Five Unsolicited Gyaans Millennials Want To Give The Gen Z

Dear Gen Zs, this is an ode from yours truly, asking you to pause for a moment, plug in your earphones, and listen. Disclaimer: This isn’t a book of prescriptions, it’s a letter, inspired by 'the tortured poets.'

Gen Zs, one of the most conscious, self-aware generation finds itself navigating a plethora of narratives, entrapped within the walls of injustice. Unabashed, unfettered, and unhinged, you are seen as the trailblazer of change who is rejecting the meta-narratives and embracing multiple narratives. Deconstructing the threads of every idea and ideology, you refuse to be labelled. 

Yet…

Somehow, in your desire to redefine and be ‘different’ and ‘non-mainstream’, you seem lost, chasing filtered dreams, picking the ruins of your mental health, and blinded by the constructed myths of aestheticism. 

Here Are 5 Things I Wish You Would Hear

1. Don’t Keep Up With The Kardashians

The recent appearances of Kylie Jenner generated unfiltered responses on social media with users comparing her to 47-year-old Cillian Murphy. Isn't it ironic how patriarchal beauty standards pressure you to conform to artificial enhancements, only to turn around and criticize you for doing so? 

In the same news, I found a popular hashtag with about 189 million views, called #BabyBotox, featuring young women receiving just a touch of toxin in their faces to prevent deep wrinkles. I sighed, "What the f**k?" I understand the whole postmodernist inclination toward beauty narratives, but can someone explain to me how Botox, fillers, and injections are internally stimulated? Like, you wake up someday and decide to wreak havoc using cosmetic procedures and aesthetic offerings, which are readily available (thanks to social media). Furthermore, you go on justifying your choices as a bold stand against conventional beauty norms, but are you truly challenging the status quo? Or are you inadvertently reconstructing the very narratives you aim to deconstruct?

What's more, the distinctive trait that sets you apart is your sensitivity and inclusivity. Yet, your misguided race towards these aesthetic offerings reeks of privilege and luxury. To those who want to continue filtering your jaws and cheekbones, go ahead but stop popularising it. 

So, my dearest Gen Zs, please don’t keep up with the Kardashians. They are barely keeping up. 

2. Dont (W)Orry So Much 

You know, in my academic curriculum I had read about this thinker- John Locke and he had given the concept of ‘tabula rasa’ i.e. a clean slate. Something similar to your favourite Taylor Swift’s Blank Space. 

“I've got a blank space, baby

And I'll write your name”

Wondering what I am trying to say?

In today’s time, you seem so absorbed in your social media aesthetics and algorithms, that you hardly look beyond, let alone within. You have let it become the bane of your existence and the object of your insecurities. The time you spend engaging with hecklers on social media is futile. It enrages you, but you choose your battle. If you think it’s worth engaging with the hecklers, you do that.

The whole Orry episode is a reflection that everything on social media is fleeting. It doesn’t last, so don't let it consume your very being. You have to deafen the bedlam it unleashes, once in a while so you can find your voice. You need to understand you can’t fight it all. It adds to your stress and insecurities. 

Social media, much like the "organic intellectual" concept that Gramsci explored, possesses a captivating allure. It presents an illusion of endless choice and freedom, drawing you in and coercing you to participate in and ultimately accept the exploitative narratives it perpetuates.

So, please stop (w)orrying so much and find your blank space.

3. You’re On Your Own, Kid

“You're on your own, kid. You always have been.” 

The feeling of loneliness is so pronounced in your generation, leaving you to grapple with the realities of mental health. The reason partly is the alienation that you feel from society, at large. Your ability to articulate your emotions, comfortably discuss uncomfortable topics, and raise your voice against the injustices that threaten the societal/family structure. 

What I intend to say is you are on your own. You have to navigate the complexities of life, love, and career. Your life is yours and while this thought is extremely liberating, the downside is you have no one to blame. You are free, but with chains. Learn to walk in them.

4. Little Freak Jezebel, Your Delicate Point Of View

You have to understand there is a difference between normalising and trivialising. It's heartening to see you normalising conversations around uncomfortable topics like mental health, sexual rights, and gender identities. It's also genuinely remarkable to see you deconstructing narratives and redefining the discourses, making them free-floating and fluid. 

But, somewhere in doing that, things have digressed and become trivialised. While it’s not completely your fault, using words like ‘depression’, ‘PTSD’, ‘trauma’ etc casually to describe minor inconveniences defeats your championed cause. What’s worse is we have de-sensitised these sensitive words by aestheticising them for our Insta and Pinterest feeds. The same goes for the whole pronouns debate or the whole 'red/green flag' discourse. Over-explosion of anything disparages the narrative that our foremothers painstakingly built. 

Not everything is for the feed and social media, not everything needs to be glamorised. 

5. Play Date

Self-awareness is beautiful and empowering but it seems to have prematurely forced adulting on you. You are supposed to be 16-year-olds/ 20-year-olds. Reckless and unaware. Trust me, sometimes, ignorance is bliss, especially when it comes to dating.

You are being called the most undateable generation. You have come up with military alliances slang (you and slang) like NATO to define dating. Seriously, genius this is.

Loving is hard but it’s also liberating. Nobody is asking you to commit. You can abide by your  NATO and whatnot, but just because everyone thinks being in love or a relationship is uncool doesn’t have to mean they are. Don’t glorify situationships just for the sake of content. 

Not everything has to have some utility because anyway, nothing is ever meaningless. So, don’t let preconceived notions guide your heart. Let it go astray, have some regrets. Don’t have to be morally right and politically correct, all the time.

Sometimes, just be a play date and share your toys with someone, will ya?

Views expressed are the author's own.