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I’m currently in grad school and I’m living the life. All of my classes are discussion-based, which means I like to think of myself as a co-teacher and do an obscene amount of talking. I just can’t help it. When the professors are speaking, I’ll try to interrupt them three times before they finish a sentence because I’m just so excited to hear myself introduce a thought-provoking response.
“Look,” I want to tell my professors, “I’m very aware that I’m monopolizing the class and that it has to be annoying. I will work on it, and there will be minimal success.”
But in one of my elective classes this semester, I found myself in a sea of undergrads. Upon walking in, I saw a class full of life and devoid of wrinkles, and I quickly realized that I was the oldest person there by about six years. I was in the midst of Generation Z, which most sources define as the people born in 1996 or later. And the kids in my class are noticeably different from the millennials that I’ve grown up with.
My observations are based on a small sample, so I’m not saying these are across-the-boards truths, but I’m still going to make sweeping generalizations. Here’s what I’ve noticed:
1. They’re collectively more liberal.
Guys, the work that millennials have been doing to create a more tolerant social environment that our parents despise is paying off. These kids are not just more tolerant of people that are different. They embrace them. There are two gay boys in the class, and the straight dudes are friends with them. When I was growing up, my gay friends were less likely to be out, and if they were, straight guys were at best cordial, mostly excluded them, and at worst really fucking mean.
Thankfully, this is improving. Generation Z sees diversity a positive thing. It’s cool to have multi-colored hair, dress uniquely, and be outside of the straight, white social norm. Conforming doesn’t make you popular among this crew. It catches me by surprise how seamlessly they accept each other, and it warms my heart to see them treating each other as human beings.
2. They’re all technologically savvy.
You can tell that they’ve grown up with the internet and smartphones. If I played the old familiar AOL dialup jingle, they wouldn’t recognize it. They don’t know what it’s like to get kicked off the internet when one of your family members tries to use the goddamn house phone. And it was never cool to have a phone that looked like this:
There’s no bitching about the class’s hybrid nature in which homework and tests are only online, or about the connectivity issues that make technology infuriating. These are the circumstances that they’re used to, for better or for worse. They’re really missing out on the simplicity of doing homework by hand and the tangible anxiety of paper tests, and they don’t even know it. But they’re way ahead of the technological curve compared to me, and I’m starting to understand what my dad feels like when he asks me to help him download music onto his iPhone.
3. They say “hella.”
And I can’t take it seriously. I’ve heard four people say it now, and not even in a side-conversation with a friend kind of way. They’re utilizing it when answering the professor’s questions in class. It throws me off every time because, in my generation, “hella” is primarily reserved for douchebags. But for these kids, it’s part of the common language. It’s cringe-worthy.
4. They dole out wonderful compliments.
Usually, I go to class looking like a scrub, but one particular Thursday it was National Margarita Day and I was going to get drinks after class. So I was fabbed up in a fur jacket looking like a snack. When I was in undergrad, nobody really commented on your appearance unless you had one friend in the class that told you that you looked hawt. So I was not ready for what GenZ had in store for me.
They told me that I was “killing it,” “putting out Macklemore vibes,” “looking boujee,” and “did suchhhh a good job on my make up.” It was a boost of confidence that I wasn’t even expecting. And they’re like this with everyone. They’re all very supportive of each other’s efforts. And now I know how to garner validation from them when I’m having a rough day.
5. Social media, mainly Snapchat, is the primary form of communication.
They don’t know what it’s like to communicate with your friends or 6th-grade boyfriend via email. They’ll never know the joys of finding the hottest buddy icon and creating the perfect AIM profile.
These days it’s all about social media, and I hear about “Snap” all. the. time. They don’t existentially question whether social media is a good or a bad thing because it’s been a part of their lives since they first started using technology. They don’t know what it’s like to not worry about how many likes you got on an Instagram post, how many followers you have, or becoming a mass influencer. And I feel very sad about this.
I have never heard a millennial say, “Wow, we really missed out on having Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat concurrently when we were in high school,” and it’s because we have an appreciation for the days when they didn’t exist. Also, I’m very glad the stupid shit I would have definitely posted won’t trail me for the rest of my life.
6. They haven’t suffered nervous breakdowns… yet.
This isn’t specific to their generation. It’s just specific to their stage in life. They haven’t graduated and been subjected to the misery of a job search that results in a position and salary that are far below your expectations. They don’t know what it’s like to have severe anxiety throughout a hangover that lasts two days. They don’t look weathered from the monotony of the grind.
I made a comment in class that if I had a kid that I would definitely have post-partum depression and if eating your placenta could help with that, I was down to try it. They all looked at me to figure out if I was serious, decided that I couldn’t possibly be, and then laughed at my very funny joke that was wasn’t meant as a joke. Ah, to be young and sane. In a few years they, too, will find themselves on the wrong side of the peak of mental health, and they’ll know the desperation that accompanies mental instability.
But until then I want them to bask in the joy that accompanies youth. And I actually really like Generation Z. They’re kind, they’re inclusive, and there’s more of a sense of belonging in that class than any of my others.
They’ve adopted me as the wise, older sister figure, and they’re my little rays of hella sunshine. .
Respond
hannahrose
Excuse me, but I've got some shit to say. @xohannahrozay on IG and Twitter.
@xohannahrozay
@xohannahrozay
“1. They’re collectively more open-minded.”
Tell these kids that you support the second amendment and then see how open-minded they are.
You know what, you’re right, Bill. I interchangeably used open-minded and liberal, and you reminded me that they don’t actually mean the same thing. This has been edited.
This is a “Sup?” inducing response
Hot.
Also sup?
Guys, can we come to the middle ground agreement here? I think people should be open minded to banning schools. Once that happens the whole school shooting thing will sort of weed itself out. Then we ban offices, and then public areas, then the public, and then we have drilled down the funnel to FEMA camps where the real bad guys have the guns. Come on, be open minded to everything because your mind is like a parachute: if you pull the rip chord and it gets tangled, then you spiral out into utter darkness lol
Or we could just kill everybody. Look at the statistics. 100% of mass shootings involve humans.
Siq judgement. You seem super informed
I’m here for this. Bill and IDC. Two of PGP’s least informed and open-minded folks. Stupid and ironic. Love this community.
Mom and Dad are fighting
Nope not getting into this. I’ll let the upvotes and downvotes speak for themselves.
May the trial by upvote/downvote begin!
Isn’t that how all of social media operates?
You seem to be exactly the type of person being alluded to in his comment… can’t be a fan of diverse opinions without an open mind, goes both ways of the court
Of course I don’t agree w the folks here about the second amendment, it’s whatever. I’m just concerned that it’s suddenly ok for grown adults to come for kids, especially since I have worked with young people that have lived through school shootings and other forms of gun violence and so many of them are still capable of having nuanced conversations about the second amendment. Collectively we need to draw the line somewhere and attacking kids seems like a fine place to do that.
Care to explain how its ok for grown adults to come for kids? Mot sure how that ever changed from being not ok.
We have a list for adults coming for kids for a reason.
I mean, in a world run by profits closed mindedness is good for business. Why do you think a closed group of like-minded individuals have captured more profit than anyone and manipulate our environments with it? Why do closed-minded belief system institutions rake in money yet don’t pay taxes and purposely cause division and conflict on a global scale while funneling up to the aforementioned group? You gotta be open minded to the close minded *The More You Know….shooting star rainbow graphic thing* lol
Their hope and happiness makes me disgusted.
I visited my cousin in college last year and made a comment about the phone jack on the wall (it was an old dorm). Her response was that the past 5-6 months everyone had talked about it and couldn’t figure out what it was. I’m only 5 years older.
I remember being in dorms and relying on my landline extension. Cause texts were like 20 cents and on T9. Fuuuuuuck
stock photo of the day goes to hannahrose
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a redhead squealing “omg yaaaaaaaaas” in your face — forever.
I wonder if the collar matches the cuffs
There are worse things.
At least you can tell the difference. I’m one of the younger people at my job and everyone thinks that high schoolers are millennials and then they make weird comments at me asking if my friends and I eat tide pods? Because I’m 25? It’s annoying at best. Apparently they don’t realize that being in their 30s they are *also* millennials.
The word “hella” was originally a Northern California (mostly Bay Area – shoutout to E-40) word. I’m from there and eeeverybody use to say it. Even our high school teachers. Keyword: USE to. If you still say “hella”, you deserve to be kicked directly in the dick.
I still say hella come kick me in the dick lil boy
I’m a Socal native and hearing the word hella is worse than nails on a chalkboard
Is Will a generation Z boi??
I’ve been in the bay for nearly 10 years and most of my friends grew up in the city and hella is very much a natural part of their vocabulary. I’ve seen the word spreading to other regions with people making a seemingly conscious effort to start using it which is weird but there is nothing wrong with Bay Area folks saying hella. I have worked with youth ages 6-24 and they still grow up saying hecka/hella.
The fact that “hella” was originated over 12 years ago and is STILL spreading is the fucking worst.
Pretty hella has been around since like the 70s in the Bay Area. Honestly I no longer feel any type of way about the word hella being used in it’s natural habitat . It makes sense to me as a word now, somehow. However I was recently in NYC and heard it being used across various demographics in different boroughs and I was v confused.
Can you hit up Forbes with these observations? I read an article from them about how Gen Z is tremendously more conservative than Millennials, which is a ludicrous notion
I mean, statistically speaking Gen Z is far more conservative in a lot of ways. Sure, they overwhelmingly support things like gay marriage as Millennials do which is obviously a traditionally liberal stance but there are also many areas, like security and money, that Gen Z demonstrates hallmark conservative opinions. It’s not black and white but there are stark contrasts between the two generations for sure.
So they’re libertarians?
I agree they’re more fiscally conservative, but I’ve also read pieces opining they’re more socially conservative as well which I don’t think is accurate at all
Depends on how you define it I suppose. They support gay marriage and gun control which you would say are liberal social values. But they also attend church at double the rate of millennials and are certainly more traditionally moderate than the previous generation. It doesn’t make them conservative stalwarts across the board but by and large they’re more conservative than millennials.
I wonder if they go to church at a higher rate because they’re either living at home or fresh out of that. From personal experience, a lot of kids whose parents took them to church kept it up freshman year, and then it started to drop some.
Granted, my sample of personal experiences is biased by my circle of friends having a roughly 65/35% conservative/liberal split, but most of the masses and other religious services at my school were pretty full of students. I never went for personal reasons (Catholic Church didn’t want to baptize me when I was born) but I’d say that even the more liberal people I know are fairly religious.
I teach these kids every day. I can assure you they have many more nervous breakdowns than anyone I knew when I was in college.
100% agree. My sister recently graduated HS and her and her friends all have gone through a “life crisis” before legally becoming an adult.
#1 thing I have found from teaching 18-22 year olds: as the product of nclb, they come to college at best underprepared. They clearly have not been prepared to read, write, and think at college standards. This would be okay if they at least knew how to learn. Most students enter my classes without knowing how to even take notes. I would like to think that my college professors thought the same thing a decade ago, however, we were among the final cohorts who didnt grow up under nclb.
I teach undergrads on the side. They didn’t know Summer Girls by LFO or Remix to Ignition …. Hashtag feeling hella old.