Gen Z is kind of like Gen Y, but they haven't had their world crushed yet. We had ours crushed in 2001, specifically on September 11th. Many of us weren't adults yet and we already had to be painfully aware of how cruel the world is, watching our slightly older peers go overseas to war and maybe or maybe not return. Generation Z hasn't had that moment yet. The "greatest generation" had WW2. The "silent generation" had Korean war and JFK. The boomers had JFK and Vietnam. Gen X had the height--and resolution--of the Cold War. Maybe, when it does, Gen Z will be old enough to deal with it. They still have a chance.
Don't have to tell me. I was graduated and 18 when 9/11 happened. I enlisted later that year. Now these assholes wanna tell me I'm a millennial. What happened to generation Y? Oh yeah, we got ignored and lumped in w/ a bunch of asshats.
Gen Y and Millenials are synonymous terms, though. The latter is used almost exclusively to dump on us, though.
As if 9/11 wasn't bad enough, we also took the financial downturn in the late 00's on the chin--fresh debt from unprecedented college graduation rates, just as the jobs and markets disappeared. That's some bad luck there, but at least we didn't have to live through Vietnam and WW2 I guess--but they at least had favorable economies when they got home.
Member when everyone used to say "Gen Z is so Based" then the media started pushing David Hogg hard as fuck.