Gen Z has an internet problem
We are not necessarily finding novel solutions, just copying answers.
According to some circles of baby boomers, urban legend says millennials are a bunch of goodfor-nothing, spoiled lowlifes who spend all their money on avocado toast and do nothing practical with their lives.
For some, millennials are a monolith, an annoyingly conceited group who think they know everything about everything and have an inflated sense of self-worth. Those who believe the modern lore might say it is because millennials were raised by late Gen Xers and other baby boomers under the improper philosophy of “everyone gets a trophy,” deserved or not.
By proxy, it wouldn’t be too far off to assert that the typical American Gen Zer manifests many of the same qualities. I generally don’t think any of this reputation is deserved. It’s typical that older generations disagree with what youth do, are concerned with the moral direction of the future, then make assumptions or grumble about it. Often, members of Generation Z dismiss the complaints as old and sour, yet I will admit I often find myself agreeing with a lot of that sentiment.
I would like to make the case that on the whole, Gen Z has some glaring collective issues in character. As a member of Gen Z, I have noticed some social issues and bits of generational culture that concern me.
Gen Z is only just starting to be a relevant part of society. A good half of us have not even graduated high school, and the rest are largely still in college. So in some ways, it is too early to tell. Any issues one might see as of yet have few, if any, obvious effects.
Nevertheless, the first thing I would point out about Gen Z is our work ethic. Simply put, it’s less than exemplary. I assume students not wanting to do their work or finding easy fixes to their work isn’t anything new, yet it has become incredibly easy for us to put in the absolute minimum of effort and get away with it.
Computers are incredible tools, and Gen Zers knows our way around them better than any other age group. But, what is being provided to us on the internet is not necessarily assets created by us. We are borrowing the knowledge of systems before us. We are not necessarily finding novel solutions, just copying answers. When it comes to learning, digital literacy is an incredible asset, but Gen Z has become overdependent on the internet. It has hurt our motivation to solve problems using our own ingenuity. If we don’t get something, it is easier to just look it up than go through the inconvenience of actually grinding our brains and thinking about it. We are not coming up with original ideas or doing things on our own. Everything we do is collectivized over the internet.
This isn’t just a problem for Gen Z, as people from all generations resort to using the internet as a crutch. What concerns me is that we are not learning how to do things the long way around. Something can be said for the process of exploration, to not only find what you are looking for, but to learn along the way. By finding only what we are looking for by searching for it explicitly, we run into a superficial understanding of something. And that is dangerous. Superficial knowledge can be easily misled or confused. Without a deeper understanding, we lack the ability to challenge what we see. For a generation that is constantly absorbing content, that might be a problem.
Culturally, the values of doing a good job — being thorough and going beyond “good enough” — are not as instilled in today’s youth as they should be. Minimalism and efficiency are good philosophies to have, yet when it comes to doing a job, valuing the quality of one’s work and putting time in to see something done properly are paramount.
We need to value a good job, good customer service and putting in hard work more than we are as a society. From what I have seen, the culture manifesting around Gen Z appears to be very much satisfied with something being done just good enough to pass, and that isn’t good.