Generation We

Lead Look at Emma Gonzalez. She stands silently behind a podium at the foot of the U.S. Capitol. Hundreds of thousands of eyes gaze upon her, this 18-year-old with the close-cropped buzz cut, green bomber jacket, and brown choker necklace. Hundreds of thousands more watch her on their smartphones, tablets, or whatever other screened device is nearby.

She is a part of a generation of youth accused of being antisocial, coddled, and narcissistic.

Narration A minute of silence passes. Then another. Tears begin to stream down her face, but she remains still, her wet eyes glistening with determination. Four more minutes tick by until she finally breaks her silence. She tells the audience six minutes and twenty seconds have expired—the same amount of time it took a gunman to shoot and kill 17 of her classmates at Marjory Douglas High School in Florida just weeks earlier.

“Fight for your lives,” she implores the mostly young audience, “before it’s someone else’s job.”

On the surface, Emma is nothing like other young people today. As a survivor of a mass shooting, she’s experienced more trauma than most of us can even begin to imagine. As a leading national activist for stricter gun laws, she has received more notoriety (and scrutiny) than most of us would know how to handle.

Transition to Argument Take a closer look, though, and you’ll see that Emma not only embodies our generation but also is a stark rebuke to those who insist we are self-absorbed and disconnected from the realities of the world.

Argument Generational outrage is a tale as old as time, with each successive older generation predisposed to panic about the younger ones. In the 4th century B.C.E., Plato chastised young people because “They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.” In 1925, an editorial in England said, “We defy anyone who goes about with his eyes open to deny that there is, as never before, an attitude on the part of young folk which is best described as grossly thoughtless, rude, and utterly selfish.” Those same youth would later become part of the Greatest Generation for their sacrifice during World War II. Baby boomers of the 1960s and 70s were accused of being “pampered” and delaying adulthood. Gen Xers from the 90s were told they were “the first generation in American history to live so well and complain so bitterly about it” (Ruggeri). Our predecessors, the Millennials, got tagged as the worst of all. They somehow encapsulated all the criticisms of prior generations plus the ignominy of liking avocado toast and being too attached to technology.

Now it’s our turn to be told to get off the proverbial lawn. Emma and the rest of us go by a number of names—Generation Z, iGen, or Post-Millennials. Whatever you want to call us, we are the newest generation inducing panic. We are said to be self-centered and detached from reality, more capable of choosing the right emoji than the right facial expression. We are unhappy and unfocused. We’re obsessed with our phones and our social image while being disengaged from our community and politics. We, like our predecessors, are said to be utterly unprepared for adulthood. All these characterizations are either misleading or false. Position Statement In truth, our generation is primed to make the world a better place, just like Emma.

Reasons One reason is that we intuitively understand the transformative capabilities of technology. People see us treating our phones as a fifth appendage and think we’re disengaged from the world. But just because we’re looking at our phones doesn’t mean we’re tuned out. Actually, the opposite is true. Technology allows us to engage beyond our immediate surroundings. That young person looking at his phone while walking could be carrying on three or four different conversations while also reading about a development in eSports and listening to an episode of Radiolab. Narrative-Argument Connection Someone like Emma Gonzalez could be firing off a Tweet that reaches 1.5 million people. Obviously, not many of us have such an expansive social reach, but we understand and utilize viral communication just as she does, and not just within our immediate circles. We know that a compelling social video or hashtag can spur a movement, just like #NeverAgain did for Gonzalez. To people outside our generation this all might seem strange and disconcerting, kind of like what generations who grew up with horses and buggies must have felt when cars became an everyday form of transportation. But to us, it’s perfectly normal. We’ve never known a world without the Internet.

Response to Objections Besides our propensity to use Apple products, we’re called the “iGen” because we think a lot about ourselves—too much, according to many people. We use Instagram and Snapchat to post pictures of our faces and the things we are doing, so we are supposedly more narcissistic than previous generations. It’s true that we prize individualism and desire a future tailored to our interests, but is that such a bad thing? Studies conclude we are more entrepreneurial than previous generations (Lipman). If jobs don’t exist that fit our interests, we’ll create them ourselves. Also, our respect for individuality extends beyond ourselves. We are highly tolerant of diverse races, religions, and orientations. Seventy-two percent of Gen Z respondents to a recent survey identified racial equality as the most important social issue of today (Meehan). Part of that comes from being the most multicultural generation in American history. Take Emma Gonzalez. Being the daughter of a first generation Cuban immigrant makes her representative of many of us. As Jose Villa writes, “Gen Z will be the first generation that will not be defined by one culture, but many” (“Multiracial Gen Z”). So what does this mean for the future? Our tolerance, cultural connectivity, and entrepreneurial spirit position our generation to confront and resolve global problems.

Despite our perceived narcissism, altruism is in our DNA. In her book The Voice of Gen Z, Grace Masback argues that we developed a sense of community consciousness from growing up during the Great Recession and its recovery. As a result, our sense of “community” is much more expansive than the street or city where we live. Sixty percent of us want to have an impact on the world, and many of us aren’t waiting until “adulthood” (Scott). Emma delayed her college plans to continue her fight against gun violence. Jack Andraka left school at 15 to work on a new test to detect pancreatic cancer. Mary Grace Henry was 12 when she launched a social business to empower more Ugandan women to receive education. At 14, Virginian teen Sejal Makheja founded the Elevator Project to provide job training for people in poverty. Those who doubt our altruistic intentions point out our low interest in traditional volunteerism, citing that just 26 percent of 16–19 year olds volunteer on a regular basis (“Volunteering”). Though that volunteer rate is slightly less than the rate among older generations, we make our real philanthropic impact through social, mobile, and interactive causes—whether participating in the Ice Bucket challenge for ALS or “checking in” at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation on Facebook to raise awareness and support for protestors. Web activism is our soup kitchen.

But surely the supposed shortcomings of Generation Z would limit our effectiveness as agents of change. First, there’s our short attention span and lack of focus. One oft-cited statistic suggests we can hold attention for only 8 seconds, less time than a goldfish. That number has proven to be a myth (Ceros). It’s not that we cannot pay attention, but rather that we choose not to when topics don’t interest us. When we are interested, we can binge watch whole seasons in one sitting and spend hours down Google Search rabbit holes. Also, our brains are trained to process information from multiple sources, which is why we multitask. Emma admits, “I’m so indecisive that I can’t pick a favorite color. I draw, paint, sew, embroider—anything productive I can do with my hands while watching Netflix” (Gonzalez). We’re also allegedly devoid of face-to-face interpersonal skills. Sure, we are adept at communicating digitally, but that doesn’t mean we don’t value in-person communication. A recent survey found 72 percent of us entering the workplace desire face-to-face communication with colleagues (Jenkins). And statistically, millennials and Gen Xers prefer text conversations more than we do. In actuality, we prefer the best of both worlds: It’s why we love FaceTime. And what about our delayed adulthood? Well, society’s been trending in that direction for some time now. And while we’re delaying traditional adulthood, we’re also avoiding some of its harmful temptations, such as drug and alcohol abuse.

Final Narrative-Argument Connection So to the generations before us, back away from the panic button. Generation Z is by no means perfect—our depression levels, for example, are a real concern—but we’re in a better position than any generation to tackle the problems of today and tomorrow. In fact, we're not going to wait around any longer. Just listen to Emma Gonzalez: “I’ve never felt so weighed down by the stuff we have to do. But it’s a good weight, because I know if it wasn’t us, it would never get done.”