‣ dear boomers.

dear boomers,

hello, our name is gen z. you might know us as lazy, apathetic, ignorant and entirely selfish. we've sent our plea for help but have never received a reply. today, we acknowledge the lack of an outreached hand.

as a gen z native, the amount of times i've heard my generation be called a plethora of insults greatly outweighs the positive. the proofs of this are everywhere: media outlets, news articles, tv shows, you name it. it only gets worse as time progresses, and my generation gets all the bad rep – even for things we haven't done. one example in particular happens to have greatly offended me, so much that i felt compelled to write this.

a 2019 philstar article called this generation apathetic, uncritical and social media dependent. and because of this, i believe that i must divulge on the reasons why i believe these accusations to be largely misunderstood. you cannot tell a generation of rapidly increasing awareness that they cannot do anything because we can and we have proven it so. small businesses are at large, and young business owners are emerging from the scene. as said by rampton, j. (2019): "I have yet to meet one that wanted to work for an existing company, except to intern to learn some business skills. [...] Gen Z has the desire to create multiple careers for themselves." 

we are not lazy, we are simply disinterested in the current market – which is often taken as a disinterest for livelihood as a whole. jonah stillman, a writer, professional speaker and co-author of gen z @ work is a prime example. as harpercollins describes him: "jonah stillman is a 20 year-old best selling author and renowned ted/keynote speaker. growing up, for 10-years jonah competed on the national U.S. circuit in snowboarding. he was ranked in the top 5 in the U.S. before hanging up his helmet to pursue life as an entrepreneur."

not only that, but gen z has been known to invlove themselves in controversial topics, especially ones that include social issues. just recently, the black lives matter movement has made much noise on both media headlines and social media alike. to say that the youth was a big factor in participating would a huge understatement– in fact, according to ypulse, 55% of americans aged 16 to 34 attended the blm protests. this is a perfect example of the great divide between generations on social issues. in the same article, it is said that 40% of white americans over 65 feel that enough has been done by america to ensure equality among the races (pew, 2019). these so called "silly sites" like tiktok, instagram and twitter that the older generations unfailingly ridicule are the biggest contributors to youth awareness. yes, we are social media dependent – but this is only natural for a generation born into the age of the internet. gen z being "social media dependent" can be directly equated to boomers being "newspaper dependent", "library dependent", and "radio dependent".

you cannot shame a generation you raised with easy access to information for taking advantage of our privilege. in fact, many can attest that we trust twitter more than the local news in tv. this is because the youth feel the authenticity from news delivered by the people, delivered by the victims themselves and those who've experienced them firsthand. it's hard to show perfectly orchestrated news broadcastings about such raw topics and expect it to appeal to a generation that is all about skepticism. we do the things we do because we see the implications they have on the most marginalized, we move the way we move because we know the ones in power will not do anything soon enough to change anything. we are not a gullible generation, despite what you may believe of us.

you cannot underestimate and overestimate us at the same time. in the words of my generation: sis, pick a struggle. you cannot underestimate our abilities and overestimate our capacities at the same time. you cannot call us stupid for needing help and weak for never again asking. you cannot repeatedly ignore us and be surprised that we don't tell you what's going on. you cannot dismiss our actions toward a cause as attention seeking when you've never given our advocacies any attention in the first place. we need your attention. we want your attention. we know that we cannot directly impact the playing field the way you can, and we're doing the best we can with what we're given. we're pleading for your help with the issues we and all our brethren are facing. we've done enough with what we have and you have no right to call us weak when we've risked our lives for causes you believe to be irrelevant. you have no right to call us useless for not advocating for the causes you believe are relevant. we are allowed to pick and choose the topics we think are important; you had the chance to fight, now let us use ours.

you cannot disregard our cry for help and continue to treat us as if we're in fault for all the wrongs in this world. we already think so little of ourselves; it doesn't help to feel that you see us that way too. look at it this way: you've raised a generation that is equally more numb and more gentle than the previous ones. we will care for our own so fiercely we will forget our own personal needs. according to the philippine information agency (2018), there was about an estimate of 300 million people suffering from depression in 2015, with a casualty of 800,000 per year. the hundreds of thousands of people willing to take their own lives only increase in number as mental health interventions across the globe fail to be implemented on time.

and yet, we will wish death upon ourselves but will stay up for days making sure that no one else we know will. we will hurt ourselves, doubt ourselves, but not for one second will we stop encouraging someone else who we know feels so belittled. we've learned to provide for each other the care and nurture we fail to see in you. ask any young person and they will tell you that they, too, have once wished that someone else's suffering was their own so that person wouldn't have to go through the same horrible things as they have. ask any young adult or teenager and they will tell you, without fail, that they would shoulder the burden of someone else they know and care for just so that person doesn't have to suffer. if this so called apathetic, unfeeling, irresponsible generation you so love to berate have the capacity to understand someone else's suffering and in turn offer kindness, what excuse do you have of not seeing that? if this broken down, suffering group of people who're constantly weighed down by all the things we carry will still offer an open hand to lift someone up, what reason do you have for not doing the same?

i believe that most, if not all, of the members of generation z know and recognize the personal battles everyone is trying to face. we're all too familiar with our own to not recognize it in other people. we know that no one has it easy, and we've learned how to be soft to those who've fallen. our armor is not made of the will to be invincible but the shield to protect; and i do not understand how so many others cannot see that. we will apologize to you over and over because we believe that you have it rough, too. in a world where societal pressure to succeed is so prevalent, there are so many who are lost and in need of guidance. there is a difference between hearing someone struggle and saying "me too, in fact i had it worse than you", and "me too, let's go through it together". and unfortunately, the latter is the one less heard from older generations.

in a world where everything is fast paced and competition is highly regarded, there are those that are far behind and are in need of saving. the global educational system has taken such a toll on students that each year in the U.S.A., a highschool student drops out every 26 seconds. the leaders of our countries do not realize that part of the issue lies within the system itself, often dismissing student concerns as laziness, poor management, disinterest and even disrespect. this, paired with the rampant issue of declining mental health, greatly affects this generation of youth. even with other important matters like poverty, climate change, unemployment, natural calamities – students are made to study about these and provide solutions when many of us are well aware that the solutions we provide will never reach anyone of high influence. most of these solutions are just made for a grade, rated with a rubric and will never be used again.

"would you want people to think that this is how you were raised?" – we often hear this from our elders when we've done something wrong. for the longest time, it has been used as a warning, a threat to misbehaving children. it puts the shame on the child, leaving none of the consequence to be dealt upon those who raised it. we are often told by the generation who raised us that we are a disappoinment; the tree is determined by it's fruit. i believe it's high time that parents, teachers, guardians, leaders, and all the formational figures also take part in the blame when a child is criticized. perhaps if the child received a comment about how it's raised, then there is something to be said about the adult who is responsible.

if you turn away when we've the chance to prove ourselves, then your misconceptions of our inadequacy is purely your fault. time and time again, gen z has expressed how truly brilliant we are, regardless of our age and incapacities. malala yousafzai, greta thunberg, amika george, joshua wong, and so many more notable names. you're so focused on our apparent apathy that you fail to recognize the sheer grit and power this generation has when we choose to fight for causes that we believe truly matter. in fact, a 2019 irregular labs study showed that 75% of respondents showed that being politically and socially engaged was "very important to their identity". the amount of socially and politically related content on sites that are relevant to us show that we do care, many of you just fail to acknowledge it. going back to the blm movement, tiktok searches alone for the hashtag show a staggering amount of support for the users. as of september 30, 2020, the blm hashtag has 16.8 billion views for it's content. related hashtags like blmmovement and blmprotest have a combined 1.6 billion as well. the covid19 hashtag as well has over 39 billion views.

this just goes to show that our generation, for the understanding, informed and well aware population it may be, is definitely misunderstood and wrongly accused. we've acknowledged our wrongdoings and all the things we've failed to do; we beat ourselves over it every single day of our lives, believing we're the only ones at fault. we only ask that you take responsibility and acknowledge your end of the issue. this is where we draw the line. we will accept your ridicule and your judgement no more. we now hold you accountable for the mistakes you've taken, and expect you to make up for them just as we've done our best to make up for ours. teach us, lead us, be our example. because in twenty, thirty years, we will be the ones left to take over what you've started. now, it is up to you how you will begin again. i will carry my burden, you shall carry yours. you have been hurt in the past, i know that and i'm sorry. but i cannot change what has happened to you, neither can you change what has happened to us.

for now, all we can do is set aside our prejudices, and see one another for the imperfect yet utterly important human beings we are. so here, allow me to start over.

hello, my name is gen z. i am capable, aware, compassionate and full of potential. i need your help, and you will need mine. now i know that you will not be extending your hand, and for that i shall instead offer mine.

sincerely,

an angered zoomer.