Gen Z: Shaped by bullying, school shootings, terrorism, and COVID-19 struggles

Gen Z will attack you, rather, cancel you should you express hate toward our favorite Korean idol group, favorite song, or book of choice published in Wattpad. You may see us in 2023, taking selfies across the street even with our masks on, dancing to the newest TikTok trend, or posting an image in our Facebook and Instagram stories of our meal in McDonald’s before munching on the box of six-piece chicken nuggets, fries, and iced coffee.

As mundane as the source of our excitement could be, we may have blurred the lines between affection and love, truth and fiction, and our public lives and private lives. We are the ones whose population is less religiously affiliated while we remain those with the biggest mental health crisis. At the same time, our generation is where women offer their seats to men, where enlightenment about the importance of consent is highlighted, and where trans women can compete for the crown in a pageant alongside naturally-born females. Our time paved the way for greater fluidity with issues of gender and sex.

We have our own little worlds. Some like to surf the internet, some listen to music, some sleep, and some do nothing at all. This is Gen Z, we mind our own business because, within every individual’s little world, there is an aspiring artist, a future doctor, a scientist who is trying to come up with the cure to HIV or cancer, or an engineer who plans to create bridges around the world so we can go to every country without having the need to fly.

Though our generation has been shaped by the circumstances of bullying, school shootings, terrorism, and the struggles brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are accustomed to being competitive and focused on how we’ll have a future ahead of us. The predecessors of the generation have always made choices for our generation, choices that brought us to where we are today—in a great battle against climate change, an ozone layer that continues to thin, regularly battered with typhoons and other disasters, under the hands of crooks who lead the countries.

Despite the staggering changes that are coming before us, we are also the generation who efficiently exercises the right to vote, to support laws in regard to the legalization of divorce, and policies that shall pave the way for quality health care for all. Sensitive as we may seem, ours is where the toxic cycle of siding with the oppressor rather than the oppressed ends: We are not and will never be silenced throughout the course of trying to relieve the plight of the least, the last, and the lost.

This is the story of our lives as Gen Z: Known to be those who are easily offended over remarks of sexism, misogyny, and inequality yet the slightest bit of demanding accountability from the earlier generations is considered as insurrection, pushing the best of us despite having little to no chance of ridiculing the oppressors of yesterday and today. In spite of deprivation, we still cling to the remaining hope. Our time is where we can find joy in the simplest of things, without having the need to romanticize our resilience. We endure pain and loss at constant vulnerability but that does not mean we do not seek a positive change. We look forward even toward the smallest of victories amidst an ocean of fear and uncertainty.

Mary Kathleen M. Paz