As our world today continues to change and progress, the feeling of uncertainty and pressure for my future increases. There is immense pressure on teenagers to become financially successful, and the world has changed so drastically in terms of careers, which makes it seem very challenging to meet those expectations.
In the article “Today’s Teenagers: Anxious About Their Futures and Disillusioned by Politicians” by Clair Cain Miller in the New York Times, Miller talks about how teenagers are feeling about their futures. She says, “Although it has never been easy to be a teenager, the current generation of young Americans feels particularly apprehensive, new polling shows — anxious about their lives, disillusioned about the direction of the country and pessimistic about their futures.” I fully agree with this statement.
For my entire life, the pressure has been on about what I will do in my future to ensure I will be fully financially successful. And with the world we live in today, it seems more challenging than I had ever expected.
The world moves fast, and as technology advances, it feels like the opportunity to obtain a well-paying job that is not entirely mentally draining feels very out of reach. My hope for my generation is that the path to success can be more clearly defined for high school students especially.
High schools and middle schools are not preparing students for the real world; they fail to educate students on career paths or money management. However, there are job fairs and college planning events available for students. These are almost always outside of regular school hours, and for teenagers like me that isn’t possible to attend. As a student-athlete who works six days a week, I don’t have the free time to allow me to come in for that extra help that I need.
My hope for the future of my generation is for public schools to repair the extremely broken education system we have today. I don’t know anyone who believes school is setting them up for success.
In the article, Miller talks about how high schoolers view public schools, “More than half of teenagers said public K-12 schools were doing a fair or poor job. Just 8 percent said they were doing an excellent job.” said Miller. This information should be eye-opening to the Department of Education to understand something needs to change.
Mental health plays a big role in this decline in passion for education in teenagers as well. Miller shares this statistic on mental health: “A related issue was mental health. In the Common Sense survey, 65 percent said the mental health of children and teenagers in their community was poor or fair. Girls were more likely than boys to say so. The responses were largely consistent across race.” As the pressure increases and mental health and education quality decrease, it is challenging to succeed.
I want my children not to have to relate to any of these problems as they go through all of the struggles of becoming an adults. There is already immense pressure on teenagers today from family, friends, coaches, and teachers to make the right choices. It seems like everyone around me is telling me different things, and without guidance to the path of success, I’m not sure how much I can accomplish.
My hope for the future of my generation is for education to completely transform from what it is today into a more structured, less stressful, and more supportive environment for teenagers to grow and turn into the best versions of themselves that they can before they are pushed out on their own into the terrifying world of adulthood.
My hopes and dreams for Gen Z (Zoomers) being our future are big. I hope we have a sensible and realistic president. I hope for someone who believes in preventing and preparing the people for war. I hope for a president who acknowledges climate change. I have dreams for a president who is willing to talk about global warming. I have hopes that Gen Z will one day provide everyone with fully equal and fair human rights all around.
Gen Z will quickly change the world. As we can see, they already are slowly changing things for the older generations. Gen Z will change the workforce all together. Gen Z will be the new adults bringing offices different sets of values and behaviors. Gen Z will have higher expectations in the workforce than a lot of the older generations seem to have currently.
Gen Z will expect change. I hope Gen Z will, in fact, demand change. Millennials were the first generation to experience phones at young ages. No younger than high school and college for most. The first cell phone came out in 1983, so most Millennials didn’t experience phones till young adulthood. Gen Z was the first generation to practically fully grow up on technology or to grow up with technology in their hands all the time. Since 1983-1997, technology has been drastically changing in many ways that older generations cannot keep up with. Gen Z can! Gen Z, also known as Zoomers, have been raised with an expectation of constant change in the world. That’s what helps us adapt to significant changes in life compared to older generations. We have open minds, imagination, and free will, and we can accept change.
Growing up with uncertainty gave Gen Z very unique sets of skills compared to other generations. We are resilient! We question how things are done, and we can easily imagine going about all these things differently.
Gen Z is pragmatic! They will question everything and everyone. Questioning peers and parents, questioning teachers and coworkers, we need to figure out the facts independently. Gen Z does not necessarily see adults and elders as experts. Gen Z is not afraid to challenge old people’s old ways.
Gen Z visibly wants to make a difference! Not only is change expected, but it is now being demanded almost everyday. Growing up and experiencing so many complex problems in the world is not easy: Climate change, pandemics, inequality, rights being taken after given and fought for. There’s racial injustice, human rights, and politics! Some Zoomers today are even brave enough to begin holding employers accountable.
My hopes and dreams for the future of Gen Z is that we will keep fighting and arguing for what we believe in and what we as a generation know is right. My dream for Gen Z is for them to provide a better place and world for our kids to grow up in. My biggest dream for Gen Z is not to let these last couple generations be the last.
With 69.31 million people making up the Generation Z population, our hopes for the future should be relatively in our hands. This year, over 41 million members of Generation Z will be able to vote. Based on the New York Times: Today’s Teenagers: Anxious About Their Futures and Disillusioned by Politicians, Generation Z grasps a better understanding of what is going on behind the curtain.
The majority of teenagers in this day and age are immersed in technology, especially social media. We are the oldest generation that grew up experiencing technology, and unlike our grandparents or even our parents we have different viewpoints on how the world should run. Born with the internet and social media, the experiences we have encountered as children have helped us gain early expertise allowing us to become self-reliant and collaborative in a way new to older generations. The entirety of Generation Z wants the best for our future. With inflation high and opinions even higher, people of this generation are having a hard time making crucial decisions, such as who to vote for in this upcoming election.
Our primary concern for our future has a deeper focus on mental health and suicide rates. Being one of the more empathetic groups in generations, almost all teenagers will say they have experienced depression or feelings of hopelessness. About one in five adolescents experience symptoms of anxiety and or depression. Teenagers put their mental health first, even before school or work, which is something older generations have never done due to the stigma around taking a “mental health day.”
While some might say Generation Z has become profoundly lazy, so to speak, the generation itself has evolved into something new. People born in this generation are more likely to stand up for themselves and what they think are valued as good for the world. Many teenagers are willing to take risks when it comes to planning for our future and well being. These people born from 1997-2012 have inherited a world surrounded by climate change, political polarization, and social commotion. But yet we somehow find hope in the future through activism, inclusivity, and innovation. Many of us want our future to be sustainable, not covered by a mask of genocide and natural disasters.
We have the power to shape how we vision our world to be. We are not just voting with a pen; we are voting with our voices and advocating for a better planet. Our generation strives for economic and environmental well-being and a society that accepts the diversity of the human experience.
Gun regulations, abortion rights, climate change; they’re all main factors that are deciding the direction our world is moving towards today. From being worried about tomorrow’s big test to constantly thinking about being shot in your local public school. Times have changed, and so have our worries. Generational change is bound to happen, and it’s time for the world to understand this.
“Our new generations have become lazy!” is what people all over the world are repeating. Gen Z is apparently going to make the world crash and burn. Did you know that? Teenagers and young adults are being classified as lazy, slackers, and negligent to the world around them. “The younger generation isn’t lazy; they’re burned out” is what social scientist Sara Konrath states in her opening title for her own article on this subject. Konrath proves how today’s generation is not lazy, simply exhausted from the real world problems they are going through.
A future with children running the world never sounds good. Can you imagine a 14-year-old as president? Now that would be a worse presidential debate than this years was. It’s a good thing it will never happen. People today forget how Gen Z is still currently considered young adults. People today forget that congress does not allow teenagers a position there. People today forget that it is unjust to judge a whole generation on what their future holds due to the way they act today. The way they act today as children. With this generation and the opportunities they have, the future is bright.
Gen Z has created many problems. “Cancel Culture” has been a repetitive topic, as well as being considered “woke”. This generation is not perfect. No generation has the ability to be perfect, just as no year of birth is particularly perfect. (Perhaps besides the 80’s, that music was the peak of rock). No matter the generation, stereotypes and assumptions will always follow. It’s up to the people of today’s society, Gen Z, to decide the right decisions.
Left, right, middle, diagonal, the side you stand on or perhaps lean towards has become taboo. “Make America great again!” “We are not going back!” Big white letters on red hats, to letters on black t-shirts. Propaganda, or simple advertisement, call it what you want. Generation Z is having to be the true deciding factor on this. People are being judged by clips on the internet, conformed and manipulated into something they never were. Society has allowed the media to tell them stories, fairy tales, and fiction about real-life people who are, in fact, not fake. Politics are real. Manipulation is in place. Wake up before the world you know currently dies in a burning fire that you helped start.
As high school seniors, one thing we’re constantly bombarded with is college. For many, college is something that is necessary to attend, especially since most jobs now require a college education for basic entry-level positions. Before we graduate in June, we already have to know the answers to some major life questions. Are you going to college? Where are you going to college? And most importantly, how are you going to pay for college?
According to CNBC, using information provided by credit union Experian, they deduced Gen Z has some of the highest percentages of student loan debt, just behind Millennials, with 37.2% of Gen Z having some form of school-related debt. This number is only expected to rise as the rest of Gen Z graduates high school. Interestingly, despite being one of the generations with the highest percentage of debt, on average, we have the lowest median balance owed at 12,172 dollars. To me, this shows that students are making choices to reduce the amount of debt that they owe by choosing cheaper universities and investing in more scholarships. But my question is this. Why should we have to pay such a large amount of money for an education?
One thing that I would like to see in a future run by Gen Z is student debt forgiveness and cheaper universities. Most students I know are choosing to give up on your typical college experience in favor of saving money, so they choose community colleges and online degree programs instead. For others, they plan on joining the military to have their tuition paid by the Government. Those who choose neither option are shackled with thousands in debt. Why should we have to give up on the experiences our parents and grandparents had? Why should we have to pay off large debt? Why should we have to put our lives on the line just to get an education?
This problem has gotten significantly worse since my parent’s generation. On average college costs have increased by over 65% from the year 2000 to 2021, making college much less accessible to many young Americans in a time where it’s needed more than ever. What Gen Z needs is for college to become more affordable, and I believe that in my lifetime our generation will be the one to force people to act or the people who will change it for ourselves.
My hope for a future run by Gen Z is a world where the younger generations don’t have to be worried about how they’re going to afford a college education. Universities should not be able to charge more to attend college than our yearly salaries. Education is something that should be accessible to everyone regardless of their background, and I believe a lot of people who have immense talent are going undetected due to a system that is broken.
If you were to ask me what I hoped for our future government I’d say, I hope we elect someone who can make allies with countries and prevent or stop war. I hope we can lower or get rid of the cost of education beyond high school. I hope we can accept one another’s differences and realize our country is great because we are different and all have different experiences.
I think that as a whole, our country is divided. My generation, although divided, mostly understands the differences we all have but sometimes lack the empathy to help and use our voice in a positive way.
If it was an option to replace the older generation that are in the top positions of our government, I would. They have different goals, beliefs and hopes for the future than the younger generations. Now thirty year olds, millennials, are in between my generation and generation X, the people who hold the top government positions. If we had people in their late thirties running our country there might be a better chance of our voices being heard.
I have a feeling that my generation will be focused on saving and protecting our planet, limiting gun access and ending the division between us. Gen Z have had more access to news and politics than those before. We have seen the division of politics in our country grow to where it is now. There is no reason we should hate a person just because they have a different opinion on something. We are all humans trying to figure out the world and ourselves, it is hard enough to do that without the pressure of choosing the people who control your future.
One of the biggest concerns my generation has is the education system. I hope we can adjust the way we teach, how students feel about school and I hope school can feel safe for everyone. If we don’t do something about kids having guns then school will continue to feel unsafe.
After COVID 19 school has not been the same. During online school most kids adapted to learning remotely, learning on a computer and waking up when your first class started. Although students got comfortable with this, it taught them to barely get by or expect late work to not be counted as late. We need to find a way to encourage and motivate students to want to learn.
Although there is a lot Gen Z could and might do, everything takes time. We can’t fix every crack in our government but, I believe Gen Z can lay the footprints for a better environment, a better education, and many more things that can’t get done tomorrow. We have the ideas and the passion for it, we just need our voices to be heard.
As I look ahead, I know my generation will shape my future. I am filled with hope and determination. We have been forced to grow up in a world that constantly has changes where our technology and social problems are getting bigger and worse. The 2024 presidential election has shown the importance of our voices due to some of us being able to vote now.
The 2024 elections are new to us; it’s our first time voting or being involved in anything political. Recent surveys that came out in January showed a unity in Gen Z that has affected all of us, like climate change, mental health, and social justice. To us, these issues aren’t problems we come across some days; they are things we see/ deal with every day. Going deeper into the survey we are told that we are the most anxious and disillusioned generation, and I could see why some may say that due to the big events we have been through in just a short amount of time. Many of us feel anxious and powerless about our future mostly due to the politics getting so intense, although I still do believe that our generation has a chance to create a long-lasting change. Another great example is the big climate change problems, every year we have gotten warnings that the planet is almost at its breaking point, and it always feels like the older people in our lives haven’t done anything about it. This isn’t a little problem either, each summer the wildfires get worse and worse, especially here in Oregon. And the big storms in the east such as hurricanes have been happening way more than they usually do. I believe that when we make huge changes we will take the planet we live on into more consideration.
Moving onto the big technology changes and innovation. We have grown up in a world where technology is used every day. We are all able to understand the power of it and most of us even know how to teach others how to use it. Most Gen Z know about TikTok and use it as a platform to connect with others, and to warn others about things you may not see on the news. As Gen Z moves on, I feel like we will be able to handle the challenges we face and maybe even use technology as a resource. Although we might face challenges that will come later on, I am sure that my generation will be able to lead with compassion and creativity. We have shown in many ways that we are unafraid to speak up and make changes. I believe that this will grow to be even stronger later on and that we will bring new solutions to our country’s problems.
In conclusion, I hope that a future run by my generation will improve social justice, environmental sustainability, and technological advancements. The 2024 presidential election will be a test of how our generation might start changing the vote count. I am ready to see the positive changes that we will make in the world. We will build a future that is more sustainable and inclusive for everyone.
Planning on moving out after high school? Please don’t count on big corporations buying land and creating rent prices to keep you in their pockets forever. Renting housing in Oregon is not only above the national average but has become increasingly unaffordable for young people who are just starting college and jobs and living on their own. This is discouraging and scary for people coming into adulthood, forces many people to reconsider changing their living situations, and makes independence never impossible. As we enter a new era, I think our generation has the power to change that. Affordable housing should be a right to anyone who works hard, not a luxury. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice fun things in life to pay rent. We need to group up and advocate for affordable housing development.
Big corporations are one of the most significant problems with affordable housing in Oregon. These entities often buy out land and housing and inflate rent to maximize profit, leaving ordinary people barely able to afford the price of a bed to sleep at night. We need to advocate for local governments to enact policies limiting corporate ownership of residential properties. And promote community-led housing projects by creating housing that is affordable to everyone. We create an environment where everyone can afford housing, allowing everyone to thrive.
We are the future, and being in the future means we have more tools at our disposal, including the internet. We can use social media like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to spread awareness and unite by sharing our stories and situations of the struggle of affordable housing. By working together, we can change policies, advocate for change, and join by attending meetings at city hall and writing to local governments. When more people show up and speak their minds, government officials are given more priority.
Additionally, we need to support initiatives that promote cooperative housing and community land trust. Unlikeke giant companies, these provide affordable housing, and people can take control of their housing, modify it, and make it a home.
By investing in these alternatives, we can create more communities and affordable housing where people have financial freedom and can have a breath financially more than once every two weeks.
For example, the effect of this on Portland could transform the city. As the city continues to grow and more people come in with more affordable housing, diverse people come into the city as it is more open for others. Besides gaining more of the town and the local economy, Bitalso provides housing opportunities for the thousands of homeless living in the city on the streets. Portland is known for having lots of homelessness, but this is not necessary. With more housing, opportunities, and economic growth, we can reduce the number of people living on our streets.
This is why our generation needs to stick together and input our future first. The number of people is increasing, but the price of housing and rent isn’t going up.
I hope to make my own choices about my body rather than the government making them for me. I hope that my sister will never have to be in a school shooting. I hope we can treat our planet better and with the respect it deserves. I hope to be able to afford a house when I grow up. I hope my moms can stay legally married. I hope the United States of America will be a safe place for all citizens, regardless of our differences.
In the upcoming 2024 election, it is a choice between the well-being of daughters, mothers, sisters, all children, LGBTQ+, people of color, and many more minority groups, or the top 1% of people. Donald Trump wants to help the people who are at the top, the millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations. He wants to take from the lower classes by raising taxes for us while reducing them for people who make much more money. While Trump denies knowing anything about Project 2025, it was high-ranking officials in his administration that created this insane agenda for the next Republican/conservative president, which could very well be Trump. It would impact vast portions of our country and nearly every person, taking away freedoms from so many people. I am worried about what my future will look like if Kamala Harris doesn’t win this election.
Harris focuses on what she will do to make our lives better and safer. One of the big problems Republicans seem to have with Harris is that “she wants to take away our guns.” When she says she plans to instate more laws regarding gun control, she doesn’t mean taking away regular guns from regular people. She is focusing on banning assault weapons or guns that have high-capacity magazines, requiring background checks to buy a gun, and supporting red flag laws. School shootings will continue if nothing is done, and more children’s and teachers’ lives will be lost.
Another huge part of this election is abortion rights. Trump wants to decide for every American woman whether or not they should get an abortion, completely disregarding the situation of the woman. If the baby was a product of rape or incest, if the woman does not have the financial means to go through the process of having a baby and supporting it, or the age of the pregnant woman doesn’t matter to him. If a 10-year-old were raped and became pregnant, Trump would force that child to give birth to a child of her own, causing the rest of her life to be completely derailed.
I hope that choosing between a racist, misogynistic, fascist, convicted felon, and sexual abuser, or someone supporting a path back to what America should be–a great and safe place for everyone–will not even be a question in a future run by Gen Z. I hope that we will do better for our kids, setting up a world where they don’t have to fight for their basic rights.
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