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
Honestly the trade school thing doesn't even work anymore. I'm 25, and went the college route since I'm a lot more business and finance oriented, but I had several friends that went to trade school in both shop class and post high school. They're all in the same situation. Can't get a job, and when they do get an offer, the terms are basically slave labor. What I hear the most is that they always want X amount of years of experience, which obviously the 20 somethings fresh out of college/trade school don't have. So they get passed up for the older 30 or 40 somethings looking for a job in a new area.
The other response is them offering what amounts to a slave labor contract. It's a bit different for me since I didn't go to trade school, but here's an example of what I've had "offered" to me.
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.
The multiple part time job thing is the new "work around" to pay people as little as possible. Most states either only apply minimum wage to full time jobs, or have a separate, much lower minimum wage for part time work. As such, if they work you on multiple part time jobs, all assigned to "technically and legally distinct companies", so they can avoid paying you minimum wage, avoid overtime pay, avoid benefits, etc. etc.
And it's even worse for those of us who graduated the year the kung flu hit, because now we have going on 4 years of post graduation "black" in our resumes, which is usually a red flag for the stupid automated hiring AI that these companies and job listing sites use. Which puts us on an instant blacklist for 90% of jobs we could apply for.
So yeah the entry level job market for older Gen Z is like, horrendous. I would say great depression level, but at least back then you could go back home to survive on the family farm. Most of us don't even have that option now. I compare it to Japan's Lost Generation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Ice_Age
For reference.
Like I said in my comment chain on here, I hope and believe (and pray) that things will be better post cabal and most of us aren't screwed for life, but as it currently sits, there's very little "good" going on for those in their 20s. Life is just generally depressing, and I'm not trying to point fingers, but listening all of the old farts around me talk about "how no one wants to work and everyone's lazy" when I put in 20+ job applications a week and receive maybe one or two callbacks every few months, of which are always those ridiculous slave labor jobs as I described above....Well, it doesn't help much.
I realize I'm just ranting now, so I'll shut up.
Mu son got a&p and then hvac and he makes 150k a year. 🤷♀️
For someone who claims to be more business and finance-oriented you are pretty bad at math. 90 hours a week, $7 an hour, is $32,760 a year. There is no way you could be working 90 hours a week with one company and not be eligible for overtime. What is the "no legal Obligation" you speak of? Unless it is a salary job, aka exempt you have OT protections. Part-time jobs are not federally exempt from the $7.25 minimum wage.
Admittedly I was slightly off because I tend to round to the nearest dollar (a habit I got from my Dad when he was teaching me how to do "real world math"), but you're still wrong in your calculations, though that maybe because of me not going into as much detail as I did in my OTHER response on this thread.
It's not legally "one company". It's multiple companies owned by the same person, who each "work from the same location", but are legally distinct. They offer you multiple part time jobs working for different companies they own, so they can avoid exactly what you're saying.
As for the "no legal obligation part" it's exactly as you said. They're mostly salaried jobs, ergo, no overtime. So redoing my math, with all the info there and not using my lazy method that brings us to the grand total of $15,080 a year. A $520 difference from my lazy calculation.
So yeah, my math was slightly off do to me being lazy and not caring at this point, but my point still stands.
Excuses. Life is what YOU make it. If you believe you get shit, shit will arrive. If you believe you're worth more, you will be. Personal responsibility on the inside is the difference. Try that prayer thing for shits and giggles. K?