Generation Z

I’m Generation X, but I was spending too long at work to have kids early enough for them to be Millennials. My kids, however, belong to Generation Z.

Generation Z were born after the turn of the century. They’re post-9/11. They’ll inherit debt from the financial crisis. They’ll face global warming, and the transition from diminishing fossil fuels to something sustainable. They also face the problems that a growing and increasingly mobile global population will bring them.

More so than for the Millennials, there’s the potential for a much more uncertain future for Generation Z. There’s the possibility of a huge income gap in society to provide for its growing population. They may never belong to the reasonably well-off shrinking middle class like some of their parents did.

Owning their own property may be a dream unless the Bank of Mum and Dad can stump up the cash. But their parents are more likely to be Generation Xers who are without the financial collateral and stability the Baby Boomers had before them.

Generation Z has been brought up with a smartphone in their hand. They are well and truly connected. They spend hours a day online. Where the generations before were connected to work via their phones, now Generation Z is connected to their peers and popular culture instead.

Ask your kids what they want to be when they grow up. They want to be bloggers. They want to be connected to others. They want to be on their mobiles and mobile too. But this also brings a true dependence on being connected, more so than any other generation. When the internet goes down, they do too.

This generation has a dependence on connection and a need to create a virtual online persona. There’s less time spent in the real world gaining the soft skills that are still needed when they’re unplugged. Like a toddler attempting to turn the pages of a real book by swiping it as if it was a touchscreen, Generation Z may be more unprepared for the world around them than all the generations before.

Being ever-visible to the eyes of their peers due to social media has given rise to cyberbullying, which is a difficult concept to understand for generations before. The social currency for the iGeneration is in terms of likes and followers. They rate their popularity in the number of views and likes they get when they post a snapshot of their life.

With all of these false, superficial relationships with many, there’s a worry that few real relationships develop. The number of likes is not the same as being liked and really liking someone.

They may be facing a world where global mobility has created a global labor force that’s taking many of the low-paid jobs, dragging the average wage down with it. They’ll grow up as part of the gig economy. They’ll have zero-hour contracts and may be looking forward to none of the security that comes with regular work.

With technology comes the ability to work whenever you want, wherever you want, and for as long as you want. This sounds great if it’s what you want to do. But it’s also restricting if it’s also the only thing you can do. Just try and get a mortgage without a regular job, and you’ll understand why.

There’s winners and losers in every generation. But there seems to be more anxiety out there with the younger generations. There’s uncertainty for the Millennials, and there’s even less stability in the workplace now for Generation Z. This has also given rise to a new class of people from all generations called the Precariat, which we’ll look at next.

Let me tell you what Generation Z actually looks like.

There’s the 17-year-old who comes into my surgery with her mother. She’s not slept properly in weeks. She’s anxious, depressed, self-harming. When I ask what’s wrong, it’s hard to pin down. School pressure. Social media stress. Climate anxiety. The feeling that the world is burning and nobody’s doing anything about it.

She’s never known a time without smartphones. She’s never experienced privacy. Every mistake, every embarrassment, every awkward phase is documented online forever. She can’t escape. Can’t start fresh. Can’t reinvent herself the way previous generations could.

This isn’t therapy. If you’re dealing with clinical depression, severe anxiety, self-harm or trauma, please see a professional. I say this as a doctor, not as a disclaimer.

There’s the 18-year-old who’s just finished his A-levels. He’s got decent grades, but he’s not going to university. Can’t afford the debt. Can’t see the point when graduates are working in coffee shops anyway. He’s doing gig work instead. Deliveroo. Uber Eats. Whatever pays. No security. No prospects. No plan beyond surviving this month.

There’s the 20-year-old who’s an absolute genius at social media. Thousands of followers. Brilliant content. But she can’t monetize it. Can’t turn it into a career. Can’t explain to her parents that “influencer” is a real job. So she’s working retail part-time and wondering why her digital skills aren’t valued by the traditional job market.

This is Generation Z. Born into a world that’s already broken. Inheriting problems they didn’t create. Expected to fix a mess made by everyone who came before them.

You’re the first generation born into a world with the internet. Not the first to use it. The first to never know life without it. This fundamentally changes everything about how you experience the world.

Previous generations had a clear boundary between online and offline. Public and private. Real life and digital life. You don’t. For you, there’s no distinction. Your digital life IS your real life. Your online relationships are real relationships. Your virtual identity is a big part of your real identity.

Older generations don’t understand this. They tell you to “get off your phone” and “go outside” and “talk to real people.” But your phone is how you talk to real people. Your phone is your connection to the outside world. Your phone is your lifeline to community, support, and social connection.

You’re not addicted to technology. You’re dependent on it. Because the infrastructure of your social life, your education, your work, and your future all runs through digital channels. Unplugging isn’t an option. It’s social and economic suicide.

Generation Z is the most diverse, most educated, most socially conscious generation in history. You care about climate change, social justice, mental health, and representation. You see through performative activism faster than any generation before. You demand authenticity, transparency, and accountability from institutions that have never provided any of those things.

You’re growing up in a world where truth is contested, fake news rules, facts are debatable, and reality itself seems negotiable. You’ve watched adults destroy institutions, deny science, and prioritize profit over planet. You’ve seen the social contract torn up. The rules changed mid-game. The goalposts moved so far they’re in a different stadium.

And you’re expected to just accept it. To play by rules that were designed to screw you. To compete in a system rigged against you. To inherit a burning planet and fix it while somehow also paying rent, student loans, and saving for retirement that you’ll never be able to afford anyway.

No wonder you’re anxious.

But here’s what older generations miss about Generation Z. You’re also the most pragmatic, most resilient, most adaptive generation we’ve seen. You’ve had to be. You’ve never known security. You’ve never experienced stability. You’ve grown up in permanent crisis mode.

Financial crisis. Climate crisis. Pandemic. Political polarization. The slow-motion collapse of democracy. You’ve lived through more upheaval by age 20 than most generations experience in a lifetime. And somehow, you’re still here. Still functioning. Still trying.

You’re redefining work before you’ve even entered the workforce. You’re building communities in digital spaces that feel more real than geographic ones. You’re creating new forms of activism, new business models, new ways of organizing society. Not because you want to be revolutionary. Because you have to be. The old ways don’t work for you.

Generation Z doesn’t remember 9/11. You don’t remember life before smartphones. You don’t remember when privacy was normal, when facts were agreed upon, when the future seemed manageable. You’ve only ever known chaos, uncertainty, and crisis.

This shapes everything about how you see the world. You don’t trust institutions because institutions have never been trustworthy in your lifetime. You don’t believe in long-term planning because the future is fundamentally unpredictable. You don’t invest in traditional markers of success because those markers are either unattainable or meaningless.

You’re a generation that might genuinely be worse off than your parents AND your grandparents. Not just economically, though that’s certainly true. But also in terms of mental health, physical health, environmental conditions, political stability, and social cohesion.

You’re inheriting a world that’s objectively more difficult to navigate than any generation before. And somehow, you’re also being called lazy, entitled, and sensitive for struggling with it.

The mental health strain among Gen Z isn’t weakness. Some of it is a rational response to genuinely difficult circumstances — the climate, vanishing economic opportunity, an uncertain future. Some of it, researchers increasingly think, is also tangled up with how much of adolescence now happens on a screen; that link is real but still contested, and it’s one reason this is worth talking to someone about rather than working out alone.

Previous generations could plan. Could save. Could work toward defined goals with reasonable expectation of achieving them. You can’t, not in the same way. The rules change too fast. The goalposts move too often. The crises come too frequently.

So you’ve adapted. You’ve learned to be flexible, resilient, opportunistic. You’ve learned to build communities quickly and abandon them when necessary. You’ve learned to monetize whatever skills you have, however you can. You’ve learned to survive in conditions that would break previous generations.

But survival isn’t thriving. And that’s what older generations don’t understand. You’re not failing to launch. You’re adapting to a world where the traditional launch pad doesn’t exist anymore.

You’re the generation that will decide whether humanity survives climate change. Whether democracy survives authoritarianism. Whether capitalism survives its own contradictions. No pressure.

The problems you’re inheriting are bigger than any individual. Bigger than any generation. They’re systemic, structural, existential. And you’re expected to fix them while also figuring out how to pay rent.

But here’s the thing about Generation Z. You’re not waiting for permission. You’re not asking nicely. You’re not accepting that “this is just how things are.” You’re demanding change. Creating change. Forcing change.

You’re the generation of Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai. The generation demanding climate action. Gun control. Racial justice. Economic reform. You’re not asking adults to fix things. You’re doing it yourselves.

You organize faster than any generation before. You mobilize globally in hours. You hold corporations and governments accountable in ways previous generations never could. You use technology not just to consume, but to create, organize, and agitate.

You’re not waiting for the world to get better. You’re making it better. Despite inheriting catastrophic problems. Despite facing overwhelming odds. Despite having fewer resources than any generation before.

So what does this mean for you? If you’re Generation Z, understand that your struggles are not personal failures. You’re navigating genuine existential pressures while also trying to figure out who you are. Your anxiety is reasonable. Your stress is justified. Your anger is righteous. And if it’s tipping over into something heavier than stress — the kind of low that doesn’t lift, or thoughts of harming yourself — that’s a reason to talk to your GP or a service like Shout, not a reason to push through alone.

If you’re from another generation, understand that Generation Z isn’t weak or oversensitive. They’re responding appropriately to genuinely threatening circumstances. They’re not addicted to their phones. They’re using the tools available to them to survive in a world you made more difficult.

Generation Z is reshaping everything. Not by choice. By necessity. The old ways don’t work. The old institutions can’t be trusted. The old rules don’t apply.

So Gen Z is writing new rules. Building new institutions. Creating new ways of existing in a world that seems determined to destroy itself.

Understanding Generation Z means understanding adaptation under impossible pressure. Innovation in the face of existential threat. Resilience despite overwhelming odds.

You’re the generation that might save us all. Or the generation that watches it all burn. Either way, you didn’t create this mess. But you’re stuck cleaning it up.

The question isn’t whether you’re prepared for the world you’re inheriting. The question is whether the world is prepared for what you’re going to do with it.

Based on everything I’ve seen, I’d say the world better watch out. Generation Z is done asking permission. Done waiting for adults to fix things. Done accepting that this is just how things have to be.

You’re building something new. Something different. Something that might actually work. Not because you’re optimistic about the future. But because you understand there isn’t any other choice.

And that might be exactly what the world needs right now.

Further reading

The Certainty of Uncertainty

How Far You’ve Actually Come

Stress Influence Tendency

Generation Alpha

Your Relationship with Fear

The Precariat

Further reading

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