Kids these days – Strand

The generation that is fighting for everythingalsocares about nothing. At least thats the impression youll getfrom many of the articles youll find on the subject ofGeneration Z,thelabelappliedto those,likeme,born around the end of the 90s and later.There is a consensus that our generation is facing (and will continue to face) a wholeplethoraof seemingly insurmountable challenges, from the looming threat of climate change to the resurgence of fascist and racist ideologiesall over the world.However,weare rising to these challenges,and championing those among us that are leading the charge against ignorance, hate, and false information. The names Malala Yousafzai, David Hogg, and,most recently,Greta Thunbergarefamiliar to much of our generation for their activist work in the fields of female education, gun reform, and climate change, respectively.These kids have earned celebritystatus precisely because they have stood up for what they believe in and have fought for it tooth and nail.

So why is it that so many of the think-pieces written about our generationscrutinizethe fact that we dont seem to care about anything?A recent Forbes article sought to explainWhy the Z in Gen ZMeansZombie,theNewYorker, in turn, haspublishedmany articlesexploring the darkeraspects of our cultural zeitgeist,fromour love ofmeaninglessTikTokstothe popularity ofthe death-centricmusic of BillieEilish. And while it is clear that these commentaries can in no way account entirely for themindsetof our generation,the truth that underlies them cannot be denied. We stand at a moment in history where we are fighting for our lives, but at the end of the day,many of us enjoy hanging up our hats, setting down our picket signs and cozying up to a hot cup of nihilism.

Gen Z nihilismis not that of generationspast. However, thinking about the meaninglessness of existencetends to beaccompanied by feelings of despair, but our generation actually seems to find some solace in thecollapseof meaning. As the meme aboveshows, rather thanbuckleunder the weight of a doom-and-gloom ideology, we,Gen Z,prefer to slap on some cool shades, give athumbs-up, and smile through it.Of course, anyone who adopts this attitude doesso with their tongue firmly incheek. If we were all truly asapathetic as we pretendto be on the internet, events like the March for Our Lives, a student-led gun reform rally that took place in the U.S. last year, would not haveyielded a turnoutin the millions and spurred a movement that is still going strong today.What we have then is a kind ofperformed,evenings-and-weekends relationship with not-caring that is used to counterbalance the rest of the time when we are forced to care deeplyabout anything and everything.

Its important to remember thatGen Zisstillyoung andtalk of them is much younger. TheaforementionedForbesarticle goes so far as to say that the archetypalGen Zkid doesnt even exist yet.The vast majority of Gen Z, it must be said, arent even old enough to vote yet, a fact which lends credence to the idea that most of us arent fully formed yet either. This way of thinking makes it a lot easier to dismiss our cultural tastes as being just a phase,and of all possible phases for an entire generation to go through, half-hearted, comic nihilism fits the teenage stereotype perfectly.This isnt the only narrative, though, and it fails to account for the precise moment that we as Gen Zare living and coming of age inareunique.

A few of the numerousthreats to our generation and the population at large have already beenlisted, but its worth consideringthe fact thatthose crises have forced us to grow up quickly. On top of the label ofGeneration Z, this generation has often been called theMass Shooting Generation, a label given to those in the United States born after the 1999 Columbine High School shootingwho have grown up with active shooter drills as a regular part of their school experience.Todays world is not a place where the youngest amongus can be sheltered from its harshest realities. If anything, theyoungest among us are being forced to confront themhead-on in a way that other generationshave not had to.

Maybethiscultural aversion to a meaningful existenceisnt a phase then, and maybe it isnt even a simple distraction.Instead, maybe its a defense mechanism.Insurmountable, overwhelming, and impossible are only some of the wordsused to describe our challenges, and while were taking the fight to them anyways, its a comfort to think that, should we fail, it never really mattered in the first place.Because if the world is truly coming to an end, which it very well might be, it would be so much easier to cope with if we could assume the cool nonchalance of the man in the meme below, and embrace our deaths with shrugged shoulders:

In the meantime, its probably best that we go about the business of fighting for our lives. In time, we might need to put our nihilism to better use, but for now, let the music we listen to, the memes we consume, and our twisted sense of humour confuse the older generations a bit longer.

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Kids these days - Strand