As far as I know, my son has never had a girlfriend, touched any alcohol or smoked a cigarette or vape. Perhaps I am deluded or remain in a perpetual state of ignorant bliss, but my son and his friends, at his co-ed grammar school, all seem equally sensible. Their weekends are spent playing football, shouting at the PlayStation or trawling round local flea markets and town hall sales to buy “vintage” 90s gear.
These wayward teenage proclivities defined my formative years and probably helped give me the healthy dose of cynicism and streetwise outlook I carried with me into adulthood. Is my son missing out a bit, I wonder, by leading a relatively sheltered life in comparison?
In fact, the study found that a third of Gen Zers thought it was better for a couple to be married before having children and that less than a quarter had one night stands or casual sex. The study also showed that only one in 10 would want to work in an office full-time, whereas for most of us Gen Xers, being in the office for romantic flings and after-work drinks were a rite of passage.
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Read MoreI don’t expect we’ll get much sleep that night and the house will probably smell overwhelmingly of socks, farts and Lynx. I don’t know whether to be pleased or horrified that it’s such a far cry from my teenage antics in the naughty 90s.
Perhaps the helicopter parenting and the threat of having any and every misdemeanour documented and posted on social media is partly what has made Gen Z so damn sensible.
Their lives are dominated by social media apps. A recent survey by Morning Consult, a data-intelligence firm, found that Gen Z spend around four hours a day on social media with YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat being the most popular apps. Although they may be more connected than ever, they are lonelier than ever too. A recent study by think-tank Onward found that 16- to 24-year-olds (9.8 per cent) are three times as likely to say they feel lonely “often or always” as people aged 65 or over (3 per cent) while 25- to 34-year-olds are twice as likely as those aged 65 or over. Talking online doesn’t compare with face to face interaction where you can read expressions and tone and bond IRL.
And let’s not forget that younger Gen Zers such as my son and his peers are also part of the Covid cohort. He pretty much missed his last year of primary school due to lockdown and all those important little milestones, from leavers assemblies to school discos, were cancelled. Then his first year of secondary school was completely disrupted by intermittent lockdowns so perhaps it’s no wonder that they are a little more cautious and risk-averse than their parents.
I’m not sure I would want my son getting hammered, snogging girls and falling out of pubs like I used to. I’m not even sure they can use fake IDs like we did, or if he’d be able to memorise and knock a few years off his birthday when asked his age on the spot. I doubt he’d be allowed to buy any beer without someone reporting him. I expect he might find Malibu a bit too sweet too.
Who is to say which generation has it right? I suppose we are all a product of our time. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
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