Plain Talk on Gen Z

GenZ is not the conspiracy of a generation against the values of the predecessors.

Gen-Z is the result of the prosperity of a society, democracy, reflection, critical thinking, and an awareness of the fallacies that young people cannot overcome due to their position in society. They are clearly clever enough to recognize them.

The affinity of these generations for more digitality is not due to the smartphone, but to the spaces that become accessible with it and which are still somewhat shapeable. That's why Minecraft is so popular. One moves virtual building materials and overcomes physical laws. The real physical world feels like being subdued. Gen-Z feels a dual gravity. The inescapable reality and the unshapeable gravity of generations who want to preserve misunderstood virtues.

Things weren't better in the past. Now, however, when parts of X and Y want to return to the past, a "as quickly as possible" that doesn't fit their own sense of time is not defiance, but protest. A new form of stoic punk.

Let's give young people more space in reality. Let’s simply have some faith in them. We old folks just have too much time for control.

The retreat of Gen-Z into virtual spaces is not just an alien abduction, as Jonathan Haidt called it. The "expressive ease" with which immaterial digitality presents itself allows younger ones to express themselves differently; yet even here, the offerings are lacking because Gen X and Y are tying up capital for consumable platforms in the wrong projects for surveillance capitalism. The world should surpass Minecraft regarding its possibilities. A better place, where one easily and straightforwardly reaches self-determined goals.

Let us not expect from Gen-Z and their successors that they desire to pursue our bullshit jobs.