They swipe before they speak, they stream before they watch, and question before they accept — welcome to Generation Z. Zoomers (or Gen Z) refers to a demographic cohort born between 1997 and 2012, bridging between Millennials (Gen Y) and Generation Alpha. A year ago, I watched a movie named “iBoy” and recently came across a book named “iGen” authored by Dr. Jean Twenge — these artistic works made a clear distinction of zoomers from any other cohort. Their politics, ethics, norms and intellect paves a way for one to think whether this generation is becoming a dilemma or success. Keeping these arguments in sight, we will discuss upon the dreadful challenges and remarkable achievements embraced by generation Z.
Since the invention of internet in the late twentieth century, the world felt
globalization a near future. This invention forced the economies and international
politics to rethink their strategies. While all this was happening, a generation generational cohort introduced itself as if previous generation was adopted to technology, generation Z was designed alongside it. Being a part of this generation, I felt the affects of these drastic shift. Developed countries may it be USA, UK or Russia —they were the core-contributory figures of technical advancement — had changed the discourse of
generation after 1995.
Be it technology, social issues related to human rights and shifting world orders, ranging from consents to controversies and from decisions to developments, this generation has left others a mile behind. The access of smartphone and internet has made this world a global village. People are more active digitally than they are physically. A Swedish activist and best known for pressuring governments to address climate change and social issues, Greta Thunberg is a product of this generation who became a part of two aid flotillas sent to Gaza, Palestine — an internationally recognized place of
genocide by Israel — she, along with her partners spoke always in favour of stopping the desecration of humans. Moreover, one of the youngest Microsoft-certified professionals
Arfa Abdul Karim and Kautilya Katariya recognized as world’s youngest computer
programmer — both having named in Guinness World Record.
In politics and social reforms, this generation is not bound to any structured leadership, all they need is a platform (which they already have in the form of social
media), and they speak and share to whatever they are concerned about. We have mainly observed the protests for Gaza issue not only in Muslim countries but in United States and Europe as well. Beside humanity, they are linked through digital arena. The previous year, a youth lead violent protest changed the political grounds in Bangladesh, and now it’s happening in Iran — awaited for conclusion. All this ensures that Generation Z is no longer a silent observer neither it needs a polarized environment, in their diaspora, everyone is a leader and a follower vis-a-vis.
While all these appraises do not camouflage their dark side and dilemmas. According to international studies, where social media has become a digital lifestyle, on the contrary, it has negatively influenced the personal life of iGen. On average, 7.2 to 9 hours is the screen-time for this generation which is absolutely alarming and highest
than any other digital generation. This exaggerated screen-time has become a major
contributor towards ample of issues this generation face. Firstly, there has been observed a drastic spike in suicide attempts. Spending a lot of time on Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) and watching the so-called perfect lifestyles of social media influencers and celebrities have sparked an elevation in depression. Where doom- scrolling has made a short-cut to ‘brain-rot’ and other psychological disorders like FOMO and OCD. Secondly, excessive consumption of short-form content such as reels and YouTube shorts has made this generation too impulsive and extremely short-tempered. A quick rise in dopamine and oxytocin has altered the patience and raised anger issues.
Furthermore, it would not be wrong to label that this generation is continuously going through a ‘digital-biologic mutation’ which we are facing in the form of trailed impulse, short-term gratification, emotional undergo and many more. They are more irresponsible, unstable and self-centred.
Life, where it has become a digi-life, a tsunami of misinformation and disinformation has made its roots stronger than ever before and due to enhancement of
AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) there is no easy way out. Generation Z, where it has made benchmarks in digital and social world, it also has to understand the importance of digi-life and real-life balance. They might have to undermine digital presence in order to awake emotional and mental presence. Moreover, classic book reading culture is far
better than digital reading, this needs to be engaged before it gets late. Furthermore, the world is surely progressing into extreme-digital domains, but, there always remains a question whether is this success of technology or failure of mankind ?