Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I have something pretty interesting I've been thinking about for the past year or so. My cousin (who is male and the same age as me, also the same one who told me I looked like death in the chapter about things that happened on campus) and I actually had a conversation about this at like 2am while in his dorm before Covid struck in February 2020, and tbh I've been thinking about it ever since.
So. I, as well as the majority of people on here, am a part of Gen Z. For those of you who aren't aware, Gen Z starts with people born in 1995 and allegedly ends with kids born in the early 2010s. Personally, I think this is way too long for a single generation, and you'll see why as I move along.
What defines a generation? Most often, people look for common life experiences, which is pretty hard to do when a group of people is so young. For Millennials, the biggest definitions are: being old enough to remember the events of the attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon on September 11, 2001 and, for Americans, entering the workforce and/or starting college/graduating high school as the economy crashed in 2008. I'm not sure what the defining characteristics are for each individual country, but since September 11th changed the entire world and air travel itself, that may be why it's such a broad event.
Like Gen X, Gen Z doesn't have a separate nickname as Baby Boomers or Millennials do. There was a debate about calling them the "iGeneration," which I think is stupid for a number of reasons.
Let's try to organize my thoughts. First, why do I think the early 2010s are way too late to end what is considered "Gen Z"? Here's why: I may not have siblings, but my aunt has 8 kids and I spent literally every single day (except weekends) at her house during the summer and after school as my parents worked. All 8 kids are older than me, with the youngest being 2 years older than me. Because of this, I nearly spent more time with people older than me than with people younger than me, and I believe it's safe to say that early 2000s kids and late 90s kids have way more in common than early 2010s kids.
Even kids born in 2010 would only be turning 11 by now. Compared to someone who is 24 right now, that is a huge age gap. Experiences are completely different, as are world views. If it were up to me, I would personally make Gen Z last exactly a decade: 1995 to 2005. Why? 1) it's easy to define, and 2) looking at the advances in technology, people born in 2005 would still have memories of not having their lives consumed by smartphones, tablets, and the like. I used the release of the iPhone in 2009 as a comparison.
For example, when I was younger, my dream phone looked like this:
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
