THIS. HAS. GOT. TO. STOP.
In Googling the exact birthdate parameters for "Generation Z" (creative name incoming, I'm sure) I came across
this festering piece of garbage.
To quote Alex Williams,
"There’s Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, in his hoodie, earning his first billion by the age of 23.
There’s Miley Cyrus, preening for the cameras in a flesh-baring act that recalls a Snapchat sexting session.
There’s Lena Dunham, TV’s queen of overshare, spiraling into navel-gazing soliloquies that seem scripted from the therapist’s couch."
What you have done, sir, is you have taken an entire generation and boiled it down to three very exceptional, very rare, very particular human beings. Shall I cherry-pick 3 infamous people from Generation X and do the same?
Hmm...
There's Kanye West, in his leather jogging pants, whose actual talent has been completely overshadowed by his bid at being dubbed 'Biggest Assclown of the Centry'.There's Charlie Sheen, pissing his career away from one tabloid bender to the next.. . . I can't do this anymore. It's wrong.
I'm pretty sure the over-generalization of millennials as "brash", "narcissistic" and "entitled" started when some Baby Boomer ran into a handful of people born between 1980 and 2000 who just plain sucked and thought, "You know who I hate? Young people. Fuck them!" Oh sure, there are plenty of millennials who are--in fact-- brash, narcissistic and entitled. There are also plenty of people from every other generation who share the exact. Same. Flaws.
This journalistic tendency has taken an entire generation and tossed it in the trash. And now, Mr. Williams is holding up Generation Z as this newer, better version of the Millennial without all of that whiny entitlement. They're tech natives. They're entrepreneurial. They're responsible. They will save us all (and be the richest generation in ever, apparently.)
I have no doubt that Gen Z is going to be fucking fantastic, because I have worked with and befriended those kids. I actually know what they're all about (unlike the lazy fuck reporter who inspired this article) because I've taught them, listened to their fears, and guided them through moments like Sandy Hook. I'll tell you, they're rad. Sure, some of them have been sheltered by helicopter parents, and that worries me a little. But you know what? Unlike aforementioned Lazy Fuck reporter, I won't presume to judge the many based on the few. The eldest Gen Zers are (depending on who you ask- the cutoff from Millennial to Z is rough) either still in high school or just barely heading off to college. They have yet to really shape this world. Frankly, I look forward to shaping it
with them.
I can only take solace in the fact that since Z is the new "it" generation, Y will be left to our own devices. Those devices, if you haven't noticed, are fixing the bullshit economy we inherited, scrambling to save the planet from utter destruction, attempting to save enough money to purchase homes and start families sometime... maybe? We've done a lot of amazing, notable things, and we'll continue to do so in spite of the bad press. Moreover, we'll be doing it without taking a big steaming shit on every generation that comes after us, because we won't leave the world in a giant trash heap for them to clean up.
