Gen Z is rewriting rules of engagement

WHILE governments are still primarily led by the Baby Boomer generation (1946-1964), the nexus of current global power has shifted dramatically to Gen Z, the generation born between 1997 and 2012.

- LORENZO DAVIDS

With millennials having a brief but challenging period at the helm, it has been wrested from their grasp by Gen Z. They are described as digital natives, as they are the first generation born to grow up with 24/7 access to the internet and smartphones.

Gen Z, all mostly aged between 13 and 28, is the first generation to grow up interacting with more information than any other generation alive today. They engage with issues such as justice, healthcare, and housing as teenagers. They are most aware of the vast gap between themselves and the Baby Boomer and Millennial generations, who hold power over what they know. They're the ones listening to 70-year-old politicians making speeches and saying out loud, “they’re talking crap”.

They are also the ones whom we engage in university classrooms and on the streets today. They are no different to the youth of 1976, other than that they have immediate and constant digital access to vast amounts of global information within seconds. Their peers have produced some of that information, and it thrashes conventional ideas of government and power. They have new understandings of equality and an affinity for justice.