SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews / 07 August) – One scroll through Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and other similar social media platforms reveals an empowered generation known as Generation Z or Gen Z. The Oxford Dictionaries define Generation Z as “the group of people who were born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s.” A generation that follows the millennials.
We know Gen Z for a reason, but first things first, no generation is perfect, right?
It is an indisputable fact that Generation Z has grown up with modern technology, smartphones, and the internet, which logically motivates ease and enables vicarious indulgence in various glorious things. In today’s technological era, Gen Z finds comfort in the digital world, abundant with information and prospects—this generation has much more going for them beyond mere phone dependency.
Generation Z, known by many labels as a generation “loss at constant vulnerability”, “emotionally sensitive”, “tech-savvy”, and “maraming daldal” (talkative), creatively imagines and forges connections, tailored to their responses to societal issues.
These empowered young people of Generation Z not only teach adults how to create social media accounts, change DPs (display pictures or profile pictures), download apps, and edit pictures, but at its core, their bright and promising generation has also grasped the profound impact of social media platforms. They use these platforms to spread causes they believe in like youth and women empowerment, galvanize revolutionary concepts crucial for driving change, and offer creative insights to the table.
Moreover, as Generation Z prepares to outnumber Millennials and become the largest demographic in the worldwide workforce in the coming years (with that, we hope for the best), grappling with the task of somehow describing this generation’s psyche to older generations amid their concerns about extravagance is both upright and, I suppose, somewhat provocative.
(Jhon Steven C. Espenido, 23, writes from Surigao City and is an AB English Language graduate from Surigao del Norte State University.)