handful of monikers intended to neatly define those born between roughly 1998 and 2015, but at this point “Generation Z” seems to be the one with thestaying power. As this group of 61 million young Americans — which makes up 26 percent of the U.S. population — enters its formative years, who exactly is the future of this country and what are they all about? Asking Gen Z-ers to define themselves, they say they are “innovative,” “self-aware,” “resilient,” and “woke .” They are the children of Generation X and have been raised amid an America in tumult, finding themselves on the front lines of a divided nation. In a series of articles now on Yahoo Lifestyle, we get to know this rising generation and what makes its members so powerful, so opinionated, and so unique. This is Gen Z.

Generation Z vs. millennials

The closest generation to Gen Z is millennials, who were born between the early 1980s and mid-’90s. To compare the two means immediately noticing a few distinguishing factors. Millennials, the oft-called “Me, Me, Me Generation,” were raised in the American prosperity of the ‘90s and told young to follow their dreams — only to then have those dreams dashed by reality. Gen Z-ers have grown up during much more sobering times. This is the first post-9/11 generation; their childhood occurred in times of economic recession, terrorism, and a nationwide plague of school shootings. Whereas millennials are often faulted for their perceived entitlement and apathy, Gen Z-ers know that things need to change, and they carry the weight of that responsibility — a fact clearly evidenced by the Gen Z-organized March for Our Lives rallies for gun control, which brought more than a million people to Washington, D.C. As 10-year-old Mari Copeny, aka Little Miss Flint, tells Yahoo Lifestyle about why she took it upon herself to fight for clean drinking water in her community of Flint, Mich., “Nobody was listening to the grownups. I knew if I spoke loud enough, they would listen to me.”

Generation Z and diversity

By 2020, more than half of the kids in the U.S. will be members of a minority — making Generation Z the first for which diversity is the norm. Gen Z-ers are also the first to grow up during a time when same-sex marriage is not a hot-button political issue — it’s a constitutional right. It should come as no surprise then that their social leanings are progressive. Many of their favorite peer celebrities, like Rowan Blanchard and Amandla Stenberg, identify as queer, and only 48 percent of Gen Z-ers identify as heterosexual. As 19-year-old trans artist Chella Man tells Yahoo Lifestyle, “My identity is valid although most of it falls on a spectrum between standard categories.”

Generation Z and the Internet

The first generation of digital natives, Gen Z has a relationship with the internet that no generation before it has ever known. In a group for whose members the internet is as fundamental as books or television, and a phone in a pocket begins at increasingly younger ages, it is safe to say that their internet fluency is unlike any other generation. Gen Z-ers on average spend more than 10 hours a day online. And while generations above them tend to scorn this amount of internet usage, countless Gen Z-ers told Yahoo Lifestyle they wish adults took their use of phones and technology more seriously. March for Our Lives co-founder Jaclyn Corin tells Yahoo Lifestyle that her phone usage was directly related to her ability to start a national movement. “We’re educating ourselves. I know that every single piece of information that helps me through this journey comes from the internet.” Social media star Baby Ariel said something similar about her use of the internet to entertain: “We live in a new world where social and digital media are simply a new form of entertainment that are just as legitimate as ‘traditional’ entertainment.”

Generation Z and mental health

With near constant connectivity online comes an inevitable degree of isolation IRL. While Gen Z inhabits a highly global world, its young people are also fairly sequestered in their own devices. Generation Z was recently named “the loneliest generation,” with more than half of Gen Z-ers saying they feel lonely. They are also largely pessimistic about their prospects and anxious about the everyday. The positive here, though, is that Gen Z has eschewed much of the virtual perfectionism adopted by millennials and is making their online presence more politically focused, more mission-driven, and more aware.

Generation Z and economics

Considering all the above, it should come as little surprise that Gen Z-ers are highly entrepreneurial and somewhat reluctant to spend. According to a recent study, 70 percent of Gen Z teens are already self-employed — fitting given their access to the innovative landscape of the internet. They are also worried about going into debt, awake to the realities of economic calamity, and already saving for their retirement. They may be on the cusp of leading this nation’s economy, but their spending habits in many ways more closely align with the fiscally cautious Silent Generation (who grew up amid the turmoil of the Great Depression and World War II) than the starry-eyed millennials.

Generation Z and the future

Even if you knew nothing about Gen Z before reading this article, you likely were aware that this is a generation on a mission. From gun control advocacy to LGBTQ rights, this generation sees faults in the system and is here to change them. “The world needs stories that inspire compassion. I’ll use poetry to write them,” the nation’s 20-year-old Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “We are the generation that will save the world. We won’t just talk about it. We will put our ideas to action, and we won’t wait until we grow up to do it. We are ready to work now,” Little Miss Flint Mari Copeny says. Generation Z-ers are here — and they’re ready to change the world.

Hmm...broad generalization about an entire group of people much

[Prowler]

People born in 2010-2015 are still too young to be put a label on, no?

I used to think Millennials were literally people born around 1998-2001, but turns out it's people born in 1982-1995 or something. It's odd. I was born in 1990 and my brother in 1983... I wouldn't say we're part of the same generation/time period. By the time I turned 13 and entered my teens he had already turned 20 and left his teens.

A lot of things can change in 7 years or so. People born in 1997 are 20-21 nowadays and I notice they grew up with different things than I did and don't understand some references and how life before the internet and mobile phones was(yes, I still remember that).

[IndigoErth]

Looks like the N got tipped over... it's not a Z, it's an N for 'narcissistic.'

If Gen Y/Millennial is the "ME" generation, then "Z" is the 2.0 of that, the "ME... because I'm special" generation; the competitive younger sibling of the "Me generation." (I mean, not everybody, but there is an awful lot of fame whore, attention seeking nonsense within that group.)

Only thing I look forward to is that we can stop using letters.

Although I love how kids that are still only 2 or 3-years-old now are included. Early 80s somehow became millennial because, I assume, they came of age around the new millennia, but now we're including toddlers. Right... Seems the cut off is getting a little blurry.








Oh, and welcome Millennials to the feeling of not having had much of a chance to be the new chosen ones before they start talking about the next group...


edit: The kids of Gen X... maybe early Gen X. If I'd had a kid around the average typical age to do so, I'd probably only have a young teen by now and not even of age yet so why would he or she have "arrived" as Gen Z. Maybe older Gen X's created that monster, I dunno, but no way in heck as one on the tail end would I be endorsing such narcissistic behavior.

ALTHOUGH... Maybe Gen X parents aren't solely responsible. After all, many of their kids had Baby Boomer grandparents... a generation that has always thought itself pretty special and I imagine taught their grandkids that they are equally so.

My sister didn't have my nephew until after age 30, so he just missed out on being labeled as a part of so-special Gen Z by a year (he'll be 2 next week), however...he still fits in with a Baby Boomer grandmother.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Looks like the N got tipped over... it's not a Z, it's an N for 'narcissistic.'

If Gen Y/Millennial is the "ME" generation, then "Z" is the 2.0 of that, the "ME... because I'm special" generation; the competitive younger sibling of the "Me generation." (I mean, not everybody, but there is an awful lot of fame whore, attention seeking nonsense within that group.)

Only thing I look forward to is that we can stop using letters.

Although I love how kids that are still only 2 or 3-years-old now are included. Early 80s somehow became millennial because, I assume, they came of age around the new millennia, but now we're including toddlers. Right... Seems the cut off is getting a little blurry.








Oh, and welcome Millennials to the feeling of not having had much of a chance to be the new chosen ones before they start talking about the next group...

Being born in 1990 I was unlucky. My generation caught the beginning of the global recession. And things got really bad here around 2010-2013 by the time most people born in 1990-1992 were graduating uni.

My generation was the start of social media, back when it was mostly teenagers using them. And also the "snowflake" crap began there as well, sadly.

I remember being 15-16 in 2006 and many guys sporting a Zac Effron hairdo and dressing rather preppy and being shallow. that was the "cool" thing at the time. While in 1997-2001, when my brother was a teen, I saw a lot of guys dressed like Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit and lots of people into Nu Metal and Marilyn Manson.

[plastroncafe]

The Baby Boomers/Yuppies were the Me Generation. (wikipedia)

[Prowler]

Millennials are the most affected generations by the global recession by far. The oldest millenials now are in their 30s and many have trouble buying a home and a car still.

Millenials were the generation that faced/felt the highest youth unemployment rates throughout the European continent. We were the first ones to feel the bubble bursting.

[oldmanwinters]

Wow, so clever.

Okay, they are official out of sequential letters so they'll have to turn over the dial for the next generation or think of something else.

[TurtleWA]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Millennials are the most affected generations by the global recession by far. The oldest millenials now are in their 30s and many have trouble buying a home and a car still.

Yeah, what I hear is because of low wages and high student debt, as well as other debt due to the low wages.


It’s weird to think about a generation spanning so many years.

Someone born in 1998 could have a parent born in the 1960s. That same kid born in 1998 could be in the same generation as someone born in 2005 and have a parent born in the 1980s. Heck, someone born in the 1960s and 1980s could both have a child born in 1998.

I wonder if it matters how old a parent is on how their kid develops? I have a cousin that’s gen Z and is none of the negative stereotypes, but their parent is an older parent.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Wow, so clever.

Okay, they are official out of sequential letters so they'll have to turn over the dial for the next generation or think of something else.

Why did they even start naming them after letters? up until the baby boomers they always came up with a creative name for them. And if they were going into the letters why the hell did they begin with the letter Y and not with the letter F or something?

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Millennials are the most affected generations by the global recession by far. The oldest millenials now are in their 30s and many have trouble buying a home and a car still.

Millenials were the generation that faced/felt the highest youth unemployment rates throughout the European continent. We were the first ones to feel the bubble bursting.

I'm not even Millennial, but the late end of Gen X isn't really any luckier (at least in this country) as the last recession and the previous hit in my 20s. Most of my 20s was spent with a weak economy, bad job market/outlooks, etc. and many hard a harder time getting a good footing in life. I know a number of people who live in multi-generation households (myself included) because the cost of living anymore is absurd compared to the pay people actually make; those who don't... very few own a home, most seem to rent. I'd love to have my own place, but lord knows how that's supposed to be achievable around here.

Not going to be much better for this Gen Z once they get past the youthful optimism and notice how the world really is and probably won't be getting any/much better in their own young adulthood.

Originally Posted by Prowler

Why did they even start naming them after letters? up until the baby boomers they always came up with a creative name for them. And if they were going into the letters why the hell did they begin with the letter Y and not with the letter F or something?

Gen X happened, then people got lazy it seems, which always annoyed me because the X was supposed to mean something, it wasn't just a letter designation which Gen Y and now Z turned it into...

If they stay with letters, I guess they'll have to start with AA. Or A1? lol (Alcoholics Anonymous or steak sauce, take your pick.)

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Why did they even start naming them after letters? up until the baby boomers they always came up with a creative name for them. And if they were going into the letters why the hell did they begin with the letter Y and not with the letter F or something?

Boomers were called Boomers, because they're the product of the Baby Boom following the end of World War II.
Generation X are the children of the Boomers. No one knew what to make of us, because our parents weren't exactly conventional. We were an unknown quantity, subjected to pressures and cultural convention changes that no generation had been exposed to previously.
We were the first generation in American History to do worse than our parents.

Gen Y/Why/Millennial came after X, because alphabet.
So it would only stand to reason Z would come after that.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by TurtleWA

Yeah, what I hear is because of low wages and high student debt, as well as other debt due to the low wages.


It’s weird to think about a generation spanning so many years.

Someone born in 1998 could have a parent born in the 1960s. That same kid born in 1998 could be in the same generation as someone born in 2005 and have a parent born in the 1980s. Heck, someone born in the 1960s and 1980s could both have a child born in 1998.

I wonder if it matters how old a parent is on how their kid develops? I have a cousin that’s gen Z and is none of the negative stereotypes, but their parent is an older parent.

Yeah, i was born in 1990 but both my parents are baby boomers and born between 1951 and 1955.

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

I'm not even Millennial, but the late end of Gen X isn't really any luckier as the last recession and the previous hit in my 20s. Most of my 20s was spent with a weak economy, bad job market/outlooks, etc. and many hard a harder time getting a good footing in life. I know a number of people who live in multi-generation households (myself included) because the cost of living anymore is absurd compared to the pay people actually make; those who don't... very few own a home, most seem to rent. I'd love to have my own place, but lord knows how that's supposed to be achievable around here.

Not going to be much better for this Gen Z once they get past the youthful optimism and notice how the world really is and probably won't be getting any/much better in their own young adulthood.

What was the previous major recession before the 2007-2013 one? I know there was a rather short lived one around 1990-1992. And there was a crash around the time the World Trade Center fell which sent shockwaves to the world economy for a few years. Theat's probably where the seeds began getting planted for the global recession in 2007-2008.

My brother is close to your age. He is 35 years old. When he graduated uni(2005, I think) things weren't looking that great around these parts already, but the worst was yet to come.

[sdp]

I'm a digital native and a millennial so that's a weak argument.

[Coola Yagami]

Labels. I grew up in the 80s and am always on my phone.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Prowler

What was the previous major recession before the 2007-2013 one? I know there was a rather short lived one around 1990-1992. And there was a crash around the time the World Trade Center fell which sent shockwaves to the world economy for a few years. Theat's probably where the seeds began getting planted for the global recession in 2007-2008.

My brother is close to your age. He is 35 years old. When he graduated uni(2005, I think) things weren't looking that great around these parts already, but the worst was yet to come.

Obviously not "major" if comparing to the big one that last affected most countries, but things were already tanking with a smaller one around 2001-ish here and never exactly looked up much between then and the bigger one that followed.

This century in general so far just hasn't been the best period to start adulthood, no matter which age group you are. Countries that at least have free college are lucky. At least they might come away with better to help them get a start during that period or now afterward.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Boomers were called Boomers, because they're the product of the Baby Boom following the end of World War II.
Generation X are the children of the Boomers. No one knew what to make of us, because our parents weren't exactly conventional. We were an unknown quantity, subjected to pressures and cultural convention changes that no generation had been exposed to previously.
We were the first generation in American History to do worse than our parents.

Gen Y/Why/Millennial came after X, because alphabet.
So it would only stand to reason Z would come after that.

When I think of Gen X, I think of heavy drug users, sadly.

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Obviously not "major" if comparing to the big one that last affected most countries, but things were already tanking with a smaller one around 2001-ish here and never exactly looked up much between then and the bigger one that followed.

This century in general so far just hasn't been the best period to start adulthood, no matter which age group you are. Countries that at least have free college are lucky. At least they might come away with better to help them get a start during that period or now afterward.

Yeah that is true, indeed.

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Prowler

When I think of Gen X, I think of heavy drug users, sadly.

We're known for being cynical and depressive, so that scans.
Though, I don't know that, as a generation, we're more likely to have substance abuse problems than anyone else.

What we had with crack and heroin, you have with opioids of a different stripe.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

We're known for being cynical and depressive, so that scans.
Though, I don't know that, as a generation, we're more likely to have substance abuse problems than anyone else.

What we had with crack and heroin, you have with opioids of a different stripe.

Well, I don't think heroin is big among people of my generation. Kids back in my HS days were mostly into weed. In fact, you probably can "blame" millennials for the whole "legalise pot" movement.

Heroin was a big problem here in the 80s and also in the 90s. Most of those former heroin users are now at least 40... if they're lucky.

By other opioids I assume you mean painkillers and the such?

[TurtleWA]

When I first heard gen X I thought it was for xtreme and people shortened it as gen X. I never thought of it as just a letter from the alphabet. I thought it was because of MTV and x-games and the dark grungy 90s. I guess it is just the letter though.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by TurtleWA

When I first heard gen X I thought it was for xtreme and people shortened it as gen X. I never thought of it as just a letter from the alphabet. I thought it was because of MTV and x-games and the dark grungy 90s. I guess it is just the letter though.

That is a good point. Maybe that was the case back then and they didn't think of naming the future gen Gen Y at the time.

And yeah, MTV generation was a thing I'd hear in the 90s at times. Pretty sure Bart Simpson said it once in an episode even "We're part of the MTV generation"... back when MTV and other music channels were actually about music