Politics, debates, flash news. Old people. We, Generation Z, are inheriting a broken world.

 

It’s well known that the globe is changing more than ever. Nothing is as it was thirty years ago: social standards, technology, politics - none of it. In fact, socially, the Earth has changed more in the past 200 years than 2,000, and there’s no slowing down. From school walkouts to global climate strikes, social norms are changing fast.

 

Gen Z is the first generation to grow up entirely in the internet age; the oldest of us being twenty-eight years old. Now, there are obviously stereotypes for our generation - being lazy, too online, even overly ‘woke’. But perhaps the most important is being strong-willed. Young people today aren’t bending to the rules and customs of the world around us, and for good reason. With new times come new minds, inventions, laws, and expectations.

Here are unhappy youth who’ve recently gained voices, and an Earth that desperately requires change. The result? The biggest increase in worldwide protests ever seen. They’ve even got their own name - the Gen Z spring.

 

The obvious question is why. Why so many uprisings? The short answer is the economy: rising costs, fewer jobs, the reality that many youth will never own a house in their lives. It’s the call for change: inequality, corruption, silenced voices. It’s the need to drive our own futures, to have a voice. The world is just getting harder and harder to live in.

 

In Nepal, protests started when the government banned 26, twenty-six, mainstream social media apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The repression of digital media absolutely tore through the country, disrupting communication, tanking small business, and took away the right to freedom of information. Hashtags and movements spread like wildfire through Tiktok, one of the few apps left alone. It was the spark. Youth-led protests flooded the streets, calling for the eradication of corruption, staggering wealth gaps, nepotism and lack of accountability. The country wasn’t going to sit and take it. Buildings burned and the government toppled. It almost sounds dystopian.

 

Slogans featuring the name ‘Gen Z’ were graffitied onto buildings. The prime minister resigned. Online protests exploded. And Nepal wasn’t the only place; in Morocco, a movement named ‘Gen Z 212’ hit the country. Young people demanding a change of ways, acting for themselves and their future. In Madagascar, frustration brewed with failures in basic economic services such as electricity access. More protests. More walkouts. More of the ‘lazy’ generation taking control.

 

Now…I assume you’ve heard of the anime series One Piece? The Gen Z spring has adopted the pirate flag image from the anime (I’m not kidding). The grinning skull-and-crossbones flag, ‘Straw Hat Jolly Roger’, waves across protests from Indonesia to Peru, France to Madagascar. The flag isn’t random, either. In One Piece, the characters rebel against corrupt powers to chase freedom. The symbol is a statement. A generation raised on the internet, using the irony of the flag to emphasize the differences of the present world compared to what it used to be. 

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Social media is largely a factor. Clips from Morocco can hit Texas phones in milliseconds. Support, rallies, and the spread of information jump across platforms to call attention to the matter. Protests don’t need leaders, parties, or organization; just Wi-fi. The Gen Z spring looks different, is different, but it only fits the quickly-progressing environment we live in.

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So, it’s safe to say that the future will be interesting at the least, and radically different at most. The youth’s refusal to accept the ‘it is how it is’ mindset is inciting waves that have quite literally caused Nepal’s Prime Minister to resign. The next generation is fighting to be heard, so what comes next?