Generation Z has a problem.
Despite renown — and disparagement — for our unique progressivism and activist involvement, this generation is way less politically engaged and progressive than people say. With a widespread cultural conservative resurgence and chronic inaction, today’s youth need to step up to deserve the praise we receive and ensure ourselves a future we’ll be proud to live in — to ensure we have a future to live in at all.
Some Gen Zers are resourced and politically informed — reading the news and broadcasting their beliefs — but refuse to turn their knowledge into action. They vocally support movements for queer rights, reproductive freedoms, and environmental justice but can’t examine their own daily practices in order to make change?
Many of the same people who claim commitment to social causes don’t blink an eye at constantly using generative artificial intelligence like ChatGPT and Character.AI despite their outsized environmental impact and exploitative origins or ignoring consumer boycotts caused by the labor practices, funding, or political allegiance of brands like McDonald’s and Amazon.
They don’t hesitate to make ableist jokes, go unmasked in dense places, purchase from fast fashion brands, or travel to Dubai, which is actively funding the Sudanese conflict, and Hawaii, where the environment and Indigenous residents are negatively affected by excess tourism.
Why? Because it’s uncomfortable.
It’s hard to tell your friends you don’t want to go to Starbucks when you hang out. It’s hard to push through a writing assignment when you know ChatGPT could finish it for you. It’s hard to wear a mask in public when people look at you weirdly.
The difference between real activists and the majority of Gen Z is that activists are willing to do hard and uncomfortable things. They recognize that the effects on others of purchasing clothes made with exploited labor or repeating discriminatory ideas are far worse than the momentary discomfort caused for themselves by not doing so.
The inability of much of Gen Z to leave our political comfort zone has impacted partisan politics, too. The Public Religion Research Institute assessed that “a plurality of Gen Z teens (44%) identify as moderate,” and a comparison between a Walton Family Foundation survey of Gen Z and a Gallop Youth survey of millennials showed a definite decrease in liberalism in Gen Z. In a Harvard Youth poll reported on by Axios, Gen Z adults showed an increase in conservativism, contrasting past trends.
It’s true that Gen Z overall favors more diversity and equality, even among the conservative and moderate cohorts, and is more likely to attend political protests.
However, only a minority are willing to disrupt their own comfort and harmful systems in order to effect change. By not engaging in radical politics, the rest are complicit with oppressive systems and the growth of fascism, which thrives on those with power deciding not to leverage it positively.
Some argue that people are inherently selfish, especially as teenagers, and that’s why many refuse to act — they want to stay comfortable — but humans have actually evolved to care about each other.
According to research by Matthew Lieberman, people feel physical pain when encountering social difficulties. Often, caring so much about social responses motivates youth to avoid political actions that could alienate their friends, but it also motivates those who do get involved because they want to support their community — and recognize that helping others helps you, too.
With some of Gen Z already adults and even the youngest old enough to pre-register to vote this year, our engagement in politics is critical. Even without participating in government, there is a multiplicity of avenues with which to disentangle from oppressive systems.
The practices that we cement now will inform our futures and act as a model for those around us. If youth aren’t willing to take potentially difficult or alienating actions, our future will be over before it begins.
