When you catch yourself no longer automatically excusing younger people but instead wondering if there’s some truth to the criticism… well, that’s when you know you’re no longer part of the younger generations.
For a long time, I thought this wouldn’t happen to me because I’m flexible, open, understanding, and above all, empathetic enough to naturally embrace every new era. And to a large extent, that’s true. Yet, the question in the title keeps popping up more and more, despite having attended multiple talks and read several books on generational research.
Every Generation Says the Same Thing, Just with Different Background Noise
There’s really not much new under the sun because every generation is convinced their own is exceptional, while the next one will supposedly ruin the world. But the difference I feel now isn’t about that—it’s that while behavior norms used to shift and refine (mostly for the better, in my opinion), today the threshold for stimulation and perception of reality have become quite distorted.
Technology has become more than just a tool—it’s a natural environment life can’t pause without. Starting with the Generation Z, young people grow up shaped by this worldview, which molds their nervous system, attention span, and patience.
Tell Me It’s Just That Perseverance Looks Different Today!
Looking around, whether in my immediate circle or observing my own child, one thing stands out. It’s partly disinterest, partly laziness, but more than anything, the idea of long-term effort feels almost alien. That inner endurance that says:
“I’ll keep going even if it’s boring, hard, or I don’t see immediate results.”
I know, I was told as a teen, “you study for yourself, my dear”, but I didn’t want to accept it. Still, I knew my role, my responsibilities, and it was never a question that if it snowed, I shoveled; if we were at the store, I helped carry bags; or at least tidied up enough so my mom wouldn’t see the mess I’d made again. We had no choice—some things simply had to be done.
Giving up, waiting, and putting in the work were part of our daily lives.
Looking back, I truly see how much that environment shaped me and gave me, even though my teenage years were quite tough. By thirty, I was living a fully built life, well into starting a family, buying a house, and a car. Of course, it wasn’t just me, and luck surely played a part, but life takes much more than luck.
The “Now” Culture and the Trap of Instant Gratification
Though I dislike the phrase, the brain of the “today’s youth” is tuned to a completely different rhythm, and I’ve reached a point where keeping up is harder. Everything is fast, instantly accessible, optimized, and ideally, everything is needed: now. Instant gratification isn’t an exception—it’s the baseline experience.
In this environment, monotony, delayed results, slowing down, and the thought of “not now, but someday” aren’t just harder—they’re almost unimaginable.
A video gets boring after a few seconds, a learning process feels too long, and a job is “not good” if it doesn’t offer immediate feedback or a sense of success.
If there’s no quick result, switching is natural: a different app, hobby, job, or friend is needed. We grew up knowing there are times when you just have to keep going, but now there’s less and less space for anything to develop without constant validation.
Talking about mental health is freeing and necessary. Maybe our generation is the first to truly engage with this vital topic. Still, it’s often hard to know where self-awareness ends and self-excuse begins. The world our kids live in is objectively more uncertain than what we (or even our parents) experienced. Climate crisis, economic instability, propaganda, housing challenges, social pressure… No wonder young people relate differently to the future than we do. Why plan ahead or base hopes on something so uncertain? Why sacrifice now for a promise they can never be sure of?
This Is Especially Tough Terrain for Parents
We want to pass on skills we didn’t learn but “received” from life and our circumstances. I comfort myself knowing our parents and grandparents probably felt the same: surely the grandfather who lived through war thought his child (and definitely his grandchild) would be soft, given how easy life is now—thanks to his generation.
Still, it’s little consolation to me that the gaps between generations are this wide and clarity only comes later. Until then, we have to learn as parents how to teach perseverance, responsibility, commitment, and, broadly speaking, the big Life… differently.
The pessimistic scenario points to a society with low resilience and fragmentation, while the optimistic one envisions a more empathetic, conscious world where burnout isn’t the norm. What I mostly feel is that we’re in the midst of a huge transformation, and even generational research is jumping forward again. Though there’s no sharp break, starting in 2026, the Betas will be born, whose lives will be shaped from the start by artificial intelligence, rapid tech advances, and sustainability challenges.
We don’t have ready answers for the future—and maybe never did. Perhaps what matters most isn’t how well we can let go of our own reflexes without giving up what we value, but how we set boundaries while accepting that we’re not on the same path. Because although the world has truly changed, one thing remains: adult responsibility. And from this uncertain, transitional state—just like always—something new will emerge.
