Billionaire Entrepreneur Mark Cuban says he believes that Generation Z, those born roughly between 1995 and 2010 will go down as the “greatest generation” because of their focus on mental health and proper work-life balance. The possibility of this statement is debatable. Though being a generation zoomer myself, I have no intention of being an advocate of this generation nor do I hold a despicable grudge against it. Our generation most certainly enjoys some privileges devoid to those of the previous ones. We are the generation who hasn’t witnessed a lot of hardships, missed the two world wars, the great recession and a lot of depressing events as these. One could say that we were born with silver spoons in our mouths while being served everything on golden plates. As such we have grown to be fatally optimistic, extremely confident in our abilities, valuing our independence and freedom the most. So this should not come as a surprise that people from our generation are easily drawn towards entrepreneurship as it guarantees being the boss of our own lives. Also, the biggest advantage would be having Internet at our disposal and being the most technically highbrow generation. We are innovative, creative, open minded and most significantly ethnically and racially diverse while at the same time being inclusive of all. However, on the other hand of the spectrum, sadly, these are also the very factors that could be seen as disparaging. Considering what Mark has said, we are also the generation that has been most concerned and conscious of their mental health. Perspective has always been a variable when it comes to debatable subject matters.
While being optimistic is not bad but the fact that we have not encountered any serious hardships or life- threatening situations increases our vulnerability and incompetency towards failures. Perhaps it’s because we have seen a world on the Internet that overflows with perfectionism, fulfilment and accomplishment where failure doesn’t exist. We may be tech- savvies but we have matured into a bunch of people who are addicted to their social media for insane increments in dopamine levels like drug addicts who would turn crazy for instant gratification. Our liberal mindset which is considered unprejudiced has turned out accepting to the levels of stupidity and utter lunacy. We are perhaps determined, creative in the things we want but that doesn’t make our future less certain or gender more specific. The motivation behind excessive concern regarding mental health is probably because we are the generation with the most mental health issues. Almost 36% are facing issues like anxiety and 29% have depression. It is ironic how we who claim that mental health matters are the ones who are the most anxious, concerned, stressed and involved in toxic relationships. We are the loneliest generation despite having social media because we all like to pretend to be something which we are not. The diminished transparency, increased superficiality, flamboyance and obsession with luxurious lifestyle has made us all into people with superiority complexes who are actually narcissists trying to use their narcissism as a veneer to cover their traumas who might otherwise get triggered or offended. Regardless however advantages or damaged our generation might be, one thing is for sure, we, like everyone else are trying to solve this puzzle and maze of life so that one day when we figure out the art of “survival” we might as well consider “living.”
Fatima 5th semester
Student of English literature, Amar Singh College Fatimaakhanam@gmail.com