Generation Z: Are we the most selfish?
In the past two years or so, its been a trend on social media to speculate on different generations. Usually, it’s 90’s kids remember this and only 90’s kids will remember this but despite this just being a joke the difference between our generations has brought on some questions and speculations and one of them is whether or not our generation is more selfish than other generations.
For the record, all the student’s at Aurora High School are apart of the same generation: Generation Z. Now, frankly, Generation Z doesn’t have a specific person at fault for ageist prejudice against us. Because of this, the majority of us receive a lot of remarks from older generations that we don’t deserve. And when I say older, I’m talking about Baby Boomer generation. And as far as they care Generation Z and Millenials might as well be the same thing. Millennials have definitely been given a bad rap from the media. Blame is put on them for killing industries like diamonds and real estate, and most of all being selfish. We get lumped into that too. But does that mean their right though?
Generation Z is a generation that grew up with iPods, Facebook and amazingly the internet. Now, we have Fortnite and Mafia City or whatever free game they add to the Play store next. With the internet, everything was handed to us and now with the internet looking up, we might not even have to get out of our houses to go shopping anymore. I asked some of our peers for their opinion and this was the response that I received from Kitana Slomovitz: “I could seem like we’re selfish because people seek validations for their actions through social media, but people from previous generations have always been seeking validation from other people. Social media and selfishness is just another outlet for seeking it.” Seeking validation and attention is no stranger to any generation. Actually, it’s one of the things that make us similar to the previous generation.
Gavin Damion gives his opinion on adding characteristics to our generation: "Generation Z is mostly children and young adults. We can't all be labeled as being more selfish than other generations. If anything, the older generations are more selfish than Generation Z. It wasn't Gen Z that raised the global temperature just for money or resources and not even try to stop it. Generation Z isn't as self-centered as the others, as we just watch the older generations make more selfish mistakes." Adding characteristics to a generation is abitary. Each generation has its own set of problems and each has different opinions on how to solve them. 50 years ago, in 1969, America's problems almost seemed like they were worlds away from the problems we had today. Politicians, the people, they had to worry about Vietnam, dealing with repercussions of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Space Race against the Soviets.
Today, looking back some people would say the generation that was the major influences to the Vietnam war were selfish. Participating in a 20-year war just because they were afraid of a form of government that barely even functioned. However what about issues today? School shootings? Free Healthcare? Gun control? Things that could affect our lives directly at any given time, yet the power to do something is completely out of our hands.
Who hands are they in? How could someone call someone out on decisions that we can't even make? The young teenager that you see do dumb stuff on Instagram or YouTube might not but not be the same person that's seated next to you on the bus.
Are we selfish? No. Not more than anyone else.
