How Generation Z Will Change The World According To Experts | TIME

Dr. Jean Twenge, David Stillman, and Jonah Stillman study generations, they offer some predictions for how Gen Z will change the world.

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How Generation Z Will Change The World According To Experts | TIME

[charchic]

"Try not to be on your phone before bed"

*is watching this at 1 am in the morning

[embersatdusk]

The babies and toddlers on phones shown in this video aren't Gen Z, they're Gen Alpha

[ellahughes]

We are not depressed because of what we have done, but rather the world that has been given to us.

[miguelpoky]

As someone who was born in 1907 I think these damn kids are spending too much time on those damn typewriters

[obi-wankenobi]

Most of us (Gen Z) aren’t even graduated high school yet, I think we have to wait until we can truly understand this generation

Edit(2021): Damn I’m in college now

[monkeygal]

“We don’t fear failure” yah cause we’re all depressed and don’t care about dying 🤷🏻‍♀️

[gracegorg]

I wish people would stop saying technology is the reason we are depressed… because it more like we have access to news and current events. 12yr olds 30-40 years ago would normally be like a 5 or 6 year old today. Kids today know that the world they are going to have to work and raise that families in is a crappy dirty place. So it’s not technology that’s making us depressed it having access to knowing what we are going to have to live in.

Edit: thanks for the likes I am also a gen z

[beccak]

I'm currently in 8th grade, so I would like to inform some adults what goes on in a Gen Z's day to day life. I would like to inform you that we are not what we think.

In my school, I can't speak for others, the kids are pessimistic, tired, sad, and opinionated. "See Something, Say Something"(an initiative based on preventing violent acts and improving student mental health through student awareness of problems and learning to see signs of depression in and outside of school, mostly based on social media) is shoved down our throats, teaching us do something most of us refuse to do, not for our sake, but for others. Almost all of us know what it is like to be in a dark place, and we know that adults knowing that you don't want help from does nothing but hurt you. We are too sympathetic to do something before they try to handle it themselves, but no adult understands that, and rather sees mental illness as something that they could prevent by forcing the child to talk.
In my school, we talk about what a wreck the school system is. State testing gives us anxiety that we can't afford. We retain very little of what we learn, a result of being taught to learn for a test, and not to learn for ourselves. We find our interests outside of school and have intelligent disscussions about these interests with our friends. We pressure ourselves to succeed in school, even though we find most of it pointless, because if we don't do well our failure will be on the news, mocking us for being the "worst generation yet." In my favorite class, English, we have class political discussions and have Socratic Circles, a learning form borrowed from Socrates, in which we teach each other based on what we already in an organized and polite disscussion. That is the only class I have ever taken in which the teacher encouraged us to be free thinkers, further our learning by ourselves, and to pursue our interests. In fact, we once had a debate on whether Fantastic Beasts was racist or sexist because of an article that a student read. Our teacher assigned homework that night was to research the issue, form an educated response, and be ready to discuss it with the class the following day. Our generation believes that learning like that furthers us, and learning based on a test hinders us.
In my school kids consistently get an unheathly 4 to 8 hours of sleep. Studies show that this effects our ability to learn immensely, as well as our mental heath, and physical growth. Not only are we physically tired, we are mentally tired. Tired of having to break down walls adults have thrown up, tired of putting up walls around adults because we are scared of our beliefs getting out. We just want it to stop.
In my school, although we are depressed and sleep deprived and annoyed, we want to change the world. We have lofty goals and would do so much to accomplish them. I don't know what career I want, but I want to change the world. I want to make someone's life better, to put a smile on their face. I don't know what that is yet, but it might end up having something to do with the psychology field. I find it incredibly interesting. I know other kids do too, but none of us say anything, because when we do, people are concerned that we are depressed or need a therapist our self. Every kid I know has a passion for something. Every kid I know wants to change the world, to fix what the adults messed up.

So yeah, we're a wreck. But we also have our heads on straight. Social media is not just an escape, but a learning system. We don't know if there's hope, but we want to make our own. So maybe we're better than you thought, or maybe we're worse.
My friend gave me an interesting fact the other day: they used to put people on insane asylums based on stress levels. Based on tested fact and observation, almost all of our generation should be locked up by those standards. As a generation, we intend to change this, even if we lose everything in the process.

That is what Gen Z is like. Depressed, but determined. Thanks for reading.

[deirdrenorton]

This whole "iGen" thing really gets under my skin. First of all, I was born in 2001 and find that I have nothing in common in my childhood with those born anywhere near 2012, because I was already in middle school. Also, continuing to say that social media and phones wreck our generation is so confusing, because "Gen Z-ers" did not invent all of these things. We were raised with millennials and Gen X giving us technology and social media. If people over the age of 40 want to continue to say we are "ruined", they should consider WHO RUINED US IN THE FIRST PLACE. Children don't have access to advanced technology without being enabled by their parental figures. Every generation is a product by those that came before them. We are raised in a world that has been changed by people who lived prior. It's not like our generation is obsessed with technology because we wanted to be. Parents now give their kids iPads so they don't have to worry about them, as opposed to giving them creative outlets or encouraging them to advance their talents or finding new passions or simply playing outside! I myself was not raised like that - I played outside every single day and didn't have a phone until I started high school. We were not born with smart phones in our hands, we were enabled and encouraged the have the newest technology.

[dianacox]

Generation Z would change the world


Generation Z: Big Chungus

[sal]

I believe we can
we're depressed shits but we're all open minded and memes exist so there's still some hope

[kirani]

Generation Z is depressed because of phones? I'll tell you what- every time I open my phone I'm faced with article after article of how the environment is dying, how the older generations refuse to face reality and change policies, how we're doomed to inherit a broken planet and by the time those in power move on it'll be too late. I see the strife caused on my friends in other countries, able only to watch. Gee, it must be the phone's fault for connecting me to the realities of the world we live in.

[sammym.]

The thing I hate is that she said that phones cause gen z to be depressed. In my opinion the phone was the thing that made me the happiest. Hearing older people say they hate their office job makes me really sad for my future. The thing that makes me feel depressed is being stuck in a 9-5 job that I hate just to make a living, not my phone. My phone is a distraction from all the depressing things happening in the world. The phone isn't the problem

EDIT: I'm not saying that phones help EVERYONE, I'm just expressing how it has helped me and my opinion on the things stated in the video. The internet and the youtubers I watch have really helped me cope. Being suicidal, I've made lists of reasons to stay alive, and one of my reasons was the fact that if I kill myself, I will never be able to watch TMG, Shane Dawson, David Dobrik etc again. Yes, I'm aware that it's not the best thing to do as a way to cope and I should get therapy, but at the moment I can't access any form of therapy. Also I'm in no way saying I have depression, I should have used better language in my comment, but the future, desk job etc (what I stated before) makes me feel very hopeless and sad and the phone/internet helps me cope with those emotions.

[Mariofan]

Unfortunately you can't compare someone born from 1995 and someone born in 2012 and name them in the same generation. They are 2 completely different generations

[kingstonb]

I think everyone should apologize to Gen Z, we've created a world full of hate, we've thrown plastic into oceans and caused global warming to run rampant and now we leave this generation who is still full of kids and teenagers and even though we always told them to clean up after themselves, we're making them clean up the mess we've made the world.

[el._.]

“try not to be on their phone right before bed”

me watching this before i go to bed
👁👄👁

[joshuacroll]

the whole "never known a world without the internet" thing is kind of patronising. there's so much more more about this generation than technology and 'being connected' but that's always seems to be the first thing that's affiliated with gen z

[mild]

I wish we would stop immediately being characterized by electronics. We aren’t products. Everyone likes to blame social media for our depression, but it’s simply not true. If the world wasn’t such a hellhole, maybe we would be happier.

[Sid]

Every generation believes it is the chosen one.

[MLSoll]

We are all depressed and self-loathing but at least we are more open-minded