“When I was your age…” “I used to walk twenty miles and catch three buses to school.” “I used to cook and clean everyday for my whole family.” “I … was married.” This timeless story seems to be the established springboard for older generations to share their knowledgeable skills to their youth. It is overused, in media, and reality, embodying how starkly different our grandparents were from our parents, and how alienated we are compared to our own parents. But their stories are not derived from any lesser weight; the truth is, things were truly far more different for our grandparents and parents, socially, professionally, and personally. But not in a way that is bluntly attributed to new gadgets and technology, rather in the holistic lifestyle changes that have been planted since. The speed of life has notably changed, inking implications that trace beyond the edge of decades and dates. However this comparison needs to be scaled more accurately; it seems that Gen Z, in truth, has the glittering “rougher reality,” and one that desperately needs to decelerate.
Living in the Left Lane
In the world which we have cultivated today, productivity and efficiency are the hallmark of quantity and quality, and embody the solid cultural standards of Gen Z. This fact is manifested in almost every routine situation one can conduct; we are asked to work harder, work longer hours, produce work up to higher standards, and among it all, find a way to be uniquely composed so that we are differentially skilled and not a carbon-copy of our peers. It is not just working smarter, but also simultaneously working harder, and finding a way to prove our efforts. The passport to the modern world is nothing but a decorative piece of paper: the resume. Striving to appear better than the previous candidate, we desire to be overqualified, seeking to establish that we are well versed enough with our own experiences that any other decision would be a loss for the decision maker. In this fight for validation, the world becomes a playing field of competitive defenders, where the only priority is success, and specifically labeled by titles, promotions, and the unspoken respect that comes with such conceptions. We will do anything to be that accepted 5% or be highlighted as a top ten ranked. Today, it is arguably much harder to land any single job position, graduate school selection, or post-professional program due to the intense amount of criteria that one single individual must conquer and exceed to win over an admissions committee. Yet, in proving ourselves to others, we lose the simple peace of understanding ourselves. There is almost a sense of losing humanity, and skills such as compassion, empathy, and genuine kindness are scrubbed away in favor of decorative traits like leadership, prioritization, and time-management. Furthermore, building the reputable stratum requires one to detach from their own personal growth and it compromises the self-discovery that is vital for adolescents and young adults who would otherwise not be rushed into the iron grip of capitalism and revenue.
Patching the issue
Under the strings of such pressures, Gen Z has become an isolated species. One that has lost its ability to be collaborative; a skill that was highly regarded in earlier careers and work forces, and a skill that allowed for a lighter load on the working mind. Remote job opportunities, remote schooling, and hybrid classes offer us the easy chance to isolate, and socializing quickly becomes an avoidable chore. The stitching of our time is merely concerned with empirical self-interested development, leaving the necessary communicative skill we develop through interaction as the dropped stitch. This pull away from collaboration extends to the corners of Gen Z, as we see that the overall lifestyle focus, mirroring relationships and friendships, and even familial bonds, has been altered to meet the needs of growing competitive demands. Young adults who would traditionally be married or starting families in their twenties are starting to only do so later in their thirties or forties. Perhaps taking the necessary extra time just to stabilize themselves in their professional lives, Gen Z prefers not to “pursue young love” simply because the pace of life might not allow them to, and human connection becomes a mere suggestion to some. In truth, any kind of long-term personal life parallel, whether it is a relationship, family, or interest will naturally take a much greater amount of effort to sustain, simply due to the external pace of priority. In this sense, it almost feels as if Gen Z is robbed of the lifestyle transformations that our parents and grandparents have had the time and space to enjoy, observe, and grow from. It is increasingly apparent that the social behaviors of our time have also been altered in the same fabric that we thread.
Another unspoken side effect that individuals within the reach of Gen Z also experience often is the limited cognitive returns of constantly being surrounded by such fast-paced environments. It is easy to think that comparably, our generation is generally more mentally aware of their well-being at times, however, when considering broader aspects of functioning, such as attentiveness, impulsiveness, and information processing, we are on the ground floor. Gen Z has grown up with social media being a prominent influence in their understanding and shaping of the societies and communities around them. While social media is a fantastic tool with plenty of merit in educating, advertising, and entertaining its viewers, it is no secret that prolonged and early exposure, such as that which this current generation has faced, plants its adverse effects on the brain and its development. Research has consistently displayed how Gen Z and younger children project the negative returns of social media, shown in how children recently seem to “grow up too fast,” indicated by their style in clothing/dressing, language, and interests. Perhaps this can be attributed to the early exposure they have with media, which advertises and endorses popularized ideas and beliefs to their supple minds during their formative stages of growth. If we think back to even our parental generation, the children who displayed the most outwardly “trendy” and supposedly showed matured behaviors were those with older siblings, who had the natural exposure to what their older siblings did, and hence adopted their interests accordingly. In contrast, today, at any age, a young child could have access to information presented by someone three times their age; a ten year old could take inspiration on how to dress and behave from a twenty five year old stranger with a completely different lifestyle. Early access to this content is not an inherently negative thing, as it does continue to educate and inform the public, but it is also a branch to consider when trying to understand what realistically crafts the heedless and transient mindset that many Gen Z individuals spiral into as a part of their established normative culture.
Gen Z is known to be the informed, quick, and innovative generation of the century, but with truthful consideration, it mirrors a lifestyle that is almost unattainable. It seems that in the race to stay updated and involved, we have allowed ourselves to create a false perception of sustainability. The drive to achieve, to succeed, and conquer all in modern times has stamped an unchangeable belief that we can either choose our personal life or a buoyant career, but rarely both. We need to re-center our outlook on what it truly means to be “successful,” in order to manufacture a more balanced social and professional lifestyle. To some this might mean redefine what is important to them on an individual level, and find the courage to abide by their own individual values, even when they might contrast our typical surroundings. For example, this could look like switching professions after finding another passion, or taking a gap year(s) to find rest and prepare for a future in graduate school, or even simply taking time to learn and become more self aware of our very own personal needs. We do have the ability to be kinder to ourselves and create an atmosphere that is more accepting and veritable for ourselves without finding the need to feed into the accelerating spiral of achievement.
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