SHELLY WHITE

Generation Z: The kids wholl save the world?

Linda Manziaris, 14, a jewellery entrepreneur from Toronto, gives half of her profit
to charity. Ann Makosinski, 16, from Victoria, created a flashlight that is powered
by the human hand. Shawn Mendes, 16, from Pickering, Ont., went from posting
Vine videos online to international pop stardom. Hannah Alper, 11, an eco-blogger
from Toronto, has addressed stadium-sized crowds across North America.
Kids these days.
These exceptional young Canadians are all part of the post-millennial generation.
Its a cohort of kids that doesnt have a definitive name yet, but some have dubbed
it Generation Z (as in, the generation after the large and influential Generation Y).
These are the under-18s, kids growing up in an era of global economic turmoil and
climate change. Despite their youth, the digitally sophisticated, socially conscious
high achievers emerging from this group are causing some people to wonder: Is
this the generation that will solve the worlds problems?
I think our generation is really socially conscious, environmentally friendly and
they are really global thinkers, says Linda Manziaris, the 14-year-old social
entrepreneur and founder of Body Bijou and this years Young Entrepreneur of the
Year at the Startup Canada Awards.
Linda donates 50 per cent of the profit from her online jewellery business to Girls
Helping Girls, which was started by her 16-year-old sister, Susanna. So far, the notfor-profit has funded school building, teacher training and 20 scholarships for girls
in South Africa, Kenya and Jamaica.
[Our generation] sees a problem and they want to fix it, they arent leaving it for
someone else to fix, Linda says.
For the most part, Gen Z is made up of the offspring of Generation X, or the baby
bust generation, the group born after the baby boomers, says David K. Foot,
demographer and author of the seminal book on 20th century demographics, Boom
Bust and Echo. This means Gen Z is smaller in number than the robust millennial,
or echo, generation.
Because they have been in much smaller classes in elementary school, they have
already experienced the advantages of being in a smaller group, says Foot. When
they apply to college or university, theres going to be less competition within their
group, and they are going to have a higher probability of getting into college or
university if they want to.

Gen Z kids are digital natives, and cant remember a world without the Internet,
smartphones and social media. They have technological skills that are totally
intuitive and surpass those of their parents, says Don Tapscott, chief executive
officer of Tapscott Group in Toronto. He says that instead of a generation gap, we
now have a generation lap, where kids are lapping their parents on a digital
track.
This is the first time in history when children are an authority about something
really important, he says. I was an authority about model trains when I was 11.
And now youve got this 11 year old at the breakfast table whos an authority on
this mobile revolution thats changing commerce, government, publishing,
entertainment, every institution in society.
In 2008, Tapscott published Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is
Changing Your World, based on a $4-million study of the millennials, encompassing
11,000 young people in 10 countries aged 11 through 30. Though he notes that
there hasnt yet been a major study on todays under-18s yet, Tapscott says many
of the characteristics of this younger group are the similar to the millennials, only
intensified. Tapscott favours the term Generation Mobile rather than Gen Z, to
reflect them being constantly connected, wherever they are.
My generation, [the boomers], grew up watching 24 hours of TV per week. We
were the passive recipients of TV, Tapscott says. [Gen Y] was the Net Generation,
they came home from school and they would not turn on the TV, they would turn on
their computer, reading, organizing, communicating. These kids youre writing
about, they dont come home and turn anything on, because they are turned on all
the time.
A 2012 study by the U.S.-based marketing company JWT found that kids aged 13
through 17 valued their Internet connection more than going to the movies, getting
an allowance from their parents, attending a sporting event or having cable TV. But
not everyone has seen this ubiquitous connectivity as a positive thing. For example,
author Mark Bauerlein, in his The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age
Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, argues that cyberculture
is turning young people into know-nothings.
The advent of digital technology is having an impact and creating a whole bunch
of worries, adds historian, economist and demographer Neil Howe. It creates
real developmental difficulties when so much of your stimulus is digital.
But Tapscott disagrees that this new digital era is hurting kids.
A lot of people say that this is creating an army of narcissists doing selfies and
tweeting and so on, that they are Net-addicted, they are glued to the screen, they

are losing their social skills, that they dont give a damn. But if you look at the
data, it doesnt support any of that, he says.
Its not the dumbest generation, its the smartest.
Craig Kielburger, co-founder of youth development charity Free the Children,
works with socially conscious young people every day. He says that this generation
is tremendously engaged in social activism. (And he should know, he became an
activist when he was just 12.)
In the coming months, Free the Children plays host to We Day events all over
North America and Britain, attended by tens of thousands of youth to kickstart a
year of action through their year-long We Act program, which encourages
young people to support the causes that are important to them.
Kielburger says his organization has dubbed Generation Z the We Generation, to
contrast with the Me Me Me moniker that was thrust upon the millennials.
They are still young, but I believe we are seeing a shift from the Me culture to
young people who are more aware of their environment and how their choices
impact the world around them, he says. These are young people who are very
much looking at how they can do good in the world.
Kielburger says this generations digital skills are partly responsible for their zeal
for activism, because its given them the ability to interact with the world and
other activists like never before.
This generation is growing up in the shadow of 9/11, growing up with global
issues like climate change and poverty dominating the news, at a level where they
understand how interconnected we are in this world, he says. In previous
generations, there was a feeling that when you were young, you were a passive
bystander, an adult-in waiting, but today because of technology, young people have
this sense of self-confidence and a belief they can change the world.
Case in point: Hannah Alper, the 11-year-old Toronto-based eco-warrior and
activist. Her popular blog, Call Me Hannah, is a document of her environmental
concerns and the people who inspire her, and she has been a We Day speaker at
rallies across the continent. Hannah says she was motivated to start her blog at 9
because of her love of animals.
I realized that animals rely on the environment and that they rely on us to help
the environment, Hannah says. I did some research and found out there were so
many problems in the world, littering, pollution, global warming, climate change,
and we need to fix it. And I thought a younger voice could help spread the word.

When you publish a blog, its everywhere and anyone can see it and get inspired
and motivated.
Whether its to further a cause, start a business or pursue a dream, Gen Zs
technological know-how has improved their ability to get their message out.
Budding pop star Shawn Mendes first gained an enthusiastic online following when
he posted Vines (six-second videos) of himself performing cover songs. The
attention he got won him a record deal, and his song Life of the Party became a
top-10 hit in Canada and the United States. Though he knows that Vine was his
ticket to reaching an audience, Shawn says he knows that social media has its pros
and cons.
Yes, you can get a cover of yours across the world in literally minutes and you can
share it across the world very quickly, but you also have to be very careful about
what you do because if you say one bad thing, it can get across the world in
minutes, says Shawn, fresh from an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Gen Z is learning a lot more about the world, more quickly than past generations,
Shawn says, because its become so easy to access information.
If youre online, youre reading about world issues every single day. But its
intense. If you get too in depth with the crazy things that are on the Internet,
youre going to start to freak out, so you just cant think about it too much,
basically.
Sanjay Khanna, futurist and visiting scholar in strategic foresight at the University
of Torontos Massey College, has dubbed Generation Z GenStressed. Though he
agrees that this generations digital skills have many benefits, he also thinks Gen
Zs knowledge of the worlds problems could outstrip their ability to change things.
Global economic uncertainty combined with climate change will make it tough for
them to believe their quality of life will improve enough via their digital skills
alone, Khanna says. I think it will be psychologically and economically
precarious, and I think there will be a rise in mental health issues.
Not everyone will be able to shine in these precarious times, adds Khanna, so older
generations will need to have greater sensitivity to Gen Zs emotional and
psychological well-being because they are so aware and they do want things to be
better.
GenStressed will need strong leadership and social-support networks at
vocational institutes, colleges, universities and in the workplace, he says. There
will be so many who, if we arent careful, will be left behind.

Despite his optimism about Gen Z, Tapscott says there are issues to worry about. I
worry about the quality of our public discourse, as many of our traditional media
institutions fail. And we have a model of pedagogy in the schools that is
appropriate for the 15th century, and the idea that the teacher is the source of all
knowledge I think [Gen Z] is questioning that.
Though its impossible to know what this generation will or not achieve, Tapscott
has high hopes for Gen Zs future.
They are disproportionally affected by this economic crisis, and they are
inheriting this world that is pretty horrific, says Tapscott. But from everything we
know about them, they have the smarts, the connectivity, the good values and the
will to not only carve a reasonable life for themselves, but also to bring about
change in society.
For her part, Hannah is confident that her generation can make a real difference.
We are a generation that cares, its true, she says. There are so many dogooders, and so many amazing minds in this generation that have already
accomplished so much. I think our generation will be the one to change the world.