HI! My name is Alessandro Menara and I’m a part of generation Z. After reading the blog ‘’Myths about Generation Z’’ written by Tawfiq Irshaidat I thought it will be interesting to compare positive aspects of my generation and Millennials in order to better understand who I am and what my generation is. I hope you will find it interesting and you will discover new things about yourself!
Let’s start from understanding who we are, Generation Z, and how we are seen by others people. If you check about as in internet, you will be disappointed. Those are some main facts that define our life style and habits: we don’t go online anymore, we live online, we are technology addicted.
Actually I would like to change the world and make the difference without doing all the steps to achieve it. I am not attentive and to be honest I don’t want to wait for things to happen, I want them immediately. And more, I am kind of lazy which I admit and my attention sometimes last only 8 seconds!
I am sure some people from Gen Z will feel exactly the same as me, and as you can see, those facts are not very positive. BUT! If we carefully look in to our way of living, we can see that the things are actually good. Here are four interesting facts about Gen Z that will make you change your mind!
First, we are really competitive, not only in the school, collage and work but in general, in our life, we love to reach goals! Second, we love the relations between people. It’s true that our way of socialise and be in relation is more virtual then real. But if you think, we are masters of social networks, and by using them, like Skype and FaceTime, we are always connected and have a face to face interaction, being in different parts of the world. Third, we are entrepreneurial, inspired by rags-to-riches stories which make as big dreamers. Like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs we will make the difference in our garage! Our determination and the absence of fear to makes mistakes will let achieve what we want in the working environment and life. And fourth, we have a deep understanding of the impact of the technology on the world and how to use it. Attention! That’s doesn’t mean we are tech-addicted ore anti-social.
LET’S PLAY A GAME!
I think that it will be interesting to see the differences between my generation and Millennials by doing a game in which the winner need to score tree points and each points represent a positive aspect of the generation. So here are, from my point of view some interesting facts about Gen Z to compare with the Millennials generation:
Gen Z are more independent then Millennials which are more collaborative. This is because we are very competitive. I don’t want that my decisions being lead by someone else, that make me more independent but less sociable, I think. I can see that by looking at my habits, I prefer to study alone and in general everything that I do I prefer to do it by myself.
Millennial are more collaborative, during the preparation to exams I see that my Millennials friends are studding always in groups.
I think that those are positive attitude to our respective generations so I would give a point to both!
GENERATION Z 1 - 1 MILLENNIALS
Another interesting fact about Gen Z is the technology, which certainly define all our generations. The Iphone and the main technology that we use today and the most important, the internet, which appeared during Millennials time created some different habits between us. Millennials, compare to our generation, are used to the technology and are not so addicted. That’s why I can say that their generation taught as how to get used to the technology in our everyday life. But Gen Z as swell witnessed a big change in the technological world and is the computer revolution. I can see that by myself how computers changed our routine: years ago when we were children the computer was used only by few people, know is difficult to find someone without. So as they thought us use the mobile technology, we will teach them how to use the computer technology.
I learned something new from Millennials and they will learn something new from my generation that’s why I will give a point to both generations again!
GENERATION Z 2 - 2 MILLENNIALS
Another point that I want to compare is the fact that my generation are early starters. I think that is completely true and I see it as a very positive aspect of my generation. When I was in school and still had to go in the University I was already thinking about the enterprise that I will create ore thinking how is to be a boss of a large company. Even between friends we always speak about the fantastic goals that we want to reach in the future but no one speaks about how to reach them! And I think this is another difference between my generation and Millennials. Millennials are ready to wait and are aware of all the steps that you need to do and learn in order to reach a goal.
Speaking with my friend from Millennial generation I noticed that he never speaks about his big dreams, about his work ore life achievements that he would like to reach. He always tries to do carefully all the small things during the day, improving himself a little bit every day, without knowing what exactly will be the final goal. I’m the opposite, for me is difficult to do everyday tasks like for example study the German language or simply do my homework but I’m sure when it comes to work I will perform great results! I’m not scared to fail and to do mistakes, maybe I believe to much in myself but this is the right attitude which will make me riche my big dreams!
I see that both of generations have a different way to achieve goals.
So that’s why I think no one is better and now one is worst and again both generation will receive a point!
GENERATION Z 3 - 3 MILLENNIALS
To conclude I think that we born in transitionary periods with a lot of changements that next generations will not experience as we did and Millennials. The fact that my generation and Millennials are experiencing big changement in our society which taught us how to adapt to different situations, we became more flexible in every situation in our life. We are not scared to try new things and to make mistake.
I think that every generation have to learn something from the previous one and from the next one, no one is better or worst we are different and complementary and that’s why my game finished with the score 3 – 3.
And of course, if you want let other people know better about Gen Z, feel free to repost this blog!
Author: Alessandro Menara, Hospitality Master Student at Hotel Institute Montreux (HIM), from Italy.