Gen Z :The best or worst generation ? part 1

Can you imagine the impact leaders of the past would have had if they were born in this generation? Could the suffragettes in 1907 who recruited 50 thousand members in the UK have instead recruited 55 million across the world? Would Martin Luther King's historic "I have a dream" speech in August 1963 rally which had about 200 thousand demonstrators have 200 million instead? Maybe this would have all been possible if they had the same connections and resources, we now have in today’s world.

Gen Z is super different, we are not your normal average young adults. Gen Z is the first limitless generation, a generation that doesn’t need to come up with a new strategy in order to influence thousands of people. We just create a tweet, a TikTok, an Instagram post or a YouTube video. Everyone in Gen Z has a platform through which they can voice their opinions and ideas, think of the power this holds because there are no limits to what they can say because we all have freedom of speech. We only need to open our phone and you’ll most likely find any one of your friends or relatives talking about a trending news topic as if they were some sort of expert. That is because of the internet, it is our endless source of information, it can educate us enough on certain topics in a few minutes. Almost everything I know I have taught myself with the help of the internet. In addition, our generation is the most racially and ethnically diverse than any other generation yet.

Back in the day, our parents grew up being told they should be seen but not heard whereas, I’m growing up in a generation where I can reach a thousand with a click of a finger and go viral. This means for the first time ever we can pursue our passions at any location at any time with any identity but most importantly at any level. Let’s take a look at music for example, to be a popular singer and musician back in the day you’d have to find a label willing to take you and train you to make your music good and distribute it. Generation Z on the other hand grows huge followings and gains huge success in music from their bedroom which is most likely in their parents’ house. But these individuals aren’t just artists they are lyricists, producers, guitarist, managers etc. they do it all and they don’t even need to leave their bedroom door. It’s not just in music that we are following our dreams but Gen Z pursues modelling , acting , journalism, comedy and even creating businesses ... and these are just some examples out of many other things of passions and potential careers that generation z are pursuing while still in school .

We as a generation are programmed so differently we are growing up super sharp-witted, we’ve all been developing a personal brands from the minute we joined social media, so what does this mean? The new world has been molding us into these mini trailblazers and we don’t even realize it because to us it’s all natural. So, it leaves us probably without being surprised that 70% surveyed saying they all wanted to start their own business and statically 15% will actually do it before they graduate high school. Everywhere you look young people are doing every imaginable campaign of some sort ; ocean plastic , mental health , global warming, animal rights , women’s rights etc... you name it , there’s a young person promoting and speaking out as the voice of young people.

Greta Thunberg a 15 year old at the time , started a movement initially by skipping school and 6 months later this movement has taken off to become a worldwide phenomenon not only is she mobilizing thousands across the world but she’s influencing millions via the internet, she’s influencing discussions in multiple parliaments around the world and influencing new movements to form as well due to her inspiration. Greta is the perfect example of a generation z campaign gone well. If you are someone looking to attract gen z you need to be really careful because gen z are more astute than ever , it’s said that we have an 8 second attention span meaning that anything generic simply doesn’t not stand out . If you want to grip generation z you need to be promoting a 100% authentic message and it needs to be consistent because if it’s not, we will see right through you.

We are living rapid change but not only are we living rapid change we are driving it. There are some queries I have though, if it is that easy why isn’t generation z full of multi-millionaires or more leading activists, or politicians. In fact, if we are so impressive why are we only trying to influence government and not running for government?