- Since time immemorial, it has been noticed with certainty that youngsters/teenagers/precocious children have assumed themselves to be a step ahead of the previous generation, showcasing their so-called wisdom to prove a point or two. Has it worked really, though? Not at all. Experience gained over the years cannot be brushed aside with the onslaught of the younger generation, who are yet to learn the tricks of the trade after undergoing grueling initiation into what life has to offer. Mind you, none can condescendingly view wisdom nor trivialize experience/wisdom gained after spending years to acquire the necessary knowledge to sail through challenging times. That’s the beauty of humanity sustaining itself over millennia.
PC: Influenced
- However, the moot point to ponder over here is whether the new generation is prepared to accept that even they too will be questioned by the next generation in the same vein. Every few decades, humanity wakes up to a new species disguised as its own offspring. It answers to the same surname and yet speaks an alien dialect of emojis, acronyms, and irony. Today we call them Gen Z, though earlier centuries had other names for their precocious rebels, heirs, heretics, hippies, or, as elders universally muttered, What is the world coming to? Every generation forgets how little respect it once had for the one before. Each assumes it has reached the peak of wisdom, only to discover, decades later, that the next has climbed a little higher but with louder music.
PC: LinkedIn
- History shows how Socrates complained of youth corrupted by conversation, Shakespeare of lovers who wrote too much verse, and our own elders of those who WhatsApp too much, and now they only voice message. In truth, the baton of civilization has always been passed through rebellion. Every new generation is born with better tools, faster thumbs, and low on patience. Gen Z’s battlefield is the comment section; they speak fluent emoji accompanied by filters, hashtags, and irony. The young have always been impatient with hierarchy and hungry for a change; it’s the natural law of evolution: the species survives because it dares to think differently. They balance activism with aesthetics, sarcasm, and self-care.
PC: Dreamstime.com
- Further, they are aware of every issue, sometimes of nothing deep. But before we judge their impetuousness, let us admit we created their impatience. It is difficult to preach patience to a generation that measures time in buffering seconds. Beneath their bravado lies brilliance. They may roll their eyes at rules, but they instinctively fact-check our sermons, though one is never sure of the motivation behind the algorithm claiming the fact. It’s in the best interest of all to retire from the sermon and begin a conversation to learn the language of listening. Because every attempt to command the next generation ends as it always has: with rebellion, ridicule, and reels. The truth is that evolution has no pause button. This is an inalienable aspect. Period.
