I.
Working title
Breaking barriers: Assumptions on Generation Z
II. Topic and description
According to the Youth and Nation act of 1994, the definition of youth is between
15-30 years old (Youthpolicy.org, 2014).The Philippines is made out of 19.16% youth aging
15-24 years old, not counting the other percentage from ages 26-30, which is already a
large sum considering that 19.16% is equal to 19,979,414 million people in the Philippines
(Index mundi, 2018). This means that a large percentage of our population includes the
youth, , wherein the Generation Z kids also known as the iGen, are those who are born
between 1996-2010 , making the oldest Gen Z youth at age 23 years old (Claveria, 2016).
“The youth today are the future of tomorrow.”
-Jose Rizal
Delving into sociological context of the Philippines , we as the future adults of
tomorrow, as part of the youth of Generation Z, would like a future where we could be able
to prove ourselves to the previous generation, despite their assumptions, that we are ready
to lead the nation to prosperity by utilizing our skill sets and standing up for causes we
believe in.
III. Current problem
There is an existing perspective the previous generations (Baby Boomers, Xs and
Millenial) that the younger generation, specifically the Gen Z children seem to share. A large
number of the Philippines’ population is made up of the youth, and they are mostly made of
generation Z. But an issue we, the Z, have is that people already seem know what we are
before we even have the barest idea.
Articles regarding Gen Z are often business in nature, that is they measure gen Z on
our usefulness for work. Unfortunately,these articles sometimes criticize us and give our
“future bosses” advice on how to “manipulate” us to work mor efficiently rather than
understand us. For example an article from Huffington post (2015) entitled “Why Do So
Many Gen Zers Seem to Lack That Old-Fashioned 'Critical Thinking?'” explains why Gen Z do
not use much critical thinking ,an excerpt of the article is as follows:
With computers, content providers, and grown-ups to do so much of their thinking for
them, Gen Zers have hardly any experience digging deep, puzzling, and reflecting. They have
a built-in expectation that learning curves are instant. They think of learning in small
increments -- filling skill and knowledge gaps as they run across them. The long learning
curve is a rarity and a bit of a mystery to Gen Z (Tulgan, 2016)
They assume we have been made, set in stone, and predicted to be impatient,
apathetic, distracted, depressed etc. They assume we are incapable. They assume we are
incapable and set to fail due to our individualistic tendencies, short-attention span and
dependence on technology but that isn't the full picture and we have yet to make our mark.
IV. Current trends that will help us achieve desired future
Gen Z has so far been shown and is still showing a declining interest in all the
products and new things the market pumps out, and instead prefer living and learning. The
generation’s preference for experience over stuff, activity over materialism. We don’t want
things promised to us, we don’t want to be given money, we want to have earned it, though
we’ve passed working harder, we work smarter. And one way we do is through our use of
technology.
Though gen y and gen z are both the most technologically inclined generations, it’s
Gen z that have been dubbed “The Digital Natives”, the ones who who either don’t
remember when they didn’t have access to all the gadgets and technology we have today
because they were too young or weren’t even born during that time. The trend of evolving
tech has created another trend of users who utilize this technology better and better as
time passes; this has shaped Gen Z, us, into the best users so far, a hypercognitive
generation (multi-taskers, brain regulators) comfortable with collecting and
cross-referencing infor and with integrating virtual and offline experiences. That act of us
doing so, our online activity, stems from something great about our generation. We desire
and search for truth.
This want, is not just a passing fad though. Beginning from the Generation X, slowly
trickling down until it made its way to us, is not just hope for a better future and the will
with which to act upon that hope. Generation Z knows there’s something better, wants
better and actually moves. They rise for a variety of causes, believe in the efficacy of
dialogue to solve conflicts and improve the world. Gen Z’s shown to have learned from the
mistakes of the previous generations and have become analytical, looking institutions
related topics and issues with a critical lens.
Gen Z is not to be fooled so easily.
Technology, Social awareness, Self-sufficiency, critical thinking
Where millenials, were raised during the boom times and relative peace of the
1990s, only to see their sunny world dashed by the terrorist attacks, economic crashes, and
hate. Theirs is a story of innocence lost. Generation Z, by contrast, has had its eyes open
from the beginning, coming along in the aftermath of those cataclysms in the era of the war
on terror (on drugs in the Philippines as well) and the Great Recession.”
According to a recent study by Northeastern University, as a group, Gen Z tends to
be “highly self-directed, demonstrated by a strong desire to work for themselves, study
entrepreneurship, and design their own programs of study in college.
More than any other generation to date, Gen Z kids are the keepers of their own
brand, spending hours each day on social media. Living life online and in multiple social
spaces is just what they do. Smarter about privacy than their Millennial predecessors, Gen Z
favors “vanishing” media like Snapchat and Whisper and many use an alias for social media
accounts.
V. Current networks that make those trends
Trends have become a way of life and was derived from what was lacking in our
society before. Trends on technology emerged along with the rise of social media whilst
trends regarding one's actions emerged as a response from one's environment. As
mentioned before hand, Generation Z grew up in a somewhat chaotic environment,
especially in the context of our country, the Philippines due to changes in our society be it
political or social, which made them self-aware and conscious of what's happening which
consequently lead them to following certain trends on lifestyle , technology and education.
Family
According to Urie Brofenbrenner, a Russian-born American psychologist , in his
Ecological Systems theory (Psychology notesHQ, 2013) the family can affect the growth and
development of a child. Consequently, family values are also affected by the culture within
the they live in. In the context of the Philippines, both culture and family hand in hand in
influencing the child’s growth.
Filipino Families are known to be tight-knit and are often extended in nature. In our
culture, family is the most important foundation, and the one that injects values to the
children. The family values injected to them would most likely be religious in nature,
coming from their grandparents,especially since the country itself religiously conservative.
And/or they could adopt the point of view of their parents (Gen X) who are a little more
skeptical and pragmatic, or older siblings who are millennials that are optimistic and
collative (Durfy ,2019) (socialmarketing.org, n.d).But as these kids grow up, they or we,
become more self-aware of our surroundings especially with since we grew up along with
the ascent of technology, that we start to build our own point of view on how to deal with
the situation we're currently in.
Social media networks
Generation Z are considered digital natives, we were born when technology such as
computers has already advance to society and are adept into using it. Technological
advancements such as mobile phones and has become somewhat a necessity to everyone,
especially in the realms society such as education , entertainment and politics.In fact,a
Vision Critical (2016) conducted an exclusive study that exposes the changing media
consumption habits of younger consumers and showed that Generation Z primarily used
smartphones on an average of 15.4 hours a day.
With the accessibility of mobile phones and its convenience, we can get information
just by a simple google search or a simple scroll through social media sites such as
Facebook or twitter. With the access of social media comes the rise of social awareness and
social movements that open the eyes of content consumers to what's happening in society.
Selepak (2017) mentions that by using hashtags social media can be used as a tool for
people and movements which reaches audiences around the globe. Thus, furthering the
importance of technology in our daily lives.
But this also poses as a danger in the context of our country especially due to the
rampancy of fake news and trolls online propagated by political personages or influential
people. Due to this, Gen Z kids need to become more critical of the information they digest
online, especially that the elections are coming up again.
Education
On the topic of education, according to an article from Forbes, Generation Z are
more active learners. They do not stay like just to stay in the classroom and absorb
information quietly but instead feel more comfortable to experience new things with their
own hands, rather than absorbing information they likely would rather search and analyze
it themselves.This trait actually makes them more self-sufficient because they become
independent and much more reliant on themselves in gathering information, especially in
the formal type of education. This type of approach in the the classroom setting is called
student-centered and is often applied in the K-12 curriculum , activities such as
groupworks or things that include brainstorming and researching, that focus more on the
students needs , abilities and interest ( K12academics, 2019) which greatly differ from the
conventional teacher-centered approach that was applied to the previous generation.
VI.What else is lacking
It has proven effective that bringing an understanding to the opposing party, or in
this case older generations, serves as a good means to bridge the gap between generations.
Providing them with more positive experiences and better connections to Gen Z will help
them associate us within a more positive and better view. Gen Z and older generations, if
they were to strive to aid in fixing such a gap, would make a way for each other to
communicate that the Gen Z are not all the negative assumptions they’ve made but as
fellow people (Venter ,2017)
VII.Conclusion
The Gen Z needs to be given a chance to prove themselves, to be given the benefit of
the doubt. They're lifestyle trends should be seen in a positive light because it makes them
more efficient and aware of their surroundings, making more critical and quick in problem
solving. A connection with the previous generation would also help combat the negative
perspective on them by seeing what they're actually capable of doing. In conclusion, by
eliminating the negative assumptions on the Generation Z, they can grow and propers and
be more helpful in nation-building.
References
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(2014, June 12). Retrieved February 24, 2019, from Youthpolicy.org:
www.youthpolicy.org/factsheets/country/philippines/
(2018, January 20). Retrieved February 24, 2019, from Index mundi:
https://www.indexmundi.com//philippines/demographics_profile.html
Claveria, K. (2016, October 18). Generation Z Statistics: New Report on the Values, Attitudes,
and Behaviors of the Post Millennials. Retrieved April 23, 2019, from vision critical:
https://www.visioncritical.com/blog/generation-z-statistics
Durfy, L. (2019, February 21). Retrieved February 24, 2019, from post
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