The Happy Medium

People from Generation Z (more commonly known as Gen Z or zoomers) have been called many names – snowflake, quiet quitter, and the like. Older generations say they’re too sensitive, too brittle and can’t help but compare Gen Z to their generation starting with their favorite “back in my day” phrase. But have we ever wondered why Gen Zs are the way they are?

To understand Gen Z, one ought to know who Gen Z is. If you were born anywhere from the year 1997 to 2012, then all roads lead to the conclusion that you are a part of said generation. They’re extremely well-versed in technology, having been born in the age of information and social media. Gen Z is the first generation to never know the world without the internet, allowing them to develop a finesse with the digital world at an early age. While this means that they have an abundance of information at their fingertips – meaning they can be self-reliant in almost any subject matter – it can also prove to be damaging in the long run.

Because they’ve formed a sort of dependence and connection to technology, they can’t seem to go anywhere without it. They spend hours on end online doing who knows what, with some resorting to heated arguments that others claim nobody seems to care about in the real world – hence the term “touch some grass.” Thanks to the tendency to document every little moment and share it to the world, Gen Zs are prone to the fear of missing out, which eventually leads to comparison (“why can’t I be more like this person?”) and loneliness (“why do I feel so empty?”).

Now that we’ve gotten to know them more, it’s time for us to empathize with them. They say that for one to practice empathy, it’s not enough to put oneself in another person’s shoes. You take off your own shoes first – meaning you let go of your biases and prejudices before stepping into the other person’s shoes.

Picture this: you’re a high school student with parents you think are way too overbearing. You contemplate doing something – anything – for them to stop pressuring you to be better and to do better. You decide to take matters into your own hands. What would you do?

You may think it’s shallow, but this is a common occurrence among the younger folks of Gen Z. For them, the pressure is magnified whenever they log on to social media and see that someone is doing better than them. Throw in a serving of feeling sorry for yourself in a blender with a bunch of insidious relatives and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster – for Gen Z, that is. But alas, fellow zoomers, I’m here to deliver a truth bomb: someone is always doing better than you, and someone will always be better than you.

I’m not here to wax poetic on toxic positivity. From one zoomer to another, what you need to know is that you are not special. I’m not exceptional, and it took me years to swallow my pride and agree with that. It was wild hearing it the first few times, since it went against everything I believed in – that I was great at this and whatnot. But it was a much-needed wakeup call, for I gained something better when I embraced my ordinariness.

In 2012, David McCullough, Jr. delivered a speech to the graduating class of Wellesley High School entitled “You Are Not Special.” His core message is simple – you should excel at everything you do, for yourself. There’s no point in doing anything if you’re only after the validation and recognition of the world.

“Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you,” he wrote. He stressed in the same speech that selflessness is the best thing a person can do for oneself. And finally, you’re not special – because everyone is.

The same holds true for us Gen Z kids. Someone will always be better than us, and that’s a fact we have to learn to live with. Our generation may have been identified as this and that, but that doesn’t mean we have to restrict and tailor-fit ourselves to the branding. At the end of the day, we’re all our individual selves with a quality we were born with, raised with, grew up with, or picked up along the way. We’re not falling behind or missing out on anything. All we have to do is find the delicate balance – the happy medium between ourselves and our generation.