Trivial to us but not to Gen Z

The furore over the word ‘‘trivial’’ in an NCEA history exam was a small illustration of a big generational divide. The Qualifications Authority (NZQA) last week agreed not to penalise petitioning students who claimed it was unfair to use the word ‘‘trivial’’ in a question as they didn’t know what it meant.

We older generations laughed, but it shows that, though we live side by side, our realities are enormously different. And for anyone trying to influence this generation, that’s far from trivial.

These Generation Zs displayed attitude. My generation would have taken it lying down, but these students used digital savvy to whip up a 2000-signature petition, send it to NZQA, stir up media coverage and receive a response, all within days. Take that, bureaucracy – I like the way you move, Gen Z.

Born between 1995 and 2015, Gen Zs will make up 40 per cent of the world’s population by 2020 and have a very different modus operandi – as I’ve just experienced first-hand on holiday with one.

Remember heady holidays using paper maps, pay-phones and paper tickets and itineraries? Even to me, a Generation X, that’s quaint and retro now as I’m guided by my GPS, using my phone to book Airbnbs and Ubers. But I’m a nana compared with my Gen Z travelling companion, who can’t comprehend how I once lived without the internet.

Arriving in a new city, she suggests we download an app and do audio walking tours. I gaze nostalgically at a passing double-decker bus.

She plays her phone like a concert pianist, appearing smarter and more effective. In contrast, I feel stupid and incompetent.

I’m grateful to be out-of-touch from home, but her phone is her social hub; she keeps up with who’s doing what with who.

Gen Z habitually charges her phone. It’s like a security blanket, a habit; she wakes up to it first and closes her eyes to it last.

I get news from websites; Gen Z’s views are reinforced by news feeds. She’s more up-to-date simply because of her phone agility. She registers horror when I get directions from a stranger, slumping over her device in shame. Gen Zs research their way out of predicaments.

She steers me away from high-churn clothing stores and shares a Google doc of thrift stores. Gen Z worries about what mass production does to the environment. I’m sneered at for my coffee in a disposable cup. I purchase a ‘‘Glass-is-Greener’’ water bottle for fear of another withering look. She talks about being vegetarian to save the planet. I talk of giving up meat to save my waistline.

We could consider the drama over the word ‘‘trivial’’ as entitled and naive. But Gen Zs are not naive; they’re more connected and considered than any generation before them.

Yes, they’ve been cruelly accused of having a shorter attention span than a goldfish, but in truth they have fast-paced, highly selective and decisive filters. It’s hard to engage them, but once they find something they deem ‘‘worthy’’ they’re motivated, engaged and can be your greatest advocate or issues warrior.

Gen Zs are smart and independent, they are the generation that cares most about the environment and are often already engaged in the community.

Marketing to them, employing them or influencing them at all will require appealing to a very different set of values to their millennial elders.

The ‘‘trivial’’ debate seemed trivial to us, but to Gen Zs it was worthy enough to fight for justice. With that sort of drive, there is hope they can make change that’s far less trivial – just don’t ask them what the word means.