I'm a zoomer, still in high school and I try to pay attention to stuff that's going on in the culture. I'm from a pretty normal suburban area that's split as far as politics go so I think I have a good idea of the general experience for young people rn.
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Gen Z doesn't feel like life is inherently worth it. It's normal to hear people say things like "I hate myself" or "I want to die" or casually talk about wanting to commit suicide. Girls seem to say things like that more often but it's not really shocking to hear from everyone. Young people feel comfortable openly talking about their mental health and psychological problems even if they don't even know someone that well. Everyone just wants to share as much as possible. Although we're more likely to share with other teenagers than older people I think.
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Relationships aren't as much of a thing anymore. Same goes for sex. Guys will typically be "talking to" a bunch of different girls, flirting with them and being emotionally there for them without an actual relationship going on. It's common for girls to be "talking to" a guy who doesn't really put much effort into them while also having a bunch of "platonic boyfriends" who are basically in the friend zone and provide emotional support where the guy she's attracted to doesn't. Not really much actual sex going on any side.
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Almost every young guy is addicted to porn. This one is probably connected with the last. It's a pretty common thing for guys to go to the bathroom and wack off at school since a lot of us are straight up addicted to it now and can't go 8 hours without stroking one out. Sometimes guys will pack extra underwear in their backpacks and it's a meme to go through someone's backpack to see if they brought extras. It's really bad.
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Probably less than 10% of guys are gay or bi but something like 70% of girls are. Or at least they say they are. A lot of girls will say they're bi or pan but only want to date guys so I'm guessing they just say it to be progressive or keep their options open.
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Guys are extremely redpilled but the girls are almost always liberal. Black guys are the most conservative group in my school at least and white guys are usually split based on if they're gay or not. Most girls are very easily offended and try to act offended on behalf of everyone else. They're just really sensitive to things that aren't pc.
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Everyone is really stressed out and burned out. Zoomers have basically given up on "hustle culture" and the pressure to be always working and doing something productive. No one expects to be able to own a home or start a family when they're older so there's not much motivation to work hard. The stereotype that zoomers generally hate work is true. Most see it as a waste of time and something that makes life suck more than it's good.
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A lot of us can't do shit. I know a bunch of people who are terrified of driving and don't even want to get a license. No one can cook. No one knows how to build things or use old school computers that don't have built in apps. Anything serious is always taken care of by the parents because our parents don't trust us at all. We don't learn because they never let us do anything that's even a teeny bit risky or requires any level of judgment. I'm sure this isn't the case in rural areas but in the suburbs parents never let their kids grow up. And then they get pissed when we constantly need help doing things.
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We don't have attention spans. Watching a whole movie by itself without break is considered very boring to most zoomers. Concentration has to be broken up every few seconds or else we lose interest. We're used to a constant stream of different images and sounds and ideas so we're pretty good at multitasking, but intense concentration on just one thing is not our strength.
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Everyone feels like a celebrity. If older generations had "reputations" then we have something else, maybe like a "brand" or something. Social media puts us on a stage 24/7. Most zoomers only have 1-3 real friends and probably hate leaving their bedrooms but at the same time we're also constantly in competition with the whole world online. There's very little social activity for it's own sake. We socialize to produce an image of ourselves and none of it is real basically. But that's related to my last point.
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Religion doesn't play a serious part in most of our lives so our "story" has to be a personal one instead of a religious one. We have to tell a story of personal success with our lives because if we don't then we're worth nothing. I really wish I could word it in a better way but it's something I've been thinking about a lot. Since the universe doesn't have meaning anymore, the only way to have a meaningful life is to give it meaning ourselves by being unique I guess? I think that's something a lot of people feel subconsciously. We're really alone in a universe that makes no sense where no one has any objective role or determined future. We have to build everything ourselves because if we don't then what do we have? God gave us nothing, so we have to earn everything or just give up if we can't. That's the mindset I think. Even people who believe in God feel like this because religion isn't a part of the culture anymore. It's all personal achievement and individualism. There's nothing connecting ourselves to the world or connecting us to a story that's greater than ourselves.
Feel free to ask questions if u have any
Older zoomer here, and I can agree with a lot of this, but not everything in my experience.
Point 1 is true for the most part. Point 2 is kind of 50/50 in my experience. I know lots of people who are actually married that I went to school with (I'm a few years out of college at this point). Don't get me wrong, there is a slight bit of that attitude, but for the most part, the people I know and went to school with are either dating, married, or just outright don't want kids or anything. At least not yet.
Point 3 is also kind of 50/50. I knew guys who were worse than what's described here. When I was in high school there were a few guys who were so addicted to porn and masturbation that they would just straight up skip a few classes and jerk off in the bathroom for half the day. On the flip side, there were people who just never watched porn because they didn't see the appeal of it. One of my best friends would make fun of the bathroom goblins as we called them, because and I quote "why do I need porn if I can just go get a girl? Hell, hire a hooker if nothing else." Always remember that quote lol. Don't entirely agree with it since I've become more religious since Highschool, but it's still funny to me.
Points 4 and 5....I pretty much agree with these. 99% of guys I know are straight. I can count on one hand the number of gays I know roughly my age, give or take a few years in either direction. The girls on the other hand are pretty insufferable pseudo fags that pretend to be literally anything but straight, but are actually straight. Every single "bi or pan" girl I've ever met has never dated anything but guys. And they're all about that stupid politically correct crap. They just want to be "part of the crowd", so they just regurgitate whatever the "popular" thing to say is, to get brownie points online. It'll change soon enough once the media lies finally stop.
Point 6, I can kind of agree with. I know a lot of people, myself included, are burnt out over everything. Most of the people I know in particular are generally pissed off because most of us graduated from college the year the kung flu hit, so we've been screwed over job wise. Fresh out of college, no one's hiring for a year. Then the jab comes along, and we get blacklisted because we refused to jab. And now no one's hiring anything but part time jobs where they want you to work 10 or less hours a week at less than minimum wage (most states only apply minimum wage to full time jobs or have a separate, much lower minimum wage for part time work). The few full times jobs you CAN find, want you to have X years of experience or be fresh out of college, which when you've been out of college for 3 years now because of all the political bull crap, instantly black lists you.
The other thing I've seen happen, is that a company WILL hire you, but only if you agree to take 4 different part time jobs, where they'll try to work you 12-15 hours a day on different tax forms, so they can pay you the lowest amount possible, while squeezing the most work out of you. I met up with a guy a few years younger than me I knew a few days ago that was working 6 or 7 different part time jobs like this, and he told me he can't do it anymore and is just going to quit and sign up for welfare since he'd make more money and actually be able to sleep more than a few hours a night. Which I don't approve of, but I fully understand.
The other thing I've noticed, is that a lot of even minimum wage law IQ labor jobs (cashier, bagger, car washer, etc.) won't even hire you anymore. I see the exact same 50 or so places putting out ads for the exact same jobs, week and week, month after month for these types of jobs. And they never hire anyone. I'm convinced they're just putting out the job ads for publicity and brownie points. "Oh look we're helping our community by hiring people we don't actually need to hire. Please come here and give us your business!" That's the only explanation I can think of, considering I never see any new faces at any of these places, so they're not hiring anyone and having them quit. They just straight up aren't hiring anyone. And I and others I know have applied for these types of jobs out of desperation, and never even got a rejection notice, much less a call back or an interview. People I know DO however want a family and a house, etc. Most just don't know how to afford it. I wouldn't say most don't want it, rather most just don't know how to get there given the current environment. I know a few people who tried, and bought a house. But had to sell within a year because they couldn't afford it.
With few exceptions, most people I know and knew in high school and college are now living with their parents and jobless, because it's either that or be homeless and starve. Most people try to help around the house or do odd jobs and things like that to do SOMETHING productive and make it feel like you're not leeching, but it gets depressing at times.
I'd compare our current generation to what's called the "lost generation" in Japan. A generation of people who got screwed over by the economic and political chessboard and have been abandoned by literally everyone while being told that we're useless and don't want to do anything because no one will give us a chance. As I said, it's kind of depressing at times, and one of the reasons I turned to God in college.
Point 7, Can't really fully agree with that one. Most of the people I know are more capable than their parents when it comes to technology. The building part is true for some, but not everyone is good at working with their hands so I don't really think that's because of helicopter parents. More just a talent orientation problem. From my personal experience, a lot of people my age have trouble finding the time to learn new skills outside of shop class or something like that if you're in school. When I was in high school, they laid so much homework on us for each class, that it took HOURS to do it all when you got home. The only time you had to do anything was over the weekend, and you wanted to relax, meet up with your few friends, etc. etc. So you never had any time to explore and learn new skills. It got even worse in college, because now not only do you have the college work, but you also have to find someway of making money to support yourself, or at least help out around the house if you lived with your parents.
Point 8, I can agree with to an extent. I do sometimes find it hard to concentrate on one thing for long periods of time, but that's often because I have zero interest in it. If it's something that I actually like, enjoy, or find interesting, I can do it for hours on end without interruption. Most people I know are like this.
Point 9, I honestly have no idea what this is talking about. Maybe it's more a thing women do, but most of the people I know (the women I hang out with are mostly tomboys, so I may not be the best person to talk about this), Most people I know don't care about "influencers" or "celebrities" and in fact actively hate them. They generally speaking only use social media for things like memes. In fact, I've noticed the most popular apps among people I know are things like Ifunny, instead of instagram. So moderately politically incorrect, right wing, meme apps.
It is however true that most of us only have a few "true friends". I'm not exactly a social person, but after graduation, most of us went our seperate ways and I may see someone I knew once or twice a year. From talking to people when I do run into them, most of us have basically no friends anymore. We have "tolerated people" who we put up with because we have to socially.
And finally, point 10. I kind of have to disagree with this one. Most of the people I know either legitimately are religious and have had a Christian revelation since graduation (like myself), or at the very least "pretend to be a Christian". I say this, because while most people I know ARE legitimately Christians and religion DOES play a big part in our lives (most of the people I've talked to say they couldn't get through life without God, and it's only him and Jesus who have helped them through the past several years). But of course I DO know a handful of fake Christians who are the "Oh yeah I'm totally a Christian, but like I also support the current thing, and they gays, etc. etc." type. Once had an argument with an ex GF about how she was convinced gays were natural and needless to say, we broke up soon after.
So in regards to point 10, my experience is kind of the opposite. And while I DO live in a more rural area than say, Chicago, I do live in a rural suburb (basically houses aren't on top of each other and we all have a few acres to ourselves), there are a few medium sized cities around the area with CSA (combined statistical area) populations of a few million. So I wouldn't exactly say middle of nowhere.
So yeah, there's a slightly different Zoomer prospective, from one who's old enough to have gone through college as well. Feel free to ask me questions too if you want since me and OP have slightly different experiences while being part of the same generation.
Damn it seems like I probably don't have much to look forward to lol. I always felt bad for the people who got screwed out of graduation when covid hit. The stuff about the jobs holds up from my experience.
Well hopefully things get better in a few years when the post-cabal days hit, but yeah. Right now is like, the worst part of life for people in their mid 20s. If you don't have rich parents, you've basically just been abandoned by everyone at this point. I couldn't tell you the number of times I've been pissed off by some old fart talking about how "no one wants to work anymore", while I put in 20+ Applications a week trying to find literally anything, and then either never hearing anything back or being offered what amounts to a slave contract.
Heck, I once had a company offer to pay me $7 an hour, with no overtime, no holidays, no food breaks, working 6 days a week, doing 10 different part time jobs for various time ranges each day, for 15 hours a day, that ALSO included requiring me to travel between physical locations at the drop of a hat within a 4 hour radius of their central location.
Yes, they specified no food breaks. You were not allowed to have breakfast, lunch, or dinner while on the clock. So since they didn't pay overtime (and had no legal obligation to) that was offering $14,560 a year, to work 90 hours a week, and require me to drop everything and drive (on my own dime) to any of their locations within a 4 hours radius at the a moments notice.
It wasn't a hard decision, since gas costs alone made it impossible to accept. I would have LOST money taking the job, based on gas alone. And that's not accounting for tires, oil, etc. Or my physical and mental health, etc.
So yeah, entery level job market is worse than most realize right now. But I have faith it'll get better within a few years, and hopefully we won't end up like Japan's Lost Generation and there'll be some kind of "affirmative action" for us specifically because we got screwed over by the cabal due to timing.
I've had summer jobs before and they all sucked. $9 an hour to be constantly under surveillance, micromanaged, bathroom breaks scheduled and timed etc. Treated with no respect whatsoever.
That was the first time I ever considered suicide. Not because I was depressed but because it felt like the only way I'll ever have freedom over myself. We're taught from childhood how special and unique we are and then the second we need to make money it's like our humanity is erased.
You could try non-cdl local delivery jobs, they usually pay alright
Theres many different kinds of product out there to be delivered, either with box truck or van
Running around town, the day goes by fast...
Alot of these types of jobs have hard time finding help, you should have no problem...
If you were to enjoy doing that type of work you could always get a class B(regular straight truck) or class A license(truck and trailer) and make even more money(enough to make a living)
But anyways, interesting post, social media is very damaging to society, we need to get back to traditional values...
Well can't say I've ever considered suicide, but I can get being depressed over it. There's not really anyway to put a positive spin on this. I should probably mention that the above "slave job" wasn't a "anyone can do it" type job. It was a job tailored to my specific degree, internships, etc. I did while in college. I met all of the higher education and experience requirements (somehow), and THAT was what they offered me in the interview. They listed the job as having a salary roughly 5 times higher, but when I got into the interview, they let me know that "that was an estimated salary that included possible sale incentive bonuses as well as benefit costs".
So yeah, like I said, the entry level job market is horrible right now. Much worse than most people realize. But I have hope it'll get better in a few years.
My summer job paid $1.50/hr and I threw heavy hay bales in the hot sun. I saved and bought my 1st car. As a teen you're not supposed to make a living wage, you have food on the table and a roof over your head. Summer jobs are for gaining work experience, learning good work ethic, and having a little money in your pocket.
Then you should have filed a complaint with the Department of Labor as it is illegal to pay you less than $7.25 an hour (unless you are a tipped employee) or to prohibit breaks or to require you to drive 4 hours to a job location. I'm calling bullshit on your post.
The $7.25 part is admittedly wrong, I have a (probably bad) habit of rounding down to the nearest dollar in these kinds of things since i have the mindset it's better to underestimate than overestimate.
But anyway, the difference is just $520 Annually. So not significant enough to make a difference. As for the rest of it, nope. Actually I tried to put in a complaint with my state's labor commission and the BBB. I was told that no employer is required to give breaks for food or rest for the purposes of part time work (it's not one full time job, it's multiple part time jobs for legally distinct companies) and the 4 hour drive from the main location isn't illegal either (since I could technically claim it on my taxes as a work related deduction). But even with said deduction, I wouldn't be coming out ahead, and I'd have to keep a log like a truck driver of every single car expense while on the clock. Meaning I'd have to keep track of the price of fuel the last time I bought any and log exactly how much I used while "on the clock" each day, etc. etc.
Which with the IRS being what they are, I'd be deathly terrified that I'd make some simple mistake and get al caponed for a simple mistake.
So yeah, I'm not lying, but think what you want. I know what my personal life experiences have been thus far, and I don't really care what anyone else thinks or says. It's a horrible entry level market, and that's all there is to it.
Thank you for your thoughtful response to cringerepublic. I bet it helped.