Not entitlement, but insight

Today marks the last day of the final examination period at the university where I teach part-time. For students, it signals the end of the academic year. I’d like to devote today’s column to Gen Z. One of the perks of teaching is gaining a close-up and continuous view of this generation.

I belong to Gen X, the generation born between 1965 and 1980. Millennials, on the other hand, were born between 1981 and 1996, while Gen Z refers to those born between 1997 and 2012. This means that Gen Z students began entering college in 2016.

There’s something about this younger generation that makes me pause and reflect. We often assume that growing older grants us wisdom and a broader view of the world. But I’ve come to realize that the opposite can happen. We see the present through the lens of our own memories and timelines. We assume that the world still operates under the same conditions that shaped our own generation.

What we often fail to notice is that a new generation has already emerged, one with its own experiences, technologies, and cultural moments. They are already reshaping the world in ways that those of us from older generations may not fully grasp. And in doing so, they unsettle us.

But when one interacts with them regularly as a teacher --seeing them, their experiences, and perspectives up close-- it’s different. One begins to realize that the world is actually moving beyond our mental maps.

While recovering from a bout of flu last week, I had plenty of time to watch documentaries. One that stood out was Channel News Asia’s Insight episode titled “Why Hong Kong Gen Zs Give Up on Work”. The documentary follows young adults in Hong Kong who are rejecting traditional career paths. While their elders dismiss this as laziness, more thoughtful voices see it as a search for flexibility, purpose, and mental well-being.

In China and some parts of Asia, there is now the so-called “lying flat” movement. I’ve also heard many complaints from older generations --that today’s youth ghost their employers, that they constantly talk about mental health, that they’re flaky, and that they lack the resilience and toughness of our generation. My view on the matter is that no generation is better or worse than those before or after it. Each brings a unique way of dealing with the world around them. And Gen Z, in particular, has quite a lot to teach us about our world.

While others see apathy or defiance, I see a quiet form of resistance against systems that no longer serve their generation. Just look at the kind of world we are passing on to them. Workers are locked into 9-to-5 routines until retirement, only to watch their savings, pension benefits, and health plans eroded by inflation and widening inequality. While we fixate on the risks of AI, Gen Z is already exploring how to integrate it into their lives. Living in the shadow of climate collapse and geopolitical instability not of their own making, Gen Z’s disillusionment is far from pointless.

They are thinking. Here we are in a world that boasts unprecedented technological advancements, yet age-old work routines and culture still trap us in mind-numbing or backbreaking labor. Hunger and poverty persist in far too many corners of society, despite our supposed access to tools powerful enough to conquer them.

Faced with these contradictions, Gen Z is right to question the logic of the systems we’ve long accepted. Their silent rebellion is not entitlement --it’s insight.