Habiba ElGaniny We can’t deny, despite the amount of criticism Gen Z gets for being who they truly are, that they are indeed bizarre and unconventional. The question is: in what way?
Looking at Gen Z, they’re the only generation in the history of Earth to be entangled in such distractions.
The internet has made it increasingly difficult to pick a lane. Choosing only one path and being content with what lies before them feels almost impossible. Instead, they seem to have developed a restless appetite for searching, and one of our cherished rituals has become what I like to call searching parties. When they reunite and talk about life, careers and who they want to be, almost all of their coffee dates have magically transformed into mass searching parties.
Previous generations seemed to move through life differently: slower, with more directed passion and less pressure. Our passion feels intense and yet condensed. They’ve somehow constructed entire expectations around different ages. For example, 20 is no longer the age for being lost, discovering who they truly are and finding where theg belong in life. It has become the age when you’re expected to establish something serious, so that by 21, you can celebrate the flourishing success of your company while simultaneously being ushered into legal adulthood.
Who sets the deadline?
To be known, successful and dedicated all before 25? That has become our ultimate dream, an unspoken thought that has quietly taken over. It has become normal to pursue more than one path. It feels like our generation moves at lightspeed, trying to win some kind of invisible race that has been forced upon us.
Is social media opening our minds or limiting our lives?
Most days we’re caught in the crossfire of so many things, with tens of passions vying for the few hours we have managed to free in our day. Tens of roles we’ve got to fulfil. You have to be the perfect daughter, spend quality time with your family and, at the same time, be a great friend who’s always there for the people you love. You have to have a work-life balance and, somehow, not forget your own personal time to keep it all together.
Versatility of choice can be the devil in disguise.
Thinking about social media and having to scatter ourselves in all these directions at the same time is exhausting. All that chaos has existed before, and so has the desire to be perfect. But now it feels harder because of the sheer variety of paths available to us. So adding that to the equation feels like raising a number to the fourth power.
career shift: A blessing or another distraction?
Looking back through history, or even just a few decades ago, the concept of a career shift was virtually unheard of. The expected path was often much more prescribed: pick a university, choose a major, study and work based on what you had studied. Honestly, I think our 18-year-old selves might get confused and feel pressured to make such a defining life decision.
So “career shift” found a loophole in this perfectly neat contract.
It gave us a passage to the other side, but was it really what we needed? And now, I wonder: was this loophole designed to free us or to burden us even more?
Was that how things were ever meant to be?
We can’t deny that we’ve all been influenced by a job our favourite character once had in a TV show, or a job we read about in a book, but that was also the case decades ago. Today, you can find thousands of videos on TikTok and YouTube telling you exactly what you should expect. So instead of romanticising one job every now and then and savouring that nostalgic feeling, we might now indulge in that feeling with countless different paths.
Does the Ease of Resources Come to Gen Z’s Aid?
If we asked a millennial, they’d probably say definitely. Then start talking endlessly about how that lack of resources was quite a formidable obstacle for them, and how it’s now much easier to navigate, learn and even reinvent yourself. You may find all kinds of manuals online, lots of instructions, tons of opinions and reviews.
If you asked a Gen Z, the answer might slightly change. They’ll probably tell you how much they acknowledge the luxury of having all these resources, but also how heavily that luxury weighs on us. Because if we’re not taking full advantage of everything out there, then what are we honestly doing?
Is it possible that the cost of having such resources is our peace of mind, our physical energy and our mental power?
Gen Z is peculiar. We are. And we’re being criticised for something our critics never experienced in their own youth. Our lives are moving at a pace that can be unnerving, convincing our unconscious minds that we’re in an emergency situation. We need to run instead of walk, we need to work instead of sleep, and we need to know everything. There’s no room for confusion.
Dearest gentle reader, take this as a sign to slow down, to take a breath and focus on who you want to be instead of what roles you need to fulfil. Being successful takes time, but more importantly, it takes the freedom to figure out what path to pursue. Such decisions may come easily to some, yet feel profoundly confusing to others. At the end of the day, we are not born with our career paths written on our foreheads.
We all feel the urgency that’s being applied to us anonymously and get those 2 a.m. thoughts that we need to change everything and start mapping out our lives all over again. Sometimes all we need is guidance. Someone to tell us we’re on the right lane, or a tender reminder that we’re not alone. Consider this yours.
