Arguably speaking, those born between 1996 to 2011 have more freedom and understanding of the world than other generations. Generation Z kids are the first viewers to see this adaptation to a technological and globalized world. These children were the first to explore the internet at an early age, the first to hold smartphones along with social media, and the first to get any known knowledge of humanity in a matter of seconds.
How will this affect their parenting style? What will their core teachings be for future generations?
Generations with Technology
In recent decades. technology has had a direct effect on culture, now one can look up for questions and interact with people around the world from the commodity of their home. With the rise of AI, these advances in technology have directly affected education. It's no wonder why so many students have relied on Chat GPT for their school assignments. In a survey done by Intelligent.com and SurveyMonkey to 1,223 current college students, 30% of college students in the U.S., ranging from ages 18-30 were somewhat likely to recommend this AI to other students last year.
The previously mentioned case serves as an example of how this generation heavily relies on technology for even simple tasks such as school assignments and homework. Gen Z has grown up with technology, and they will always look for perspectives on how they can use this technology. In bad or good manners, they have been witnesses of what technology can do.
Nowadays it's easier to find a community online than doing so in the real world. This is why many children may have difficulties socializing nowadays. According to an article by The New York Times, kids as young as 8 are using more social media than ever. This rooting has been visible since the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that children have adopted bad habits in terms of screen time in recent years. And this may be dangerous for new generations as they may be exposed to any sort of inappropriate content, or even worse; to people who want to harm them. A clear example of this was YouTube's ''Elsagate'' scandal after supposedly pedophile users from the website were luring children to give private information through YouTube's comment section for videos aimed specifically at children. Also, the majority of these videos were exposing minors to sensitive content such as drugs, sex, and violence.
Despite the internet being a place where information has no limits, current and future generations need to understand how technology works and may help them travel throughout their life. Gen Z is prolific in doing this, as they often share their opinions and concerns through social media. Gen Z, and Millenials to an extent, understand the commodities that technology may offer, and they are also aware to take some time from this ones and reflect on what they are doing.
Time for oneself
In a recent survey done by The Times in the UK of Gen Z, and even Millenials, only 55% were confident about having children. The main argument behind why the rest didn't have the idea of having children on their own was that they wanted to have more time for themselves. In recent years there has been a recent impact on culture regarding mental health. Gen Z in particular promotes having good mental health, according to Forbes. This belief is commonly linked with having time with oneself.
It can also be directly associated with social media influences. TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook have played a big role in the development of Gen Z. With trends and ways of speaking, these apps often change drastically the culture of Gen Z within months and years. There's a clear shift of ideas every year; ideas being completely eradicated or introduced in a matter of days. This can also be interpreted as the post-modern era. Iresearchnet.com describes this era to be a wide range of perspectives and styles of life itself. Ranging from religious to scientific ideologies.
It's a wide range of perspectives never seen before in history. It has become clear that Gen Z now has much more freedom than ever, People within this generation have more freedom to decide what ideas they can follow. Browsing through types of paths and strategies they can have in life. Indeed, there's no clear answer on how one can live their life, and Gen Z can decide what type of lifestyle they can have.
Parenting
Now, Gen Z is knocking into adulthood and many are going into the early years of parenthood. In a research performed by Caroline Picard for whattoexpect.com, there are key comparisons for both parenting styles from Gen Z and Millenial. Despite Gen Z having liberal thoughts on teaching, they still consider that achieving a perfect score for almost everything is essential for the education of their children. But this doesn't stop them from considering and letting their children explore and have as many activities as possible.
Despite this, Gen Z mothers felt less confident about being that ideal mother, this can be arranged with reasons such as bad parenting. But, by keeping it positive, this generation is much more aware of mental health which may influence them to get that confidence. Gen Z has also adopted a gentle parenting style. In contrast with an authoritative parenting style, this gentle style is much more open, it is often represented as parents letting their children explore ideas, activities, and the world in general. Parents here serve the purpose of teaching but prefer to take along their kids through the teaching journey. Or they let them remain on their own but give advice from time to time.
An article by General Catalyst makes suppositions in detail about how the next generation of parents will be. They link this awareness of mental health with excessive screen time and social media usage. This is something that many in Gen Z are currently struggling with and is something that are conscious of. One can often look up or even ask friends how many hours they have invested in apps like TikTok. The amount is commonly unhealthy, which is why it's argumentative that the majority of Gen Z parents will limit the amount of screen time. They will also be aware and teach their children the dangers of social media, like sharing information throughout the web. Gen Z parents are also expected to follow a schedule of when is a good time to reveal sensitive information to their children, a popular example being sexual education.
Conclusion
Personally speaking, I have high hopes for future generations. I have met incredible people within my age range who have these same ideas. The next challenge for Gen Z is to properly educate their kids on how to be an understandable human being and to welcome the strange in one's life. Technology will impact their lives as much as Gen Z has had, which is why it's important to introduce the pros and cons to future generations.
The conversation of how technology is affecting the abilities of the younger generations is such an interesting topic. I often think about myself and how I can barely go a few minutes without needing some form of technology, so I can't imaging what its going to be like for the generations that have the "iPad kids." I also think about the use of AI or other sites that allow students to look up answers will affect the future workforce. Will there just be an entire workforce that relies on technology to give them the answers to everything and whether or not those who are graduating to be doctors and lawyers are actually as qualified as they should be if they've…
A thought I often think about is how interesting it will be to see the generations that we raised. How different will it be compared to now? It's also scary to think about all the issues that may arise as well. Will we be the ones to object when we're older to the younger generation?
I love talking about the differences in generations. It's so fascinating to see how variables like technology, the economy, and social factors can change people so much. generational trauma is real and I am happy to see that there is a generation working hard to heal.
I think that Gen Z is way too addicted to technology, but I can say the same for millennials. I think that kids today are exposed to way too much way too young.
As a child-free millennial with a somewhat strained relationship with their parents, I found your post really fascinating. It's heartening to see younger generations working to break "generational curses" and approach raising their kids from a more empathetic perspective. I think we'll see a lot of trauma healing ☀️