Why People in Their 40s, 50s, and 60s Are Secretly Fascinated by Gen Z—And What It Reveals About Us All

They’re so open about mental health and feelings, which I admire the h**l out of. Their generation is willing to talk about it freely, rather than older generations who’ve pretty much kept mental illness (diagnosed or suspected, it doesn’t matter) hidden away or never taken seriously. It’s one of the few good things to come out of social media: There can be such support and understanding from complete strangers when someone shares their suffering

QueenMoogle , Oleksandr P Report

They’re willing to leave jobs for better pay. When Gen X did it, it was branded as ‘job hopping’ and heavily frowned upon by companies. I’m happy that younger generations figured out that if you want to climb the ladder, you often have to jump over to a different one.

User , Andrea Piacquadio Report

I admire their general disinterest in alcohol. Its consumption is so woven into our social fabric that it becomes hard to face how damaging it is to our long-term health. Whether Gen Z seems to acknowledge this truly, or they are just contrarian for the sake of being different, I think it’s a positive thing, and I hope it sticks.

gardenfiendla8 , Keira Burton Report

– Way less religious. – Open minded. – Less judgmental. – Less money driven/more experience driven. – A surprising amount of them are into rock and metal. – Very creative. – Less d**g abuse. – Less violent. – More into science. – More aware of b******t. Source: I’ve been teaching middle school for 9 years. I know that they might look like morons, but the morons have ALWAYS been around in every generation. These morons are just a lot more visible because of social media.

anon , Helena Lopes Report

Being more humanist. Some of it is inherited from what’s taught/programmed at school etc, but some of it is also a choice they’ve made independently. Boomer generation were utterly focused on career progression and productivity at all costs. That was a byproduct of the generation that raised them, who were coming out of major world wars and the peak of the age of industrialization. Gen X inherited a certain degree of that by virtue of the fact they were raised by Boomers, but started to also think about food inequality, world peace and the environment (aka: save the trees). Gen Y picked up more of the social equality mindset but I think got a bit lost figuring out their identity because they were at the beginning of social media and the idea of “personal branding”. Gen Z are far enough distanced from the age of industrialization now that their mindset is more centered around humanity. Healthy work/life balance, more tolerance for people with disabilities, varying sexual orientations and races/religions, more compassion and consideration of mental health. Somewhat ironically, there’s a theory that society goes through four phases that align to each generation, with the final phase being enlightenment, before going back to the start of the cycle which is essentially “war”. Given the deteriorating state of the world, the generation after Gen Z may possibly end up looking more like the silent generation.

lordgoofus1 Report

Gen Z is a lot less casually racist, sexist and lgbtq hating than the people I grew up with, which is something I appreciate.

jessek , Anna Shvets Report