Help Me Understand Generation Z!

[delb0y]

Just trying to figure out what drives them... I guess growing up in a world where every bit of knowledge from all of history is available on their phone means they don't have to worry or work at learning or knowing anything...but I'm struggling to understand the ones in my household. There's no indication of any interest in careers or pensions or buying a house ("the government will look after us" was a phrase used when I dared suggest that they might want to consider what to do when they retire and have no pension - there even seems to be assumption that if it's not the government then something will turn up. "The cavalry ain't coming", isn't a phrase that crosses their mind).and they don't want to work at menial jobs or volunteer (to get something on their CV to help get a job - another dared suggestion of mine shot down in flames). From what I can gather they want to travel and have amazing jobs such as saving monkeys in Indonesia or elephants in Africa and anything less is not on the agenda. They don't read books or care about history or read the daily papers or even watch the news. They don't appear to worry that the world is smaller than ever before and thus they need to be able to compete with folks worldwide for every job. They appear to believe cheap travel will last for ever and plan to take huge advantage of it. In fact they don't seem worried about anything. I'm kind of jealous. It's a nice way to be. Maybe it's just my lot...but their lives and expectations and assumptions seem so far removed from anything that I aspired to, believed in, or worried about that I'm struggling to offer any advice as they look for proper jobs and ponder on their futures.

Am I being an old out-of-touch curmudgeon? I know that a lot has happened since I was twenty (I mean we never even had computers or mouses or Windows and it took 28 days to order a Rory Gallagher album by mail order!) but I can't be this far off the pace, surely?

If there are any Generation Z-ers here please help!

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I blame the parents.

 

[TVC]

Yes, but they are 8 and 10 years old.

 

[400bhp]

Sounds like they are relying on their parents to bail them out to me.

 

[Kestevan]

Sounds like they are relying on their parents to bail them out to me.

Bollocks to that..... I'm relying on the kids to bale me out, when I've squandered all their inheritance on new bikes, holidays and booze

 

[MarkF]

My eldest son is coming up to 20, never been to a nightclub, never read a newspaper, showed zero inclination to drive, never been abroad on his own. Just goes to college or stays in bed, it's incredible, he and his close friends have a massive virtual world but a really small r.e.a.l world. I'd ridden a moped to the south of France at 16, adult life opened up with transportation, it's very difficult for today's kids to get mobile, they stay kids longer. I've no idea what he'll do, he's training to be a dancer but has spent all his fees on "body art".

His 15 year old brother is the opposite, knows exactly what he wants to do and is working towards it, he reads a paper every day and has a much bigger world than his older brother, it's all a mystery to me.

 

[jhawk]

Hi there.

I'm of the generation of Mark's older son... I'm 19 and will be 20 in June and so I'm not of the generation mentioned in the OP's post, but I see the exact same thing mentioned in the Generation Z's around me.

I myself had the biggest wake-up call EVER when I left school and had (and am having) a difficult time finding a job. Real life slapped me in the face, but I'm going to travel this year. "The Government will look after us." If they read the paper, watched the news, they'd know that the government can't look after itself, never mind looking after them.

Travel isn't getting any cheaper either - looking at flights to England at the moment. $689, and, "That'll be an extra thousand please." "I'm sorry?" "Yes, 'airline math' requires that we add a whole bunch of fees on top of our advertising price." And the cost of flights is only going up as the price of everything in the World around them increases. Oil, etc, to run aircraft, etc.

In my opinion - there is nothing wrong with taking your time to find yourself and your place in the World, but don't take too long.

 

[Smurfy]

Help Me Understand Generation Z!

It's quite simple really. The media they've been exposed to makes them think they deserve a career as a Z-list sleb without really doing much more than falling out of bed once or twice a week and grunting their way through a televised appearance, anything else would feel menial and hard work by comparison.

 

[Smurfy]

They don't appear to worry that the world is smaller than ever before and thus they need to be able to compete with folks worldwide for every job.

My last response was rather tongue-in-cheek, however, what you've mentioned here is a genuine issue for young people trying to break into the UK labour market at a fair rate of pay (and by fair I mean a rate that means they can afford a place of their own, rather than living with their parents until they're 45).

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I have a 25 year old son, who for a long time was like the OP's children, he's very practical but not hugely academically bright well according to the middle class teachers he wouldn't listen to at school. He's eventually come around & now works hard but is getting no where on minimum wage, can't afford his own place or even combined with his girlfriend. No idea if he will ever move out as I can't see anyway he can, I can't help him, it's all I can do to keep my head above the water. Only advice I can give to the OP is give them time & don't push too hard, family is for life & don't push them away.

Alan...

 

[vernon]

Bollocks to that..... I'm relying on the kids to bale me out, when I've squandered all their inheritance on new bikes, holidays and booze

You're as delusional as the kids in the OP's post.

You'd need to raise a football team if they are going to be able to afford to keep you in the comfort that you are accustomed to once they've shelled out for essentials from their barely adequate incomes despite having degrees and apprenticeships behind them.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Don't advise them.. life is not that kind, give them choices.

1) if your not in full time education get a job, any job or find somewhere else to live
2) Give me 15% of your earnings for your keep or find somewhere else to live
3) There is no such thing as a menial job, these things have to get done - if you can use the toilet you can clean it when required.
4) Just because you pay towards the household does not mean you are a guest, you must help do the chores.

Perhaps Generation X do not have to make any choices as they are made for them.

 

[MarkF]

1) if your not in full time education get a job, any job or find somewhere else to live
2) Give me 15% of your earnings for your keep or find somewhere else to live
3) There is no such thing as a menial job, these things have to get done - if you can use the toilet you can clean it when required.
4) Just because you pay towards the household does not mean you are a guest, you must help do the chores.

1. He's our son, we can't/won't put him on the street.
2. He refuses to contribute anything on the rare occasions he has part time work.
3/4. He point blank refuses to help or contribute in any way, just takes, I don't like him anymore.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Don't advise them.. life is not that kind, give them choices.

1) if your not in full time education get a job, any job or find somewhere else to live
2) Give me 15% of your earnings for your keep or find somewhere else to live
3) There is no such thing as a menial job, these things have to get done - if you can use the toilet you can clean it when required.
4) Just because you pay towards the household does not mean you are a guest, you must help do the chores.

Perhaps Generation X do not have to make any choices as they are made for them.

My parents charged me rent when I was on the dole! In the end I was better off claiming housing benefit and getting a house with friends. In a lot of ways the early-nineties ended for me that year (1996). As a household we had a weekly food budget of £15. Thank goodness value brands had made a comeback.

Point is, er... I forgot.

 

[byegad]

I'm old enough to have children too old to be Generation Z. I am too young for WWII to have more than a marginal impact on my young life. Born well after the war I do remember some things being on Ration but then I do have a good memory of my very early life.

I feel desperately sorry for the young people of today, including my three Grandchildren. I left education at 21 and could have left education at any time from 15 onwards. I would have been able to find a job at any time, and not just one job but a choice of jobs would have been open to me, some with real career prospects no doubt. I spent 25 years in my first job and when ill health meant I had to change career I had a pick of jobs, the one I took lasted nearly 8 years before my mother's failing health made me change, again I had a pick of four jobs offered to me after interviews. While I didn't stay in that job long, 18 months or so, I left to take very early retirement, just in time to release my pensions before the rules to changed reducing their values. .

While we are not rich, we are not poor either and run two small cars and have 'expensive' hobbies, holidays and some money invested and in the bank for rainy days.

My Grandchildren face a future where resources are expensive, economies are global allowing employers to cherry pick the cheapest labour markets for their needs and the climate is changing with the resultant uncertainties of food production. Will they manage? Well humans have faced worse and survived so I'm sure they are not all going to go under, after all people have an immense capacity to live with change, it's what ensured that our species has spread all over the Earth from its start in Africa and exploited environments from the extremes on Earth to short visits to Space, the bottom of the deepest oceans.

Will they succeed in having a life like mine? I certainly hope so, but somehow think it will be a lot tougher than mine. For which my generation should humbly apologise.