themurphy,

Many years ago I talked with a friend about racism, and what would be next when we “fixed” that one day.

He said age, and now you mother fuckers have named every single decade and put people in a box with a label stamped to it.

Guys a prophet I guess.

RBWells,

I have kids in both these age groups and they are more alike than different. I think the younger set is slightly better with technology and much more diverse in their musical taste than the older ones were at the same age. I guess they don’t have a generational difference if they are all siblings though.

Cyanogenmon,
@Cyanogenmon@lemmy.world avatar

Hi. System Admin millennial here.

You would think that’s the case, but in my experience it’s not.

Millenials were around during a major shift/evolution in general home computer use, so we’re much closer to understanding the “flow” of tech, even if it’s older. Gen-Z tries to think in smartphone or tablet mode.

Younger Gen-Z are the same as a blue collar boomer: when the company I work for hires a Gen-Z employee, I spend a ton of time with them the first few weeks “fixing” their “broken” machines. Most of the Millenials that are hired can do the general troubleshooting themselves.

I will agree with the music bit though.

RBWells,

I’m oldish GenX and maybe atypical but was a very early adopter of tech, on Usenet as soon as I could connect to anything, and was tech support for the older kids (but both got very tech savvy boyfriends) and of the younger set only the 19 year old has outpaced me. But I do think, if generalizing:

I can work computers because I had to fix them and like to mess with them. So everything now seems so easy in a way - I set up a network in my old house, wires everywhere, testing testing fixing, blah. Was dreading doing it when we moved - nope, mesh system, scan a code, boom done! Amazing!

Millennial kids don’t expect everything to work but seem stumped when it doesn’t. This may just be my kids because I fixed stuff for them.

The younger ones are used to everything working seamlessly and it does for them. That mesh network setup did not awe them, they expected it to be that easy!

sour,
@sour@kbin.social avatar

i see you ._.

tiredofsametab,

Former gen-x here (I was gen-x when millennial used to mean people who graduate high school on/after the start of the millennia, but they moved x back to 1980 leaving me in a weird place). I think the main difference in younger people today is that their technological savvy is more in mobile devices since they are so powerful and so connected that they don't really need PCs for anything. I first noticed this living in Japan because they had very useful, high-tech hand-helds very early on. As such, I worked with many around my age who could barely even use something like Excel and had no computer troubleshooting experience. It seems to me like many of gen-z or possibly alpha don't have the PC side, but are very good with mobile.

ByteJunk,
@ByteJunk@lemmy.world avatar

There’s strong statistical evidence suggesting that millennials are, on average, older than gen z’ers. It not clear from the latest studies what could have caused this presumed age gap.

Those same studies also evidenced the startling fact that the tested individuals shared over 99.9% of their genome and could in fact belong to the same species, which is what prompted all the recent controversy after one of the lead researchers said in a televised interview that “they’re all people”.

cashews_best_nut,

As a millenial I found I had a lot more in common with my Gen Z brother than I do with my boomer father. However, the little shit treated and thought of me like I’m a boomer. He’d consider my shitty FPS playing on console to be a sign “I couldn’t play games” (I’m a PC gamer).

I’d like to think he’ll mature and realise he was being a little cunt but I doubt he will.

CADmonkey,

“What are some differences between these two groups that we can use to divide them?”

Fuck off.

CarlsIII,

They might as well has asked “what was it like for you growing up?” because everyone’s just posting their own experiences and insisting their entire generation was exactly the same.

qwrty,
@qwrty@lemmy.world avatar

I’m Gen-Z, my parents are older Millennials

Millennials use the Internet but they don’t get it like Gen-Z does. Most of my peers seem to have a much better understanding of online culture than most millennials do. They use much more irony in both online and irl conversations.

One thing I noticed was that millennials have weebs, but Gen-Z doesn’t. It’s not something special for Zoomers to watch anime or be interested in Japanese media/culture. Almost all of my peers watch anime or consume some other Japanese media frequently. My parents didn’t watch anime until my sister got them to.

Gen-Z is more individualist in less of a “the only person that matters is me” sort of way and more of a “you can’t count on anyone, especially the government to help you” sort of way. You can see this through Gen-Zs political engagement. Most of my peers are differently engaged that millennials. Most people my age don’t affiliate with a specific party, but rather by an ideology.

Also, Gen-Z is much more depressed

jodanlime,
@jodanlime@midwest.social avatar

Your parents sound more like gen x to me, but there are blurred lines between all the generations.

Your comments about tech understanding is almost completely opposite to most other comments, which is my main reason for thinking that. But I know plenty of millennials that are shit with tech too.

My experience in IT is that most of gen z doesn’t care about understanding anything on the Internet outside of social media, and they do excel at social media compared to others but I see fewer and fewer young people interested in how any of it works. They seem to be completely content with consuming media but even most of the big game streamers are millennials it seems like. Gen z seems completely ok with walled gardens and black box services as long as they ‘work’ .

qwrty,
@qwrty@lemmy.world avatar

My experience in IT is that most of gen z doesn’t care about understanding anything on the Internet outside of social media

Yea, I’ve found this frustrating as the “tech guy”

classmate has a problem

“It’s impossible, I don’t know how to fix it”

I Fix it with simply restarting the program.

They seem to be completely content with consuming media but even most of the big game streamers are millennials it seems like.

Every generation is like this. Typically, the media of a generation is made by older generations. Much of Boomers music was made by the silent generation. Most of the Millennial pop culture was made by Gen-X and Boomers. I would argue that millennials and gen-z are set apart by how to prevent their own generation is in their own pop culture.

MystikIncarnate,

I work in IT support, and I have for longer than I’d like to admit. I’m on the very early edge of millennial. I was born a few years after the generation “started”. My older brother was on the transition between millennial and gen X and my oldest sibling was very gen X. My parents were part of the prior two generations (boomers etc), and I tend to work along side and for all sorts of people from all of these generations.

Earlier than gen X, eg boomers and older, are usually technology adverse, they don’t like change. I find many are kind of “set in their ways”. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but they seem to be fairly rare. They like to do things using methods that are tried and true, but often reluctantly agree to use computers instead of paper because that’s what others are doing. Even so, they’re fairly adverse to updates and changes that modify how things get done. They have money, and you can’t have any of it. Often, they have little understanding of the problems faced with current generations, likely because they did not have the same challenges, and despite their stories of “back in my day” about how hard things were for them, they actually had it rather easy in terms of cashflow and buying power. They made less, sure, but when they were able to buy a mid sized, single family, fully detached home for the same dollar value as a “cheap” car costs now, their money went much farther (around $20k).

Gen X is kind of lost. What I mean is that they don’t really have too many traits that stand out. As far as I can see, they’re hyper independent, mostly riding the coat tails of the bombers economically, so, while they didn’t have it quite as easy as boomers did (despite what boomers might think/say), it also wasn’t significantly harder for them. They were mostly able to follow a fairly typical life path, get an education (HS/college/uni), get a career, buy a house, have a family (if desired). Politically, from what I’ve seen, gen X is the most diverse group and they’re usually following along with whatever is regionally popular. Not because it’s popular, but because they’re surrounded by it. From what I’ve seen this group is the most adaptable to their neighboring community, mostly just trying to fit in and not be bothered. Right now they’re a large part of working professionals.

Millennials are usually post college, debt laden individuals that are just tired. They were trying to kick-start their lives in some of the craziest times imaginable. Many early millennials who were able to quickly move through the education system, and immediately get into a career and the housing market follow more along the lines of gen X. If you were held back for any reason or you were caught up in a situation that held you back, you shared fate with many of the later millennials. The majority of millennials were caught up in every economic crisis short of a complete collapse of the money system during the years that they should have been starting their careers. Homes rose in price swiftly and vehicles didn’t lag far behind. Driven by sheer determination to succeed, many accrued significant debt that they just want to balance out. This group is the most technically malleable and can adapt to most technology changes in the shortest time. Growing up on landlines and home PC’s/consoles/electronics that all significantly changed their designs, capabilities and interfaces every 4-5 years. Many seem to be problem solvers and want to be helpful/useful. Many have, and some still do, hold onto the ideal that their contribution should be impactful. Most just want to be acknowledged and told they’re doing well, while making enough to pay their bills and debts. For many the dream of owning a home is dying or dead. Renters, car owners, debt holders. They’re growing rather jaded about it as they get older.

Gen Z have their own language. Millennials did too but mostly in cultural memes, with the zoomers, it’s less cultural reference and more of a short hand derived from cultural references. Things that on their own, don’t make any sense and are not even full sentences in any way shape or form. They follow in the aftermath of the economic crisises of millennials and have many of the same economic challenges. Many of those challenges are simply more severe. Prices are higher than ever, buying power is at an all time low. Surrounded by toxic “hustle” culture and many seem to want nothing to do with that. Many find humor in randomness and unexpected happenstance rather than traditional subversion of expectation as humor. They’re quickly becoming the most socially aware and active generation, and want change. Technologically growing up on iPhones and Androids rather than home PC’s, many are not very adaptable to changes in technology though zoomers are one of the highest use groups for the technology. They use it, they don’t really understand it very well, so when things break, even if they’re only non fictional in their current state, things are replaced rather than fixed. Eg, if their iPhone is too slow, rather than trying to find out why or trying to fix the issue, better to simply upgrade to whatever apple is currently pushing. Due to this, they needlessly spend more money than their older generation counterparts. This is by design by the actions of corporations, fostering a single use, replace, not repair mentality. They’re not lazy or lacking in motivation at all, despite appearances that may show a lack of success, instead the lack of success is driven by an inability to find adequate employment that will pay enough to allow them to prosper. The majority will be “held back” from the “typical” life path of education > career > home ownership > family, because of their inability to prosper due to high prices and low wages.

Overall, through the generations there has been a decline in community as a function of geography, and an increase in community as a function of shared interest, mainly due to the growing and universal access to the internet. The internet has allowed both good and bad to be accessible at a moment’s notice. This has shortened the tolerance to delays and given a sense of urgency to even the most trivial and mundane of requests. With the immediate response available from growing internet connectivity, demand for more frequent, more detailed updates from everything has grown significantly, eroding confidence in others to fulfill their obligations unless they communicate that “we’re doing things” (so to speak). Even something as simple as ordering take out or having things shipped, if there is no tracking and reporting, then it might as well not be happening.

Over all, IMO, the problems faced by the current generations tend to be more centered around artificial issues created by corporations. They want to pay less, earn more, and overall turn a larger and larger profit. This is neither surprising, nor helpful to most. It does however explain the single use, replace rather than fix, nature of things that has been growing. The rise in rental vs ownership has increased the cost of living and is on track to build a service-based lifestyle where personal ownership doesn’t happen. Everything is provided for a “low” recurring fee, which has so significantly outpaced any rise in wage that most will be unable to accrue any amount of savings.

For me, all of this has made it very clear what future we’re in store for, and bluntly, it’s not very pleasant. Perpetual home rental, no personal ownership of vehicles (you simply tap a button on your phone and if one is available, it will arrive for you to use, little more than a taxi service), video, audio and other media will be rental only, streaming over the internet, which is a monthly service fee. This leads to near zero ability for customization of your lifestyle. You have no choice in terms of the appliances and devices you use, the car you drive, your home’s design… The list goes on. So if you want or need something different, you’re completely out of luck. Conform or die.

fuzzzerd,

I tend to agree with your summary of the generations, but my experience in life sounds largely similar to yours, so some obvious bias there. The future you paint feels almost inevitable, and I hate every bit of it. Yet I can’t find any reasonably effective way to change it.

isVeryLoud,

I’m an early gen Z, I’m 25 right now, and have been on the job market for 8 years so far.

I’m tired, I’m overworked, I’m stressed, I’m looking for upward mobility in my domain but every company is making cutbacks, withholding bonuses and holding pay increases.

I’m a software developer. I’m working a main job and freelancing on the side to make ends meet, and it’s still not enough.

I invest in my future with things like RRSP and FHSAs, I have some luxuries (small car, a dog because what is life if it’s completely miserable?), and it hurts every time I get a necessity because everything goes to rent, food, clothing, etc. and grocery bills are always close to $200 for 2 people, even at the cheaper grocery stores.

Everything’s down on quality, nothing lasts, so we either have to buy things over and over, or save up a ton of money to pay luxury prices for a decent product that won’t break the very fucking second the warranty expires.

We’re getting gouged as much as possible. My group is particular because we started our careers slightly before or during the 2020 pandemic, where companies learned that they could gouge the fuck out of everyone on necessities, and people starting out fresh are hit the hardest as they don’t have savings or mature investments.

MystikIncarnate,

I promise you, I have no savings nor investments, mature or otherwise.

I completely understand where you’re coming from. I’ve long considered that the next generation is going to be royalty screwed. Millennials are not doing great. I know many that are struggling, but gen z didn’t even get a chance.

Give your dog some pets for me and I hope things get better soon… Or the government collapses under the insurmountable weight of all the bribery that’s going on.

Art3sian, (edited )
@Art3sian@lemmy.world avatar

Marketing Exec here. I specialise in generation segmentation. I wrote this recently for my employer:

Gen-Z

Are recession learned, young, with low disposable income and low income. They are in education, are career starters and living at home.

They are lonely, single, and spend 10 hours p/day online (hyper online consumption / always logged in) with the least attention to ads. They are engaged in people-discussing-products-and-services, prefer information over ads, and use ad blockers.

Otherwise known as ‘digital natives’, Gen-Z are highly socially consciousness (body image, cyberbullying, mental health) and highly environmentally conscious. They have a strong focus on saving and responsible spending and are quite frugal. They are study and career minded and prefer money over perks and benefits in employment. They dislike having their time wasted. They have a low attention span.

Millennials

Have long-term debt (mortgage/car/student loan) and have young children. They are not at full purchasing power, are the most adaptable generation ever to pre-and post-technology, are delayed in marriage, delayed in independence, and came of age through globalisation and economic rollercoasters.

They prefer texting/messaging, are high use smartphone users, and sleep with their phone. They are the most active and health conscious generation, environmentally conscious, and the highest consumers of web content. Learning is more compelling than buying to Millennials as they spend an average of 4 hours p/day online or with phone/apps. They prefer advisors, advice, and opinions over a corporate story. They prefer sharing economy (access not ownership). Prefer e-commerce as entertainment.

Millennials are impatient, have reduced brand loyalty, and are extremely tech savvy. They are researchers of ideas, thoughtful and seeking expertise, and love to collaborate and help companies or causes achieve. Online they use acronyms, slang, and respond to authentic but complex language. They prefer honesty and being empowered. They are price aware.

GiuseppeAndTheYeti,

nods

XYZinferno,

As an older Zoomer myself, your description of Gen Z fits me to a T

infinitepcg,

Now do the other generations!

Art3sian, (edited )
@Art3sian@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve done them all. It’s my job. Here are the big ones but I could go all day on demographic, psychographic, and technographic segments.

Gen-X

Are nostalgic, middle-aged, family oriented, individual, busy/stressed, and time poor. They are consumers of media and marketing in the evenings and enjoy peace of mind. They apply high value to security and protection, are customer-service centred and insist on value. They are brand loyal.

Entering peak career/positions of power, Gen-X are financially stable. They are newly empty nesters with adult children. They are homeowners with high purchase power.

Gen-X thoroughly research products, rely on businesses as providers of information, and are the highest online information seekers with moderate use of smartphones (3 hours p/day). They prefer text and email and are high social media consumers.

Boomers

Are informed shoppers and prefer reliability of products. Boomers are independent, goal/solution oriented, are value and ROl orientated, careful buyers, and confident. They are less tech savvy (slow adopters of change), and don’t like or understand online trends and language. They prefer helpful and valuable content, no slang, and have a high focus on luxury. They have an attitude of 'the customer is always right’, and have a high use in their children as tech advisors. They are very brand loyal.

Boomers have a high disposable income, work hard and have an excellent work ethic. Now retired or entering retirement, they have grandchildren, are homeowners/investors with very high purchase power. Boomers are the wealthiest generation, set to bequeath $224B in the next two decades.

With a strong focus on health, Boomers spend to be comfortable, are big spenders, and prefer traditional relationships with business and necessary contact. They are high Facebook users, prefer clear and concise language, and spend 5 hours p/day on smartphones. Boomers are print and broadcast media consumers. They are traditional.

Silent Gen

Silent Gen are extremely loyal and expect loyalty in return. They are disciplined, family/community centred, prefer conformity, give and expect respect, are traditional, resilient, determined, very health conscious, and time rich.

Now Grandparents / Great Grandparents, they are retired, downsizing, and social. Silent Gen have an easy-life preference, seek value, are very frugal, and are budgeters. They are almost exclusively analogue and highly self-sacrificial.

clay_pidgin,

It’s tough to generalize, but I think you did a good job here.

fireweed,

[Gen Z] have a strong focus on saving and responsible spending and are quite frugal.

I feel like the general stereotype is the opposite, that they’re big spenders without much regard for saving (or at least they’re spending what they can given their broke-youngster financial situation). I’m curious why you say the opposite is true?

Art3sian,
@Art3sian@lemmy.world avatar

I’m curious why you say the opposite is true?

Because it is true within the generational cohort. No disrespect, but I’m not looking at you and your mates. I’m looking at mass populations.

fireweed,

I think you misunderstood me. Let me try again.

I don’t personally know many people who are Gen Z (I’m a Millennial, and most people I know are Millennials, Xers, or Boomers). So most of what I “know” of Zoomers comes from things I’ve read, either social media conversations like this one or news articles/thought pieces. The impression I’ve gleaned from those is that Zoomers are not frugal: they’re Apple customers, chronic online shoppers (often for products like fast fashion that are individually cheap but quickly add up), and are spending big on experiences like travel and concerts. For example, another comment in the thread asserts that “[Zoomers] needlessly spend more money than their older generation counterparts [on technology because they replace rather than repair].”

Now I take these types of demographic assumptions with a grain of salt, especially having witnessed all the nonsense articles and conclusions made about my generation. However there is some logic behind the explanations I’ve heard for why Zoomers are spenders rather than savers. Such as, perhaps Zoomers are more focused on living (and spending) in the moment given their experience being deprived during their formative years that happened to fall during covid lockdowns. Perhaps Zoomers spend more frivolously because why bother save for a bleak future (“go ahead and splurge a little: it’s not like you’ll ever afford a house either way!” or “In the 21st century you can do everything ‘right’ and still easily end up failing, so why bother following the ‘right’ path?”) Perhaps it’s because we’ve created a world (at least in the US) where people are lonelier than ever and everything costs money: you can’t even hang out at the mall for free anymore because the mall was torn down last year, so you either spend money at another “3rd space” like a coffee shop, or you try to fill an emotional hole by purchasing things to make being stuck at home all the time more bearable (especially if you’re still living with your parents because you can’t afford to move out). Perhaps it’s because there’s more addictive stuff to spend money on that’s targeted at youth, like online streamers and pay-to-play games. Again I don’t know if any of this is true, but IMO it at least passes the sniff test.

However your comment asserts the opposite of what I’ve heard, so I was curious where you got your info from, especially since it’s presumably based in some kind of research if it was part of a work report. Did you survey Zoomers asking about their spending habits? Did you analyze credit card data? Etc.

Art3sian,
@Art3sian@lemmy.world avatar

This is a tear-off summary of a much bigger report created from multiple peer reviewed sources over months. I think from memory, the Gen-Z content had the fewest peer reviewed sources attached to it as a) there hasn’t been as much study done on Gen-Z because if they’re age (half aren’t even adults yet), and b) most of the studies done are based on change culture and online habits.

Gen-Z as wasteful spenders is an age biased assumption. Research suggests that their learned experiences through GFC, COVID, geo-political inability, environment, and a post-COVID economy has hardened their resolve, much like WW1, the Great Depression, and WW2 did for their grandparents.

I mean shit could change. They’re only 26 at the oldest so their data is evolving.

fireweed,

That makes sense, thank you

cashew,

They grew up knowing different Willy Wonkas. With a new remake due to drop in cinemas, it seems like the next generation will too.

Hiro8811,

Never even watched Wanka

otp,

That’s a completely different movie

Hiro8811,

I meant Willi Wankas but I was to lazy to type

otp,

I think you need to mark your comment NSFW!

Hiro8811,

Why? Did you watched Wanka? What is it about?

deezbutts,

Wanka forever

Godric,

A Midwestern (several years behind the zeitgeist) Gen Z enjoying the best of both worlds:

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

I think besides having better tech literacy, millennials also tend to be much more cynical about the state of the world. There is only so much you can take of taking the blame for ending the good old days while being called lazy and entitled before you get sick and tired of it all. Hell, you can see that in this very thread of some of us project our own cynicism onto Gen Z.

I don’t see that doomerism we millennials have in most of Gen Z. While we grew up in a world where we resigned to the fact that everything is getting worse, they grew up in a world where things are already terrible, and they think it needs to be fixed, and I have high hopes for them.

And I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired of everything, all the time. So I decided to change.

TheLadyAugust,

I’ve definitely caught myself in the doom attitude. But I’ve been waiting for 30 years to for enough reinforcements to fight a winning fight against the boomers and their many terrible ideas. Here they are. Every millennial still able to fight, its back the the trenches. Our allies have the energy to push our fight through the doom, millennials and gen z together.

(And a huge thank you to the few boomers fighting along side us.)

grandkaiser,

There’s no fight. No battle. It’s just people trying to get by day to day. “Boomers” are not a nation, they’re just another way to split up people trying to get by so one group can justify being shitty to another. Rich and powerful people are happy to promote anything that keeps us divided and conquered. Wars have leaders and strategies and clear lines drawn. The “generational war” is just rats fighting over a piece of cheese dropped by the rich and powerful looking for amusement.

phoneymouse,

The only war is class war

XbSuper,

I think that will change as they spend more time in the real world. I was full of hope and dreams when I left high school too, but it’s long faded away.

CarlsIII,

Gen Z hasn’t had their name changed several times yet

Decoy321,

It’s fuckin annoying. The whole time I thought I was Gen X up until a decade ago. Then all of sudden other people are telling me I’m this bullshit.

For fucks sake, I remember using rotary phones and fucking with TV antennas to get better reception. I remember when no one had cell phones or the Internet. If you didn’t know an answer to something, you just made your peace with that.

Donebrach,
@Donebrach@lemmy.world avatar

Ok boomer.

QuiteQuickQum,

I get it. You’re changing their name again.

Decoy321,

Did… Did you already forget what generation we’re talking about?

Bishma,
@Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I use the MTV demarcation line. If you were born before MTV came on the air (1982) then you’re GenX. But the whole Xenial thing is also legit.

PS the hidden secret to knowing anything before the internet was librarians. If it was really obscure the NY public library would take calls from all over the country.

MrShankles,

No GPS, no map Quest, no internet on cell-phone. You just got lost in the smokey mountains for hours, about to run out of gas, hoping there was an open gas station at the next exit. Just raw-dogging those road-trips for the most part

Decoy321,

Man, those were interesting times. It’s funny, elsewhere in these comments I remarked about a question people didn’t ask back in the day. “Where are you?” was hardly ever asked because of landlines.

Your response reminded me of an inverse question, one that’s rarely asked nowadays.

“Where am I?”

otp,

I think “Where are you” was perfectly acceptable when we had landlines. It was before phones that that was almost never asked.

Decoy321,

Indeed, they were always perfectly acceptable. I was just commenting how you usually knew the location of the person you called because you knew to call that locations landline. You still wouldn’t know receiving calls off the bat, at least until caller ID.

foggy,

I’m 35 and remember all those things too, but I was never under the impression I was gen x.

I’d say: if you remember the fall of the Berlin wall, you aren’t a millennial, no matter what they say. If you don’t remember 9/11, you’re gen Z.

AnalogyAddict,

It’s a microgeneration: the Xennials. We had all the analog fun of X and developed all the cynicism of Millenials.

GiuseppeAndTheYeti,

Guess that makes me a zellenial. Fucked with rotary phones, dial-up, and analog tech but also grew up with access to the early internet.

CarlsIII,

The annoying thing I’m discovering is people insisting that millennials were all children in the early 2000’s, when, if millennials start with 1980 as I’ve been told (and it does seem to keep changing), a lot of millennials were adults before the 2000’s even started.

vividspecter,
  • Gen Z (especially women) are typically a bit more progressive than millennials. There’s a minority of Gen Z conservative men, but it’s overstated.
  • Arguably better media literacy amongst Gen Z, likely because they grew up with social media at its peak.
  • Better tech literacy amongst millenials perhaps due to multiple major technical changes during that period and harder to use systems

I’d say though that millenials and Gen Z are actually very similar on the whole in their beliefs, just with differences in degree. There’s a bigger gap from both of these generations to Gen X and Boomers. You can see this from the much higher conservative voting rates that kick in from Gen X and later.

SoylentBlake,

I keep seeing report after report that Gen Z keeps falling for internet scams at an alarmingly high rate

…which, I mean, idk, maaaybe?

Media literacy and scam discernment, I feel like we as millennials grew up alongside the rise of disinformation and the greater Enshitification of the internet, like this is our wheelhouse.

I remember icq, yahoo chat rooms, Napster and limewire, playing MUDS and ADOM, then digg, myspace. I remember when the Internet was fun, now, it’s just advertisers. I quit Facebook 7 years ago. I quit reddit with the API dick punch. I’ve been advertised to so much in my life that if I see a movie trailer it makes me not want to see it.

The internet can be great. Getting knowledge off it is amazing. I personal feel like the library of Congress should be made available online for free and all this knowledge thats hiding behind pay gates needs to be visited by the freedom fairy. I hope I can help facilitate this in my lifetime.

With media, I can only speak for myself, but I quit watching news in 2008. Ill read my news and not have some talking head attempt to emotionally manipulate me while they leave out key facts that don’t fit their narrative, thanks. Televised news has been more detrimental to us as a whole, imo.

My bullshit meter is simple. If whom or whatever is saying something that makes it an us vs them issue, dividing the people up, then they’re wrong. Almost universally. If your answer is only found down around the fallen, you aren’t bringing an answer, yr bringing an excuse to violence.

Real leadership, real progress, lifts up those it encounters. The rising tide is supposed to lift all ships. Cept in this dystopic reality, motherfuckers chained everyone’s ships to the dock and the rising tide just overcame and sank them. Rich get richer, poor get poorer, until the poor get even.

I’m dismayed we have to keep repeating this pattern. America had the same problems 100 years ago. We’ve had an entire century to do something about it, but fucking NOPE. An entire century wasted in my opinion. Better tech is cool, but if it doesn’t improve the lives of us all, than it fails the reasoning for tools existing in the first place, which is to relieve society if the many necessary hours of labor.

LegionEris,

I keep seeing report after report that Gen Z keeps falling for internet scams at an alarmingly high rate

…which, I mean, idk, maaaybe?

I feel like very young people are just more likely to get scammed due to lack of life experience. There are just a bunch of new avenues for scammers to access young people. I bet it pans out that it’s not the generation, it’s the age group.

intensely_human,

Even the clumsiest millennials have a level of body awareness that’s rare in gen z-ers, because we grew up in dangerous physical environments.

cashews_best_nut,

What? I don’t understand. Please explain.

intensely_human,

Toward the end of our (X) childhood, a number of major transitions in the handling of kids were being made:

  • Playgrounds were being transitioned into minimally-dangerous versions of themselves
  • Bullying was being cracked down on
  • Latchkey parenting was being recategorized as neglect and being cracked down on my CPS

This meant that Gen X kids had a lot of situations to deal with as kids where they had to develop physical skill as a means of staying safe.

For example by the age of 7 I could climb a tree and be pretty safe because I had developed upper, lower, and trunk body strength, awareness of how strong a branch is and how to test it for strength, how to detect when a contact point I was resting on was slipping, and how to control my mind enough to maintain enough focus to not slip up while climbing.

On playground equipment, I had to be ready for a fall onto concrete, and I had to know when wood was likely to produce enormous splinters (I actually got a huge splinter through my ass once. It went in below my butt cheek and came out above it), and I had to deal with the results of kids going crazy trying to spin the spinny thing as fast as they could. I went flying off that thing so many times.

Also, during the summer when I was 7, my friend was 8, and we had little bikes, and we would spend the entire day outside wandering the town. We often would find a stream and slowly work our way up the stream. This involved a lot of balancing on rocks and logs, catching small animals, even fighting my friend sometimes. We’d swim in muddy streams that were full of broken machinery and glass bottles, and it was up to us to know how to stay safe in that environment.

The world was just less safetyfied back then.

Now I see people of age 20 or so, and they walk like toddlers. I’m not talking about disabled people here. Just people who are able-bodied, but they move like they’ve been recently downloaded into a human body, like it’s unfamiliar to them.

FlexibleToast,

This is the same crap Boomers said about Millenials.

intensely_human,

And it was true

shinigamiookamiryuu,

That depends, what’s the border year?

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