Who Are iGen?

Last year, I wrote a feature article entitled ‘Generation of Outrage’ which consisted of me ranting and raving about what I now know to be called Generation Z, which is the grouped generation following millennials.

I wrote about the far-left liberals getting too easily offended by benign comments made by Matt Damon, for instance and the not so much spoken about, the impact of the #me-too movement of men. Recently, I’ve been thinking about why this new generation of outraged snowflakes has come to be and I think I’ve found a couple of pieces to the puzzle.

To understand Generation Z, we must first discuss what makes Generation Z unique from other generations. “Kids born after 1995, they don’t get drivers licences as much, they don’t drink as much, they don’t go on dates, they don’t have sex as much, what are they doing? They’re sitting at home on their devices talking with each other” (Haidt, 2018). So, it seems, Generation Z can be defined partly by the significance of screens and the magnitude of mobile devices. Although, whilst running the risk of sounding like an out of touch hipster, I’ll ask, why is this a problem? Well, “the rates of anxiety disorders, depression, self-cutting where they have to be admitted to hospitals and suicide, all of these rates are way up...and it all begins right around 2011, and so it’s when this generation first enter college campuses around 2013, that’s when all the new attitude of speech comes in” (Haidt, 2018). So, it seems one reason for this generation of outrage is the technology in which they vent their outrage. Is social media to blame then? Well Twitter especially has been found to contribute to dumbing down and simplifying language and encouraging negativity, after all, “It is much easier to say something nasty about someone when they are not physically present” (Ott, 2016). What is also worrying is Media Professor, Brian Ott’s use of words when describing Twitter, “In other words, the personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy—commonly referred to as the Dark Triad— are positively related to Twitter usage” (Ott, 2016). No wonder this generation are angry all the time.

Another factor that contribute to this overreactive outrage later in life is the parents who allow their kids to sit inside all day staring mindlessly at these screens, ‘bulldozing’ all obstacles these kids ever have to face which leads to limited function in the real world. “If you protect your kid from being excluded, insulted, from being teased, when they grow up…a little tiny thing that they encounter on campus (like a visiting speaker they don’t agree with) now becomes intolerably painful” (Haidt, 2018). Now, this is me preaching about parenting, a childless 23-year-old, however, the points made are still valid and from a valid source in Professor in ethical leadership, Jonathan Haidt. “Your life can be really meaningful, its proportionate to the responsibility that you take on and you learn that by watching, when you’re engaged in the world and what works to…protect you from feelings of isolation and doom” (Peterson, 2017).

References

Haidt, J. (2018). Real Time with Bill Maher episode 32. [video] Available at: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6w8zlj [Accessed 20 Nov. 2018].

Ott, B. (2016). The age of Twitter: Donald J. Trump and the politics of debasement. Critical Studies in Media Communication, [online] 34(1), p.62. Available at: https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1080/15295036.2016.1266686 [Accessed 20 Nov. 2018].

Peterson, J. (2017). Jordan Peterson on Why People Are So Unhappy. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-8XbT97Meo [Accessed 20 Nov. 2018].