Generation Z has morphed from a joke into a threat. Frequently ridiculed in the Western media because of their heavy reliance on technology and supposed poor interpersonal skills, recently, through the “Gen Z stare,” the so-called Generation Z has garnered considerable media attention lately for decidedly different reasons.
Over the last few weeks and months, there have been a series of protests involving Gen Z-aged demonstrators in several countries, including Madagascar, Nepal, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya, France, Italy, Morocco, and Peru. They have played leading roles in the unrest, which in some cases has resulted in bloodshed and the toppling of political leaders and entire governments.
But just who are these disruptors? As with any generational label, there is typically a degree of imprecision and often a Western bias in the categories themselves. Generally, though, the Gen Z designation has been applied to those born between 1997 and 2012. Also known as “Zoomers,” they are largely the children of Generation X. They also represent the first full generation born in the Internet and social media age.
Despite its repeated use by the media and politicians as if it were written in stone, the notion of “generations” as a coherent category with blanket characteristics is a relatively modern concept. Indeed, it dates from the latter half of the 19th century.
The birth of a construct
Initially broadly constructed as representing a divide between young and old, it gradually became more specific, with industrialisation, combined with the rise of the modern state and its regulatory reach. The latter included the creation of a mass universal education system, in which people of the same age encountered similar experiences at the same time, fostering a sense of shared identity.
Growing cynicism about meritocracy will fuel more protests, especially against those deemed to have unfair advantages in society
The growth of communications and media contributed to a sense of shared values and outlooks—albeit with still recurrent divisions and complications around race and ethnicity, gender, and social class. The academic Benedict Anderson's theory of "imagined communities," which he used to explain the birth of nations where none had existed before, is relevant to the idea of distinct generations.
By the early 20th century, sociologists like Karl Mannheim began to conceptualise generations more precisely in relation to real-world event—particularly World War I and World War II—adding nuance. At the same time, the view of distinct generations as a category of analysis began to draw disapproval, with critics arguing that they were still too broadly defined and ignored divisions within generations.
Despite the obvious shortcomings of a generational approach, it became increasingly deployed in the latter half of the 20th century. The most famous generation of that period, at least from a Western perspective, is the Baby Boomers—those born in the immediate aftermath of World War II, from 1946 to 1964.
Large in number in several countries—particularly the United States and Canada, where veterans returned from war and began families—the Boomers affected the development of their societies through the sheer impact of their size and not necessarily because they always represented the homogenous entity as it is often portrayed in the present and in popular memory of the past.
Baby Boomers became associated with both cultural change and protest, particularly in the United States during the Vietnam War, though the most prominent leaders of these campus protests were often from the generation that preceded them.
Protesters clash during a demonstration against the Vietnam War held in front of the White House on 11 May 1970, and after a shooting at Kent State University in Ohio on 4 May 1970, where four students were killed by police.
University campuses especially served as flashpoints for clashes between the state and Baby Boomers, with students shot and killed by state forces in 1970 at two separate American universities. Even then, the notion of generational rebellion was overstated, including at the university level. Activism was higher than in previous cohorts but still represented only a minority of those attending university.
Generational solidarity: real or imagined?
Just how much generational solidarity exists beyond trendy nicknames and simplistic media narratives remains to be seen. Previous age brackets fragmented along pre-existing faultlines that, at certain points, were overcome but never eliminated. Baby Boomers in the US and other countries, for instance, were divided along racial and gender lines in the 1970s.
Similar splits are evident in Gen Z. The key one is gender, where several studies have found a profound division between men and women in that cohort. A study of 30 countries catalogued greater gender gaps between Gen Z men and women than any other post-World War II generation. These involved wide disagreements among male and female Gen Zers on various questions, including support for feminism, whether men are less of a man when they do childcare, and whether efforts at equality between men and women had gone too far.
In the United States, that gender division has translated into a growing political gap as Gen Z women move to the political left and Gen Z men to the right. The latter shift benefited Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. In South Korea, Gen Z men have increasingly migrated toward support for far-right political entities.
Considering these profound and seemingly growing gender divisions, how does that account for Gen Z's key involvement in global protests or for any sense that there is a clear Gen Z worldview in the first place? One unifier is undoubtedly technology. Regardless of divisions within, Generation Z is extremely effective at wielding social media as a tool of communication, organisation, and coordination.
States may increasingly control or regulate traditional forms of communication and media, such as television, radio, and newspapers, but the sheer variety of newer technologies of communication and information dissemination is far more difficult to curtail, short of a complete shutdown of the Internet, as just occurred briefly in Afghanistan.
Fire rages through the main administrative building for the Nepal government, in Kathmandu on September 9, 2025, a day after a police crackdown on protests over social media prohibitions and corruption by the government.
The example of Nepal illustrates these trends. Criticism of corruption on social media prompted the Nepalese government to impose a nationwide ban on social media. In turn, this led to mass protests by Gen Zers and multiple deaths before the government rescinded the ban. The protests, however, continued unabated and ultimately led to the government's resignation.
Economic factor
Even more significant for the Gen Z protests, however, is economics. Despite fractures, a growing sense of inequality and unfairness seems to be unifiying this generation. There is a long list of grievances: the rising cost of housing, along with a general lack of availability; the weakening of pensions or their elimination entirely; the decline of state-run health-care systems; and the rising cost of higher education. All are fuelling Gen Z rage because they come with real-world consequences for their lives that cannot be ignored.
Given such conditions and a real sense of generational injustice—especially in societies where government policies seem aimed at older voters who are more likely to cast ballots—growing extremism by Gen Zers, either on the political left or right, seems inevitable. Declining belief in political and economic systems and growing cynicism about meritocracy will fuel more protests, especially over corruption and against those deemed to have unfair advantages in society.
The advent of artificial intelligence will only exacerbate these factors. First, it will disproportionately affect younger generations in entry-level positions, who will find themselves losing their jobs or unable to get one in the first place. Economic displacement driven by AI, combined with the potential for it to be used to inflame tensions through deepfake videos and other social media postings, is leading to an increasingly alienated Generation Z.
