Gen-Z Defies Stereotypes, Championing Change Despite Criticism of Laziness

Gen-Z have never been regarded as a strong and activist generation by the people of the older generation. People born between 1997 to 2012 have often been called lazy, too soft, entitled and too soft but are never praised for what they stand for. The young people of this age are learned, educated and vocal about many issues around the world and they do their best to spread awareness about certain topics.

Gen-Z are not people who are waiting for a change to happen in this world, they are demanding it – and fiercely to say the least. Gen-Z are the reason for launching many movements these past six months that have left status quo elites uncomfortable and bothered in their comfortable lives. The decades of unbalanced use of power and authority is going to end soon because this young generation is becoming powerful enough to demand human rights and is quite enthusiastic to make the world a peaceful place.

America is seeing a ‘youthquake’ with university students raising their voices in the forms of anti-war protests and the university administrations have nothing to do other than suppress these voices with police intervention. After the incident involving Hamas on October 7th, many university students have started their campaigns for violence on innocent civilians. These campaigns have resulted in suspensions and walkouts of many students but they are still resilient and are protesting ahead of democratic primary elections.

These protests and campaigns aren’t just limited to elite universities like Columbia and Berkeley, as many other university students are actively taking part in them. One third of Gen-Z from these universities say that they are entirely or mostly with Palestinians while only 10% of the adults think so. 36% of the adults believe that President Biden is totally favoring the Israelis and this is not good for him as most of his voters are younger Americans.

The ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict shows us how Gen-Z are with equity, justice, inclusion and human rights. An Edelman survey shows that 70% of the Gen-Z are active on social media and participate in political causes. This makes them more digital fluent and they can easily distinguish facts from lies which helps them educate their fellows and advocate for change. Data also shows that Gen-Z is the generation which spends the least amount of time and spends at least 10.5 hours a week on TikTok and 6.9 hours a week on YouTube. The legislation to ban TikTok in America was also fueled after the outbreak of war and this angered the younger generation.

If you talk to an adult about the younger generation, they would probably complain that Gen-Z are always stuck to their screen and aren’t aware of real world issues. But when you talk to a person under 30, you will probably find out that they are people who are most in-touch with what’s happening around the world and are mostly aware of what’s right and what’s wrong. They are the ones raising voices for climate change, gender diversity and now Palestine, Westbank and Gaza. They are a hope for a bright future.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World