Why Gen Z Struggles to Handle Real Life

Job interview? Brought their mom. Work happy hour? Hard pass. Eye contact? Too much pressure. From ghosting jobs to mastering the art of awkward, Gen Z is redefining adulthood… for better or worse. Is it brain rot, helicopter parents, or just the TikTok effect? Find out on today's episode of The Infographics Show!

🔔 Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE! 🔔

SUGGEST A TOPIC:

🔖 MY SOCIAL PAGES

All videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise noted.

[TheInfographicsShow]

Before the pandemic, only 26% of Gen Z students preferred online learning, but by 2022, that number skyrocketed to 73%. Is remote learning making us more adaptable, or just more socially awkward?

[AsiniusNaso]

There’s also the loss of “third spaces” like clubs, community centers, even malls. Without spaces to socialize, how were they expect to learn skills and thrive?

[HoangNguyen-pgsd]

"26% of them have their parents brought to interviews",
Like where do you even get these, I've never seen anyone do that my whole life

[eateateat]

I looked it up — 18–26% of Gen Z had their parents drive them to job applications. The likely reason? They can’t afford a car. And public transport is likely not even an option to get there. No other generation has entered a job market with such intense demands for education, experience, and specialization — all while facing record-high living costs. Gen Z is also submitting more job applications than any generation before them — often in the hundreds — just to land a single interview. In fact, they’d have to work about 3 times more hours than someone in the 1980s just to afford the same standard of living. But sure, let’s ridicule them.

[epnx]

I was born in 2000, my parents were helicopter/authoritarian. I started working when I was 18 because my parents were over protective. In a way it’s bad because growing up in general they wouldn’t let me have friends over or socialize and made my life start late in a way. I’m 25 now, what I could have learned at an earlier age I learned later and it hindered me in a lot of ways but I’m progressing through it.

[JohnClough-mf]

It’s not that the jobs don’t pay well…. It’s that everybody wants 5 years experience for a minimum wage job

[simeondavis]

Heavy on the depression and anxiety. You get worried cause of not only your future but other peoples as well. And you get depressed everytime you see the world plunge deeper and deeper into the place you hoped it wouldn’t be.

[jordanbaltes]

I’m a millennial who was discouraged from paying attention to politics and world events growing up. So I didn’t. In my late twenties I said, ok, I’m an adult now, I need to know what’s going on in the world. And that journey really messed my head up for a couple of years. It changed my world outlook, I ruined some friendships, and generally became less pleasant to be around. And that’s how it all affected me as an ADULT! I can only imagine if I had politics and all the awful world events in my face 24/7 during my formative years. I feel for these GenZ kids.

[yanifrank]

gen z here (1999) yes we a lot of us do feel this hopelessness and depression. (actually very depressed in my room currently) but the silver platter analogy is so true. we see despair all around us, the economy is not good, finances are not good at all so a lot of "3rd places" we ever had are no longer there or are really struggling. jobs DO NOT pay enough for the cost of living as it keeps on rising but the pay is not. the world our parents and their parents lived in is no longer there and we were told to do the typical things such as go to college, save money etc, but it's all in vain. it's not a good feeling to feel especially as teenagers and young adults. Especially when the downward trend is so severe and keeps on going down.

[VexedVergil]

I 100% blame all our mental issues, anxiety, depression, lack of effort, motivation, communication skills on the internet. The internet while being a powerful tool, has morphed into a deadly weapon.

[rxanime]

I’m older gen Z. I remember somehow impressing my first interview just because I wore a suit, could small talk (thanks dad for forcing me to learn despite being very introverted) and didn’t bring a parent.

[Petrichor]

EIGHT friends?? I don't think I even know eight people...

[Aeromacro]

I’m a millennial, born in 1994 and I’ll tell you what I was an introvert. I was quite it school, not many friends wasn’t social but I just kept my head down and did my best. Learned welding in high school and then became an assistant welding instructor in college at 18. That was my first real like job receiving a check from place. That’s what made me break out of my shell. I wasn’t gonna be an instructor but the head instructor there encouraged me to do it cause of my skill at welding, I was afraid to talk to ppl but I adjusted . So being an instructor helped my social skills greatly. Now I’ve been teaching welding for 13 years and I have a full time job as a welding inspector. So sometimes just gettin thrown into a spot that you might not be comfortable in right off the bat will help you! You gotta be comfortable being uncomfortable.

[thisismarlonanthony]

I'm 24, born in 2000 and other generations love to bash Gen Z but don't understand that we have been dealing with economic issues, political issues, inflation, low paying jobs, the pandemic, post 9/11 etc. We grew up with the wake of social media that's what most of us know and where a lot of social anxiety stems from. We are tired of the traditional go to college, become in debt, then work all your life just to pay the debt and barely get by. Housing costs are high, health care is insanely high, jobs don't want to pay us enough, normal day to day food prices are high and we are all just trying to figure out what the f*ck to do with all this going on. We are trying. Some of us just hide and I completely understand that. Yes, other generations have gone through their own struggles as well but have some empathy and compassion for the last two decades of b.s we've been going through.

[ficialintelligence]

To be fair, Gen Z was the first generation of children who had "Active Shooter" drills in kindergarten. There are _reasons_ they grew up to be neurotic. And if the children weren't tracked into Advanced and AP courses, they could forget actually getting a useful college degree.

[derrickmarshall]

Question is... why would a parent even go to their grown kid's interview

[neilpa]

I never go to any work event as I don't really want to spend any more time with these people than I have to. I despise going to the office and so do a lot of others.

[zeb]

I'm 46 and I struggle with small talk. It does have an awkward impact on my daily interactions and I can feel it. Someone told me that I come off as always serious and to the point in business meetings. Not sure if that's a bad thing since I do believe in staying focused at work. Maybe I can do better but it does not feel natural to me.

[RogueLamp-eupp]

As a very lonely child throughout my school years, this situation really isn't new it's just becoming more transparent to the public.

[maemae]

I’m Gen Z and this video is totally on the money. The older generations set us up for failure and then they blame Gen Z for lacking those skills. Its like when they say “the younger generations can’t even write in cursive!” but like whose fault is that?? Gen Z arent the ones who decided to take it out of the curriculum! I missed out on so many developmental milestones because of ultra-paranoid parents. When I was 13 I wanted to go to the mall with my friends but my dad wouldn’t let me go unless he was able to follow us around so he could keep an eye on me. Then they wonder why we have no social skills? My boomer dad is always like “making friends and finding job is easy youre just not working hard enough” Like okay old man whatever you say