The post starts out with a quote from President Barrak Obama from 2014 when he answered some questions for tumblr users. Speaking with the CEO of Tumblr, David Karp, Obama said, "...each successive generation tries to learn from previous mistakes and pushes the course of history in a better direction. And the only thing that stops that is if people start thinking that they don't make a difference and they can't make changes..." (Read the full conversation here).
He says several times that one of the biggest detriments to a society is giving in to cynicism--especially towards the government. "You guys [young people, tumblr users] are fed a lot of cynicism every single day about how nothing works and big institutions stink and government is broken. And so you channel a lot of your passion and energy into various private endeavors," he said. In all honesty, I think that in the desire to change something you will always see your target with a bit of cynicism; it's unnatural not to. Cynicism isn't the biggest threat to people giving up; fear, laziness, or apathy would far better fit that description.
Going back to the original article, it continues on (using the faction system of the Divergent series) to say that Generation Z is brave, kind, smart, caring, honest and "Born into a time pockmarked by inequality and reeling from threats of global terror and a crippling financial crisis..." Essentially what they're saying is that Millennials are "apathetic, dependent, and completely self involved," (I don't necessarily diasgree with that) while the new Generation Z are fighters that are going to change the world. Because their statements are so broad and likely feeding the egos of iGen (a wonderful, more suitable name for Generation Z that I found on wikipedia), I find many faults in their claims.
As far as I can tell from their article, their definition of Gen Z is from a Forbes article by Emily Anatole. This would put the birthday range (approx) from 1995 to either now or 2013, the article is unclear. This means that 20-21 years olds and down are the topic of today (unfortunately I'm in this group).
Now, to be as kind as I possibly can, the idea that iGen is more realistic or traumatized than the Millennials is a whole load of rubbish. Just as a broad sweep, how many of these kids (they're essentially kids) actually remember all that happened in their 21 or less years of existence? I'm the oldest an iGen can be, I don't remember what life was really like before 9/11. I didn't understand Obama's bail out. Gen Z may have been through a lot, but they don't know anything else. You can't ask a fish what wet is and you can't ask Gen Z what life was like before shootings happened at schools.
Sure, there's inequality, ours is nothing compared to history. We've all seen the ads from the 1950s where women were treated like cook, maid, and consort to their husbands and nothing more. Before that, women were basically property like cattle and land, sold when it was useful. We won't even get started on slavery (which is still happening today in many countries). Opression in today's culture in nothing in comparison even in other countries (like Thailand where sex trafficing is rampant). By definition, American's just aren't oppressed. We have ways to fight back legally without any sort of violence. Generation Z doesn't know the suffocating grip, let alone the meaning, of oppression.Financial times aren't great. America's debt during Obama's administration is more than all the past presidents combined. This post from the Washington Times (11/1/2015, not sure of it's entire accuracy) states that Obama will leave the whitehouse with the country $20 trillion in debt. Despite this unfortunate circumstance, I'm not sure many iGen kids are feeling it. I've seen more kids with laptops, iphones or androids, gaming systems, and what have you than people my age. These kids are spoiled with technology, my little cousin knows more about software than I do (that's not saying much, but it's impressive to me, she says words I don't understand). Generation Z isn't feeling anything, they're too busy being preoccupied by stories where parents are nowhere to be seen and playing games that, while fun, give no indication of what the real world is like.
As for "global terror," sure nuclear war is a huge threat. However, I don't see many kids getting to worked up about it. I would be suprised if one of these kids could tell me America's beiggest nuclear threats are. Even with Obama's treaty with the Russians, America will still have 1,550 nuclear warheads. It won't be pretty and a lot of people will die and suffer horribly, but a knife, a gun, a rock, will all kill you too. And they've been around for centuries (rocks and knives a lot longer). Again, iGen is distracted with their entertainment. What do they really know of war and fear?
It goes on to say that iGen is emotionally intelligent, socially responsible, and eagerly pursuing the opportunity for equality in ethnicity.
Emotionally intelligent: There are a lot of emotions being thrown about, I'm not so sure if that's intelligent. Riots are not intelligent, cutting and starving yourself isn't intelligent. I see the emotions, I don't see the being expressed and guided correctly. You can't only be emotional, rationality is an important characteristic too. You can feel all you want but it's there's no rhyme or reason behind it, it's not worth a life decision. In addition, being emotionally intelligent, according to it's definition, isn't going to help you have a more "emphathetic worldview" necessarily.
Socially responsible: See their obsession with entertainment technology mentioned above. "Mature," "accountable," "vigilant," none of the words should be used to describe my generation. We're children with delusions of granduer where we conquer socially condemned straw men.
As for ethnic equality, sure there's riots and stuff but I'm not sure that's Generation Z. We are all younger than 22, I'm not so sure most of us even know what equality is. I'll also put this under the ridiculousness of "American Opression" (I'm not saying we don't have issues that need to be worked out but, to be blunt, we're not handling the situation very well).
The article talks about our transperency. I laughed actually. Facebook is a place where we go to feel pitied about fake insecurities and display the "good" parts of our own little kingdoms. We're not transparant, we're puppet masters with the agenda of getting a like everytime we post a selfie with a pointless, overused quote.
One of my favorite online games, Acension created by Rinmaru Games, has a character that is very wise. When talking with the heroine of the story, she says that "Ignorance is bliss." He corrects her saying, "No, Ignorance is dangerous." I have to disagree with you Mr. President, cynicism shouldn't be my generation's greatest fear, it should be ignorance. My generation knows more about the vast expansions for Skyrim than they do about taxes and their own constitution.
My generation is the age of metaphorical heroes. Heroes only in their own minds, you could say. Their calls to rallies for anti-bullying and the like are online forums where they complain but do nothing to change the outcome. They wreak havoc with emotions that are justified because they're "real." Allies of logic are shot down as being unsympathetic and cold hearted. You're only allowed to have an opinion if it agrees with the majority, anything else is stupid, hypocritical, racist/misogynistic, or "un-tolerant." Girl's scream for the blood of men just because they look the wrong way at them and bullying is perfectly acceptable as long as the person was asking for it or it's funny (great video discussing this topic).
Gen Z is not a generation of heroes. It is a generation of self-righteousness. Our change in the world is made by belittling those we disagree with from the safety and convenience of a computer screen. We are ignorant to our own inflated chest and self importance and to most anything remotely important. We build ourselves straw men and defeat them, calling the glory to ourselves in cute anecdotes that other's "like." We are too clever for our own good, fooling ourselves into thinking that we're the Batman conquering a desparate city like Gotham. In reality, we're the Joker, scheming to see good men and women fall on their own swords.
How do we change? How do we fix what we've become? Well, to start we should get some experience. Every youngster thinks they know better than those before them. Let's not walk that path. Instead, let's stand on the shoulders of giants by delving into history, discovering why certain ideals do and do not work, and then seeing how, why, and when we should implement ideals into our culture. We must always have then end in mind and find the best solution even if we have to forge it ourselves. We must remember that the best solution isn't always the easiest or the most personally rewarding.
In order to fix anything we're going to endure much sacrifice and we should. We need mentors who are wise, we need to learn what it means to take responsibility with conviction and have accountability (self and from others) over our actions. From there it become this: it's not about the fact that we want to change the world, it's about what is the best way to. Everyone wants to see the world a better place, what that means to each person is often drastically different and how to go about achieving it can be more so. I'll talk about this another article.
For now, Gen Z, quit kidding yourself. You're not all that (Say anything with confidence and those with something to gain will believe you). You're becoming your own villan and disguising it as an act of heroism. Your ego is fed by the lie that you're a better person everytime you belittle someone for having a "closeminded" opinion. I wrote this a while back in a personal journal, but it seems to apply:
I am a cosmic confusion,
an illusion,
A make believe,
maybeline,
of this world,
covergirl.
I'm a public relations master,
One lie away from disaster,
Retributed,
convoluted,
obsessive,
freak.
I'm (not) okay with that.
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