Why Our Generation is going to Save the World

Generation Z, colloquially known as Gen Z, includes people born between the mid to late 1990s and early 2010s. I was born in 2003 and, at the risk of sounding boastful, I genuinely believe that I’m part of the most important generation. We have grown up in a time when society went through greatly drastic transitions. We saw technology that had been used for years before our births go out of date and get replaced by inventions most people thought they would never see. We have experienced some of the most influential political events take place at an age where our minds are prone to be molded by everything that happens around us. We have lived through changes in trends in almost every field. When most of us were born, people were using flip phones, floppy disks, and camcorders, watching TVs shaped like boxes, and listening to music on cassettes. We saw the flip phone change into touch screen phones that know what you’re thinking even before you do and we saw cassettes turn to Walkmans, iPods, and finally into apps on the aforementioned phones.

Basically, the point I’m trying to make is that we’ve seen a lot of significant change. Now, this may be true for any generation, but the changes we have seen seem to be dictating the path to our collective futures and according to me, they’re going to be doing this for several of the years to come. However, the thing about this future that we are all so eager to make better, is that it isn’t looking very bright for us. It's amply clear that we are inheriting a broken world. The problems the world faces today were created, for the most part, by the generations that came before us. Climate change, unchecked industrialization, capitalistic evils, unqualified leaders, and the general atmosphere of bigotry and intolerance- these are all problems created by those who came before us. You would think that after being made aware of these issues, the people who caused them would make some kind of an effort to rectify their mistakes, right? Sadly, no. The reason is as simple as the fact that they are not going to be around long enough to see the truly horrific consequences of their actions. Do you know who is, in fact, going to be there when the world finally comes crumbling down? We are. Gen Z and everyone who comes after us. Among the generations that are alive today, we are the ones with the most incentive to make a very significant change in the way things are going. We have seen our planet as it was before climate change ruined it and we are seeing the ghastly reality that makes it clear that we have to do something because no one else will. Generation Alpha, our successors, came into an already crumbling world. The problems are all they know as they weren’t there to see the beauty of the planet before the smoke took over. They are too young to understand the problems that we face and are heavily shielded from the issues that plague our world. Generation X, our predecessors, are too old to worry about something that isn’t going to be their problem in a few years.

In the past few years, Gen Z has proven itself to be a force to be reckoned with. Being so well connected with each other, having access to nearly unlimited information and having been more exposed to today’s realities, Gen Z has involved itself in protests and strikes to fight for the causes they believe in and standing up against powerful governments while still being school children. On track to be the most educated generation, Gen Z has armed itself with a plethora of well-researched facts that back their opinions. Our political opinions, no matter what, are rooted in facts rather than in tradition. When Gen Z finds a cause that they genuinely believe in, they put in their heart and soul to unapologetically take a stand. Gen Z has never missed a chance to take to the streets to protest injustice. During the Black Lives Matter movement, we quite literally flooded social media with the purpose of this cause, making it our responsibility to share history and information and to help those attacked by tear gas and rubber bullets. Climate strikes have become a common occurrence thanks to Gen Z and while not everyone will agree with the nuances of it, it certainly begins the conversation. When the question of immigration laws is brought up in America, some very important inputs come from the immigrant youth, the demographic would be most affected by any changes made in this regard. During the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic in India, 16-18 year olds took to Twitter to organise, coordinate and share information about medical resources that saved many lives that would have otherwise been lost.

Because of the exposure we have, our generation has been raised to be more sensitive and tolerant. Even if it isn't learnt from family, it's learnt from peers. We are more understanding and perceptive of matters like mental health, gender identity, sexual orientations, crimes against women and minorities, racial sensitivity, cultural diversity and so on. We are often ridiculed by those older than us for being “too sensitive” but the fact of the matter is that we are going to create a world in which children will not have to go through emergency shooting drills at school, where women will not have to walk to their cars with their keys held in between their fingers, where people of colour will not be fetishized under the farce of acceptance and where teenagers will not be burdened by crippling debt before they even have the chance to earn a steady income.

Our generation understands the problems that are being faced and also understands that the conventional methods being used to tackle them are no longer effective. Backed by social media and online resources, we have established that if we take it upon ourselves to get out there and make our voices heard as a united front, people will have no choice but to hear us. The situation we see today is no doubt scary, but I believe the future is in safe hands.