Isabella Tonche

05/06/2015
Opinion Piece

GENERATION Z (THE MISUNDERSTOOD)

They are addicted to technology, always staring at their phones, they dont
know how to talk to people anymore; these are all things that a majority might say about
the latest generation born between 1995 and 2012. This generation is better known as
Generation Z. Gen Z is highly misunderstood by their predecessors, and as a part of this
generation I find it to be a great problem that those who are raising this generation
(primarily X and Y) and who will soon have to work with many of them, if not doing so
already, cant comprehend how or why Gen Z is the way it is. With lack of understanding
comes lack of cooperation and with lack of cooperation comes the downfall of all great
things. The solution to this lack of comprehension lies within looking at technologys effect
on Gen Z, (seeing as it is the greatest influence,) and making an honest effort to understand
and work with these effects, because like it or not Gen Z is the future.
There are simple steps to take in understanding Gen Z and first of all is to have those
who misunderstand stop judging and put forth the work to learn why Gen Z is the way it is.
Many only see half of Gen Zs problems and are blinded to the other side of things. A book
called its complicated by Danah Boyd, a member of Generation Y, and a researcher of Gen
Z wrote this book in order to suspend your assumptions about youth in an effort to
understand the social lives of networked teens they want to be understood. This book is
my attempt to do precisely that (2014, xi).
In this book she explains that the more things change the more they stay the
same. Sitting at a high school football game talking to some teens she came to realize that
she needed to stop looking for differences and look for similarities because Gen Z is truly not
that different from those before it. Youd actually be surprised how little things change. Im
guessing a lot of the drama is still the same, its just the format is a little different. Its just
changing the font and changing the background color really, said one of the teens (Boyd,

2014, p.1). Boyd explains that things are essentially the same for Gen Z as it was for other
Generations. The bullying just happens to be online most of the time, and phones are used
as tools to more easily connect with friends, not to ignore them. Technology is simply just a
way teens communicate, most of the time when friends are amongst friends the only time
they are looking at screens are when they are sharing a video they found on Facebook, or
shooting a quick text. The playing field for all forms of communication has gotten changed
up. It is not entirely the same as it was for Gens X and Y. Gen X and Y compare their
experiences to Z and expect them to be exactly the same or entirely different. The way Gen
Z interacts with others is in many ways the same in terms of the way they talk to each other
but different in its medium. That is just the way they are, and thats what many Gen Xs and
Ys dont get.
Technology is a big part in all of our lives, and it isnt that we are changing for better
or for worse as a generation, or at least that cant be determined yet, but technology is just
the thing to define Gen Z. Many fail to see that it is just what has shaped us and at least in
our eyes, improved our lives. Many misunderstand our use of the internet as being bad in
many cases because of sexting, YouTube challenges, or leaked nudes. It is just a way that we
express ourselves, but some see only the bad. Matthew Montoya a member of Generation Z
and an experienced I.T. of four years, states in a personal essay entitled Matthews Piece
that, each generation grows up learning something different. The children who grew up
during the late 1920s/early 1930s learned to operate the radio and route telephone calls.
The baby boomers took part in creating the first microprocessor 1971, which then became
the foundation for modern day computing, and the millennial generation has created
pathways which share information quicker and easier than ever before in recorded historyI
believe our generation is the first to really take advantage of technology and its uses, in
ways we are consciously and unconsciously aware of (2015, p.1).
Generation Z can be seen as some of the first ones to truly explore the capabilities of
technology. Montoya explains that many generations before had their share of mistakes or

bad habits, such as WWII with smoking or the 1960s and their use of LSD. Some uses of
technology are just a part of Generation Zs way of screwing up. For example, smoking
tobacco or weed in public would be one thing; however, posting about it on Social Media
(like Facebook or Instagram) can make oneself appear as a show-off, only doing it for
likes (Montoya, 2015, p.1). Every generation has its share of mistakes and contributions to
society and this is just Generation Zs.
Technology has no hope of going backwards, only forward at increasing speeds. Lack
of understanding only creates distrust amongst people and tension. Generations need to
accept that technology is a big part of who Generation Z is, and that technology will
continue to be part of upcoming generations in surely bigger ways. Through understanding
or at the very least tolerating Gen Z generations would be able to be successful in moving
forward. All it takes is a little effort.

References
Boyd, D. (2014). It's complicated (pp. I-10). Yale College.
Montoya, M. (2015). Matthews Piece. (pp. 1-3). Personal Essay.