The New York Times once said that every generation gets the beach villain it deserves; no one knows what this means and I already used my four free articles to read about koalas so I won’t be finding out any time soon. But what if that’s absolute horse shit? What if the reality is that every generation actually gets the content it deserves?
To that end, I thought we should check in on the Zoomers to see how they’re doing… And folks, the kids are not alright.
It would be easy to extrapolate too much from a few posts, but everything from the data to the teens’ reaction to war with Iran paints the same bleak picture of a jaded Gen Z coming of age with a mix of hopelessness and righteous indignation.
And honestly, who can blame them? For as long as most Zoomers have been alive we’ve been at war overseas and ignoring the climate crisis at home. Think about the toll that never having known peacetime takes on a generation’s psyche, then compound that with a lifetime’s worth of existential dread over the looming environmental catastrophe
Then add in the fact that for the majority of Gen Z’s life we’ve lived in the shadow of the Great Recession, an omnipresent reminder of just how tentative the entire economic world order is. As they now reach college age, Zoomers are quickly discovering that the costs to enter that cherished world order are even steeper than imagined—and growing quickly.
So yeah, they get to be pissed. Shit’s fucked, etc. But their anger isn’t directed at the government specifically like the Boomer rage of the ‘60s, or at individual industries like the Millenial anger post-Recession. From Greta Thunberg’s famous “how dare you” to the rising support for dismantling capitalism as an entity to “ok boomer” as a whole, the Zoomers are targeting their ire at pretty much everyone who failed to stop the multiple unfolding catastrophes that have defined their worldview.
Including you. Actually, mainly you.
No, according to our cutting-edge MailChimp analytics, you’re probably not a Boomer. But don’t think your age will protect you from their wrath. Because while you probably think that Millenials and Gen Z are on the same page, the relationship is probably something closer to this. And once Gen Z realizes that Millenials not only failed to fix everything, but barely even tried, they’re going to come for us.
Left on Read 