Generation Z Unfiltered: Facing Nine Hidden Challenges of the Most Anxious Population by Tim Elmore and Andrew McPeak, Poet Gardener Publishing, 2019. ISBN: 978-1732070349
Generation Z Unfiltered is the most thorough and practical book on Gen Z that I’ve come across. It is written in accessible language that doesn’t demonize Gen Z or condescend to readers but cuts to the chase regarding problems identified by the authors' research and professional experience. Its first section describes how the modern world has shaped Gen Z personalities and perspectives. The second section identifies nine challenges parents and educators face in helping Gen Z grow and prosper. The final section offers simple solutions for addressing what the authors have identified as the nine greatest challenges facing Gen Z:
1. Empowerment Without Wisdom
2. Stimulation Without Ownership
3. Privileges Without Responsibility
4. Involvement Without Boundaries
5. Individualism Without Perspective
6. Accessibility Without Accountability
7. Fluidity Without Integrity
8. Opportunity Without Resilience
9. Consumption Without Reflection.
Authors Tim Elmore and Andrew McPeak blame our world's constant connectedness to technology for the Nine Challenges. They cite individuals' immediate and ongoing awareness of every event, from a local kidnapping to a national terrorist attack to a global pandemic, as the cause of parents' tendency to exhibit hyper-concern for their children (12-20). Hyper-concern has replaced Generation X helicopter parents, who hovered over their children’s lives, with Millennial snowplow or lawnmower parents, who anticipate and eliminate every discomfort their child might encounter (12, 29). Parents then pressure teachers, coaches, and mentors to become snowplows/lawnmowers, too, resulting in coddling that shows up as participation trophies, grade inflation, unlimited quiz retakes, and boundary-less relationships with adults, among other well-intentioned but harmful innovations. These practices have led Gen Z to expect rewards for showing up instead of for overcoming obstacles or accomplishing goals(38).
Having never faced adversity or unfamiliar circumstances without their parents' "snowplowing/lawnmowering" Gen Z has learned to fear and dread anything new, difficult, risky, boring, or labor-intensive (115). More than anything, Gen Zers fear failure, which they define as everything from a minor mistake or embarrassment to a score lower than 100% on a school assignment. Fear has led them to develop an external locus of control: a belief that not much about their life is under their control and that they need others to do or fix things for them because they aren’t capable (123). Psychologists and child experts agree that an internal locus of control is required for healthy growth and contentedness.
At the same time parents micro-manage their children’s lives, Gen Zers spend an average of 9 hours a day interacting with screens, often multitasking among five devices while also doing homework, eating dinner, or attending religious services (29, 47). Overexposure to technology thins the brain's cortex (the layer that processes thought and action), short-circuiting “deeper thinking” (46), diminishing attention span (48), increasing impulsivity, and decreasing self-discipline necessary for delayed gratification (49). Overexposure to screens’ blue light increases insomnia, which exacerbates those problems (29, 49). It’s not surprising, then, that Gen Z displays lower levels of happiness (117), gratitude (118), and motivation (88), and performs worse on tests of problem-solving, decision-making, and responsibility than previous generations (88-89).
Gen Z's paradox of immersion in the “wild west” online environment and reality staged and micromanaged by adults has made Gen Z, itself, a paradox. It is often alone yet never alone, independent from peers but dependent on parents, lacking dramatic moments but feeling full of drama, authentic and artificial, all of which leads its members to form an unstable sense of individual identity (31). Gen Zers shift among multiple incomplete identities to craft an image instead of building character and personality. Often, even they don’t know which identity, if any, is real and consistently theirs (177). Their paradoxical, fluid existence has created “the extinction of childlikeness [and] the extension of childishness” (31). Effects include these shared characteristics:
impatience
comparison
fragility
anger
restlessness
distractedness (28-30)
depression (35)
anxiety (88)
disillusionment (123)
narcissism
entitlement (168)
amoralism (assumption that “everything is acceptable”) (190)
learned helplessness (241).
Ultimately, those characteristics lead to operating beliefs that image is more important than character (177), that “I am the center of my own universe; I deserve to be happy all the time; I must have choices; [and that] I am my own authority” (170).
After describing the Nine Challenges’ causes and effects, Unfiltered provides solutions. The solutions' framework rests on a metaphor: Astronauts grow weak in outer space because their muscles aren’t forced to work against gravity’s pull. Similarly, children’s internal locus of control withers if they aren’t tested and strengthened by adversity (236).
Solutions include the following, among others:
teaching traditional ethical systems, such as ethos (character and credibility), logos (logic, reasoning, and evidence), and pathos (sympathy) (196-201).
letting children and teens get bored so they figure out how to entertain themselves (i.e., direct their behavior) instead of expecting others to entertain or manage them (147).
minimalizing possessions so Gen Zers value what they have instead of desiring what they could/should get, which leads to a sense of lacking or absence.
encouraging Gen Zers to earn new possessions through accomplishment, not just effort (150-151).
rewarding outcomes instead of presence or participation.
creating boundaries for behavior, enforcing them consistently, and enacting consequences when they are breached (147).
emphasizing and praising desired character traits, such as trustworthiness, kindness, fairness, and work ethic, instead of highlighting and rewarding resume fillers, such as ribbons and trophies (177).
developing critical thinking, complex problem-solving, judgment, and decision-making skills by asking Gen Zers to “use logic and reasoning to identify strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems” instead of believing that "emotional reasoning rules the day" (255, 170).
When parents, teachers, coaches, and other adults shaping Gen Z’s childhood through young adulthood, Zers learn to face fears and overcome obstacles. They gain confidence, create a cohesive and stable identity, and develop contentedness with themselves and their lives (236-238).
Generation Z Unfiltered is an accessible guidebook to raising and educating Gen Z. I highly recommend it for anyone who cares about shaping the next generation.