This pandemic will test the resilience of Generation Z
Covid-19 is a defining moment for Generation Z — the young cohort born between 1996-2010. Today, Covid-19 is what 2008 economic crisis was for the Millennials or World War I was for the Lost Generation. Such historical events have shaped entire generations. Covid-19 pandemic changes everything for Gen Z.
It is a cataclysmic or the biggest change for Gen Z who grew up in peaceful countries. While young adults and children in some places have experienced shelter-in-place or curfew orders, Gen Z have largely never before experienced such a sudden change of circumstances.
Locked up at home for an indefinite period of time, they are beset by life altering uncertainties. Those studying overseas had to make critical decisions, whether to stay back in their university or return home. For some, the universities did not close before countries closed their borders. They are stuck in their dorms with the looming prospect of being evicted to make way for Covid-19 isolation wards. Some have already been asked to leave the campus.
The students about to graduate have no idea when that will happen. Those about to enter universities have no idea when that will happen. Those who got new jobs offers and internships are seeing them being rescinded. Those already employed are hit hard financially because they are generally part of the lowest income bracket. In the backdrop of surging Covid-19 human tragedies, the cancellation
of their rites of passage such as graduation ceremonies seem uneventful. The collective anxiety is unmistakable.
These young adults have been forced to move back with their parents, just as they were spreading their wings. The empty nests are buzzing again with the sound of streaming TV services and rap music. While parents are relieved to have them back, the older Gen Z have been uprooted to relive their worst nightmare, being locked up with their Boomer parents! Their sudden loss of personal choices is the elephant in the room — a déjà vu of their younger days.
But left to themselves, they know how to leverage digital technologies to make good use of their time. They are not just ‘chilling’ under quarantine or ‘salty’ about it. They are picking up new skills through online courses. Some are hosting live music sessions, while others are forming a band to record songs via web conferencing, in honour of health workers. They know how to use a Chrome browser extension to have a ‘Netflix party’. They are often playing the role of in-house tech support for their digitally challenged mums and dads. While larger uncertainties are looming, on a daily
basis they are relatively unfazed by the lockdown because they know how to use digital services to stay in touch or study. After all, they learnt how to swipe, tap, pinch, and slide before they learnt how to spell technology.
Yet for their schools and colleges, future has come sooner than was planned. Many institutions had planned to eventually embrace digital classes. Coronavirus rushed them into their own future adoption of distance learning technologies. While the digital native students have no problem logging into a web conference session, teachers are having to quickly get certified for e-Learning. They are learning the ropes on the fly.
It is not easy when they have been teaching and conducting tests in classrooms all along.
They need to be one step ahead of their digital native pupils who know how to disrupt their homework and online lessons. Students in some countries colluded to give e-Learning apps onestar rating so that their overall rating would go down. They were smart enough to know that if the app got a very low rating, it would be taken off the app store. Yet they too are learning new challenges of distance learning such as dealing with shaky
Internet connections, lack of quiet spaces, and mums who video bomb their online lessons with a glass of milk, much to their chagrin. They are still the lucky ones.
Underprivileged children are being ignored entirely during this extended period of lockdown. While the UAE Ministry of Education is organising laptops for students who don’t have one, in places like India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, students have to just wait for the lockdown to be lifted. Many depend on mid-day meals in schools for sustenance. No one knows how long their wait is going to be as they face the risk of falling behind their privileged peers.
During this protracted Covid-19 pandemic, how Gen Z approaches tech will have a knock-on effect on technology evolution. Distance learning will become part of school and college curricula. Gen Z will make self-learning and remote working mainstream. Many new technologies and devices will sprout around their routine practice of social distancing during a seasonal flu outbreak.
The year 2020 will shape their character, and for many, the course of their lives. With age on their side, they are likely to be the first cohort to be released from lockdown. Decades later, they will tell stories to their grandchildren about where they were when Covid-19 struck. Their stories will be full of human loss, suffering, caring, resilience, improvisation, and adjustment.
Gen Z will make self-learning and remote working mainstream. Many new technologies and devices will sprout around their routine practice of social distancing during a seasonal flu outbreak.