Ooof Katie I love hearing from you about this since you are up close with college students so often. I have heard that about gen z and think there is something to be said for that. Millennials did have to master so many digital spaces and straddle worlds that I think it did help us with critical thinking compared to just automatically being born into technology. Also looove the point about mastering trends as a way to maintain cultural social prevalence!
So many thoughts came up for me around this topic and episode. One that first came to mind was at my high school reunion a couple years ago now hearing different groups of cool kids say my group of friends was cool as well but knowing we did not see ourselves that way. Very interesting to hear this feedback from our peer group years later
So interesting! I had something similar happen to me. I had gone to high school with this girl, but we didn’t become friends until later when we were attending the same community college. One day we where chatting about the high school Spanish class we were in together and realized that we had wanted to become friends in that class but barely spoke to one another because we both thought the other person was too cool to want to be our friend.
Growing up I was also not one of the cool kids, but I was one of the smart kids. And I realized very early on, maybe around 4th or 5th grade, that while I was never going to be one of the cool kids I could use ‘being smart’ transactionally to barter proximity to them because the popular girls always needed help with their homework lol.
I agree with Sam that the obsession with trends is tied to chasing the ability to feel accepted and I also think part of the reason why gen z is often looked to as the barometer for “cool” is an offshoot of the cultural obsession with youthfulness - if you’re able to keep up with and master each trend in a way that the 18-25 year olds will sign off on, you’ll be able to tap into the ever illusive fountain of youth and maintain cultural and social relevance.
Also, the way gen z grew up with their lives being documented on camera/the internet really did a number on their hypervigilance for looking ‘uncool.’ Especially in academic spaces, there is a palpable paranoia around sounding dumb or being perceived as cringe in front of their peers. Which, in my opinion, has exacerbated their over-dependence on AI use. I also thought your comments on gen z leaning more conservatively were interesting. I recently saw a post that said “gen z are the new boomers” and while I think this is more of an overgeneralization, as someone who has taught college students for the last decade it’s worth noting that gen z really struggles critical thinking skills and managing even small amounts of cognitive dissonance. So I’m not surprised that they tend to lean more conservative.
Ooof Katie I love hearing from you about this since you are up close with college students so often. I have heard that about gen z and think there is something to be said for that. Millennials did have to master so many digital spaces and straddle worlds that I think it did help us with critical thinking compared to just automatically being born into technology. Also looove the point about mastering trends as a way to maintain cultural social prevalence!
So many thoughts came up for me around this topic and episode. One that first came to mind was at my high school reunion a couple years ago now hearing different groups of cool kids say my group of friends was cool as well but knowing we did not see ourselves that way. Very interesting to hear this feedback from our peer group years later
People’s perceptions are always so interesting!
So interesting! I had something similar happen to me. I had gone to high school with this girl, but we didn’t become friends until later when we were attending the same community college. One day we where chatting about the high school Spanish class we were in together and realized that we had wanted to become friends in that class but barely spoke to one another because we both thought the other person was too cool to want to be our friend.
Growing up I was also not one of the cool kids, but I was one of the smart kids. And I realized very early on, maybe around 4th or 5th grade, that while I was never going to be one of the cool kids I could use ‘being smart’ transactionally to barter proximity to them because the popular girls always needed help with their homework lol.
I agree with Sam that the obsession with trends is tied to chasing the ability to feel accepted and I also think part of the reason why gen z is often looked to as the barometer for “cool” is an offshoot of the cultural obsession with youthfulness - if you’re able to keep up with and master each trend in a way that the 18-25 year olds will sign off on, you’ll be able to tap into the ever illusive fountain of youth and maintain cultural and social relevance.
Also, the way gen z grew up with their lives being documented on camera/the internet really did a number on their hypervigilance for looking ‘uncool.’ Especially in academic spaces, there is a palpable paranoia around sounding dumb or being perceived as cringe in front of their peers. Which, in my opinion, has exacerbated their over-dependence on AI use. I also thought your comments on gen z leaning more conservatively were interesting. I recently saw a post that said “gen z are the new boomers” and while I think this is more of an overgeneralization, as someone who has taught college students for the last decade it’s worth noting that gen z really struggles critical thinking skills and managing even small amounts of cognitive dissonance. So I’m not surprised that they tend to lean more conservative.