Gen Z will never work a day in their lives.

Grab All Association · 18-10-2021 1:40am #1

See this a lot on Twitter. Someone post something nostalgic or some pop culture gag

Tweet number 1: “These feile photos are epic cool”

Tweet number 2: ”woah this tweet got more likes than I was expect. I am a trans artist/plumber/baker/Follow my Instagram/GoFundMe/OnlyFans etc

and people fall for this shite and like and share and fund these people.

A whole generation of grifters anyone born after 1995.

Burt Renaults · 18-10-2021 1:44am

I see this a lot on Boards.

wotzgoingon · 18-10-2021 2:11am

Bums the lot of them. 😀

Tell me how · 18-10-2021 2:18am

Doubt many Gen Z were at feile OP. Maybe it's Gen X you're gripe is with?

Still, Gen Z must be doing something right if you're following so many of them on Twitter.

Grab All Association · 18-10-2021 2:39am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118034475#Comment_118034475

They weren’t, they just Google a photo of it, post it and then plug their own shite underneath. Simpsons references too are another thing they use.

I only follow The Simpsons, writers, showrunners etc. Wouldn’t follow these eejits, but they keep coming up on the homepage. When you follow a topic on Twitter, it shows you 95% of what you’re interested in, and 5% these eejits

https://twitter.com/judgedyl/status/1358755748050837508?s=21

Read underneath.

HeidiHeidi · 18-10-2021 3:40am

What generation am I if I haven't a clue what this thread is even about? 🤯

Tell me how · 18-10-2021 4:15am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118034493#Comment_118034493

A middle aged man who only follows Simpsons related content on Twitter is upset that someone posted a message he disagrees with. And felt it was worthy enough to start a thread about it.

magicbastarder · 18-10-2021 5:10am

The example given shows someone tweeting a link to charities when their initial tweet went viral, how very dare they, the goddam grifter.

Sunny_Arms · 18-10-2021 7:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058213586/gen-z-will-never-work-a-day-in-their-lives

I think it depends. my niece who is born in 1998, is currently working as a virtual assistant like me. She just graduated last year and that's the first job she got. She chose WFH because she's a bit sickly and can't really go out.

The J Stands for Jay · 18-10-2021 7:39am

Some people on twitter are promoting their side gigs (or charities), and you conclude that they will never work. The reality is those side gigs take effort all the time and they probably work a regular job (or two) as well.

18-10-2021 7:45am

I do think a bit about what the current children are missing out on in terms of hard work, discipline, appreciation for their material goods, and so forth. Especially when I see my kids friends coming around to our place so often because they get to do things with me and my kids here they aren't getting to do anywhere else.

And it is easy to point at them and moan about how they are just sitting around doing nothing but staring at their phones farming "likes".

But I am not seeing many parents giving them hard work to do - or instilling any discipline - or making any moves to show them the value of their material goods. So those people inclined to point fingers - and we have many of them - I wonder where they feel they should be pointing them. I suspect there is enough to go around.

Certainly one place worth pointing them is at the apps themselves. They simply are getting better and better at capturing and holding the attention of kids - and making the kids feel like these apps and what happens in and around them is the most important thing in the world. And as long as the eyeballs, clicks, attention, and marketable personal data keeps coming - I doubt the apps themselves are going to start caring any time soon either.

EmmetSpiceland · 18-10-2021 9:04am

Kids today have it too easy. They don’t work hard, they spend all their money on avocados and fancy coffees. They never got beaten in school or had to be afraid of the priest or a “dodgy” uncle.

I didn’t get to go on holidays while I saved for a house, one of the many that were available on the “market” at that time.

No, kids today need a good slap. Get them off their phones and out into the fields so they know what “hard work” is like. Why should they get off so easily? Or get things handed to them?

They should have to suffer like the rest of us crabs in the bucket.

Effects · 18-10-2021 9:18am

If I could post Simpsons pictures to twitter, get people to subscribe to my only fans, and then sit back and watch the cash roll in, without having to do anything else, then I'd jump at the chance. Why work harder than you have to?

Wanderer78 · 18-10-2021 9:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058213586/gen-z-will-never-work-a-day-in-their-lives

you wouldnt be one of those folks that suffers from that thing, oh what is it, prejudice!

Wibbs · 18-10-2021 9:54am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118034446#Comment_118034446

Since the beginning of recorded history you have the same old men yelling at clouds in every culture on the planet. The ancient Chinese, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians were moaning about it. The script always runs; the younger generation are a bunch of lacklustre layabouts with no respect for society and we're on the way to doom because of them. What's quite incredible for me is how every generation comes to this end in their own way and forgets what it was to be young and forget their older generation said the same damn things about them. It's like some built in biological thing that comes along at a certain time in people's lives, a menopause of whinging about the kidz. Though men are far more likely to come out with it.

18-10-2021 10:15am

Yeah I believe they call it "Juvenoia"? Some people suggest it is a misfiring of Nostalgia or also something called "Stake Hypothesis" in how parents view their relationships with their children.

Peter the Hermit in the 1200s BCE is one nice early example of adults complaining that children seem to think they know it all. But from studies in general it seems Millennials - much like every generation before - generally share the values and work ethics of their parents.

But of course that should not be license to be complacent either. If genuine issues start to arise in one generation - it would be unfortunate to miss them or ignore them behind the rubric of "Sure every generation thinks there is something wrong with the younger generation - nothing to see here!". Rather we should be looking at the younger generation and being both open minded and sceptical - and seeing if there is any genuine causes for concern - or if it is just our natural biology kicking in our paranoias for no good reason.

If there are issues though - I am double sceptical harking back to being able to "beat" and "slap" children or complaining about the prevalence of avocados is the way to go to address it :) There are plenty of ways to inject discipline and controlled adversity and challenge into a kids life to help them grow without going full retrograde. The baby can be taken from the bath water. I am equally sceptical that participation trophies at every single event and "safe spaces" are going to be useful solutions to issues found though too.

magicbastarder · 18-10-2021 10:21am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035000#Comment_118035000

and in this case, the OP bases his prejudice on a few people on twitter who have had tweets which have gone viral. approximately 0.0000073% of the current 'yoof' population.

18-10-2021 10:29am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035121#Comment_118035121

This is certainly something I am noticing more and more. That all these controversies and problem behaviours and so forth all appear to exist primarily or sometimes even exclusively in the Twitter-verse. And the more wrapped up in that universe one becomes the more one can feel the world if ending. As someone who does not use Twitter however I feel I manage to live the entirety of my relatively active life without encountering a single person suffering from being "offended" or being impacted by "Trans Issues" or any of the other hot topics.

Imagine my daughter managed to dress up as Moana two years in a row at halloween - go from house to house - and attend parties and there was not a single complain of "Black Face" :) Imagine at age 10 she could learn to fire guns and between on and off line a total of two people have taken exception to that - one of them directly and one of them via a cowardly snide side comment in a totally unrelated thread? All this divisive stuff around the world (just the US?) just does not seem to bother the average person on the street a jot.

Twitter just seems to be the new extreme version of Eastenders or Coronation Street where people with feux horror talk over the garden hedge about "Oooo did you see what Sharon said on Corrie last night???". It's all manufactured moralising for entertainment. Or as Joe Rogan once referred to it "Recreational outrage".

That said though the "safe spaces" - firing of intellectuals in American Universities and other stultifications in educations - news media articles responding to things happening on Twitter - and people being forced out of jobs, or "cancelled" or deplatformed or whatever in deference to the small but vocal Twitter mobs - can leave one worried about just how much that Universe of degenerates is in fact leaking into our real world and if that is a path our society is going to keep following. Especially as the American "left/right" jargon seems to leak more and more into our discourse here in Ireland too on forums like this one.

So yea - possible to worry if you let yourself worry - but I try to focus on the things I can actually control - such as ensuring my parenting of my own children is as top notch as I can personally achieve. What more can I do?

ancapailldorcha · 18-10-2021 10:35am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058213586/gen-z-will-never-work-a-day-in-their-lives

I can claim with equal legitimacy that everyone over 60 is a Nazi.

ancapailldorcha · 18-10-2021 10:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035000#Comment_118035000

Pretty much. The other thing is that each generation will pick something popular with the next and run it down constantly. Socrates moaned that writing things down lowered intelligence, the Victorians lamented the rise of the novel and today's miserable old moaners whinge about Twitter. On Twitter much of the time.

18-10-2021 10:44am

Strange title. Thought it was going to be about jobs being automated.

The tweet in the opening post is a charity one, so that's not a good example of someone trying to gather cash.

I know we all use exaggerations at times but where are you getting the idea that so many of them will actually make a living this way? Asking for money doesn't mean getting it. Making a full-time living through social media monetisation, while it happens, is highly unlikely for most. They'll just work like the rest of us - only they'll face insane costs, with mortgages a pipe dream.

18-10-2021 10:48am

Household debt is higher than it ever was. The costs of living and raising of a family are increasing every few years. Retirement ages are increasingly being pushed towards later years. Mental illness, depression, loneliness from the decline of communities, and pervasive aspect of social media/technology all contribute towards a more fragmented society, where people are more often becoming stuck.

The idea that any generation would be able to avoid working is ridiculous, and in many ways, younger generations will need to work harder to achieve (and retain) the standard of living of previous generations.

magicbastarder · 18-10-2021 10:51am

on that topic, the notion of boomers giving out about younger generations is torn asunder by this lad; a tory peer so not exactly an ultra liberal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuXzvjBYW8A

magicbastarder · 18-10-2021 10:53am

minor caveat is that it's over three quarters of an hour long.

ancapailldorcha · 18-10-2021 10:57am

The thing is, we were told to look up to, listen to and respect our elders. That myth has been shattered when you look at the toxic culture and mess they've dumped on us to clean up. Here in the UK, all they seem to care about is milking the system for what it's worth and forcing their own views on society as much as possible.

18-10-2021 10:58am

Boomers, generation x, y, z. What the fuk with all the labels nowadays? I don't know what half of them are about and I don't want to know. Bah grumble grumble etc etc

18-10-2021 11:07am

we don’t know how hard the lives of generation z will be, until they get older. Harder than the boomers in late adulthood I imagine.

18-10-2021 11:29am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035248#Comment_118035248

Also job uncertainty with automation and digitisation of everything. The employment landscape really has changed. I saw someone say on another thread "Just get a public sector job" - yes, there are public sector jobs for all. A public sector job now is like gold.

ancapailldorcha · 18-10-2021 11:34am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035348#Comment_118035348

Yes, we do and it's a pretty grim picture.

18-10-2021 11:36am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035460#Comment_118035460

A public sector job now is like gold.

It always was. Job security and a range of other benefits.

Jim2007 · 18-10-2021 11:46am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118034479#Comment_118034479

Some of these guys are making 7k+ a month out of this stuff, so yes they are getting it right... and if you have a problem with it, then it is your problem.

Jim2007 · 18-10-2021 11:57am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035348#Comment_118035348

They will live in a different world that is for sure, but why it should be anymore difficult I don't know... There is a big demand for content on the internet and as the population grows older and less active, expect the demand for content will grow. So being in the content provision industry is not a bad thing, but like every other business you have to work at it.

I know the working habits of one guy that promotes IOT type stuff and earns commissions and patreon contributions for doing so. He makes about 8k a month from it. But he puts about 60+ hours a week into doing it. He is up about 05:00am and starts work at around 06:00am and usually does not finish until well into the evening, but which time it is time to hit the bed again. It's a job like any other and not easy money, if you want to make a living out of it.

Chips Lovell · 18-10-2021 12:08pm

"...Twitter...."

There's your problem, right there OP.

AckwelFoley · 18-10-2021 12:18pm

And I'm of a generation that has no idea what gen z or any other generation of the alphabet are.

Has it anything to do with Zombies?

lalababa · 18-10-2021 12:19pm

Us humans were basically doing the same things the same ways for thousands of years until the 1850's. With the advent of fossil fuels/steam/railroads and overall industrial revolution. Things began to change rapidly from one generation to another's. But that rapid change has accelerated almost beyond comprehension in the last 20 years.

The changes are usually for the worse aswell. Most if not all changes from the 1850's on were bad for the planet. And thus bad for us.

We must go 'backwards' now to go forwards.

End of fossil fuels/agri industrialisation/consumption capitalism and hopefully tech industry.

Wibbs · 18-10-2021 12:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035495#Comment_118035495

It was indeed, but was seen as a little lesser because pay was on average below the private sector and it was seen as an "easy" option. It'e much higher on the scale these days.

18-10-2021 12:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035712#Comment_118035712

I know.. my parents and sister all were teachers. Whereas my brother and I entered business because there wasn't the cap/ceiling for salaries. All the same, over 30/40 years, I'd say that public servants come out on top especially when pensions are taken into consideration. In addition, the job security is very nice.. from my own experience, I've worked at two companies that closed down leaving their employees with little, and a few others who were iffy with contract renewals, especially as time went by and fixed term contracts became more popular for employers.

Once Ireland entered the mid-80s, then most public service jobs, such as teaching, were pure gold (although prior to that they weren't particularly good). Still there were other public service jobs which were very good. I knew a few guys who worked for Bord na Mona, who were raking in the money, and benefits (including housing) for a long time.

Still... nothing is without costs or limitations.

Sleepy · 18-10-2021 12:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118034479#Comment_118034479

Uhm, wouldn't that be August 2nd rather than Feb 8th?

And in other news... TIL I share a birthday with Hans Moleman... 🤣

18-10-2021 1:00pm

Do the kids actually ever make any money from the aul cashapps or whatever?

Apart from the young wans showing their arse cheeks, like

If theres a new problem with the youngsters its that their opinions are stored and shared publicly and that somehow this has created in some people- across all age groups- an expectation that this means they are any more important than the opinions of the young ever were

They might feel theyve been handed a worse world than any generation before, theres a strong element of ego in any such outlook in my own opinion but if they want to pretend what came before them was both this awful horrid world full of toxic behaviour and simultaneously this utopia of opportunity and wealth they can resolve that for themselves

In real life most of the younger people i meet and work with at perfectly fine, well adjusted individuals- maybe thats a self selecting group because i meet them while they are working- probably the noisier ones on the various platforms would be too busy raising awareness to make me a coffee or whatever

18-10-2021 1:00pm

When I think of the way my dad bought a house in south Dublin in the early '70s, and he didn't even have a permanent job! After a few contracts he then got a permanent public sector job. My mother was able to be a stay at home mum without being broke due to only one income coming in. But she was a nurse and wanted to earn her own money too. As we got older she took temporary gigs and then got a permanent part-time job when we were teenagers. To me, that seems like an ideal balance. Working full-time while also raising children seems a nightmare. I can't begin to fathom the stress and exhaustion. And the cost of childcare! But that's the way things are now.

Buying a home and raising a family should not be financially drastic. Although the other side of it is that there is much more consumerism now.

El_Duderino 09 · 18-10-2021 1:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035000#Comment_118035000

I think distance from the subject of being young means they're out of touch with how things have changed. That leaves them wide open to the classic idea that "far away hills are greener".

An older person might see young people on their phones and think thst young people have is easy. Shur, there's no bullying anymore so they're all gone soft, and all they do is play on their phones. How would the older person know that young people are being bullied asunder online now and that the bullying doesnt stop when they get home in the evening? It's much less visible to an outside observer, but young people face challenges that older people don't understand so they presume they don't exist and young people are just soft/stupid/lazy or whatever.

The less some people know about something the more confident they are making sweeping pronouncements on it. Its a pity but that's just one of the tricks that age plays on people.

18-10-2021 1:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035697#Comment_118035697

you might want to look at how people lived in 1840, particularly in Ireland, before promoting de-industrialisation back to pre 1850s levels.

Also technology has clearly slowed in the last 20 years.

18-10-2021 1:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035968#Comment_118035968

Sure, but the same trick is being played on people in their teens and twenties who think the world is a simple place if they could only run it to suit themselves

gormdubhgorm · 18-10-2021 1:27pm

I always find the generalisations about each generation a media driven concept. There is no nuance in it.

People are people, and some of the youth always irritate the older generations. Others see hope for the future and find the youth bring hope.

If you look at this clip from the 1960's where elderly people comment on their lives in Australia.

It does not seem much different from the issues the elderly have today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gz0dwD0JGQ

If you look at this collection of commentary from the elderly, in the USA in 1929.

Again, I think it just shows that people are people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9P2fuqoFec

All this attempt to put any generation in one label is wrong, in my opinion. And it is divisive as well.

Everyone ends up the same in the end. People, are people. And each person is their own individual, not dependant on a blanket largely (media fed view) of one particular generation.

Gregor Samsa · 18-10-2021 1:32pm

Kids these days, with their wirelesses and their gramophones and the girls showing off their ankles. When I was a child, the only time we came out of the coal mine was to fight the Kaiser. We're going to hell on an handcart. Not that we could afford a handcart. Didn't even have pockets back then. My mother had to carry the rocks we ate in her bear hands. And I mean "bear" hands. She had them chopped off when she was six to feed her family, and then had to fight a bear to get replacements. But you never heard her complaining.

Your parents thought you and your generation would turn out to be a disaster too. Same with their parents. And their parents. And so on...

It's funny how every generation thinks that they're the first to encounter the fact that the next generation does things a little differently to them.

TheIrishGrover · 18-10-2021 1:42pm

As mentioned above, each generation believes that the next generation is a bunch of softies/layabouts that don't know how to work a day in their lives unlike them (Previous generation). Who want everything handed to them on a plate.

"Oh you don't know what it's like having to walk 25 miles to school with turf so you could heat the school (Which was a bush)". "I was beat round the classroom every day and it did me good". "I used to have to work for 28 hours a day before going to work and there was 19 of us in one room house". Will kids have to deal with as many potentially abusive people in authority (Teachers, etc)? Probably not. Will they be physically beaten up by school bullies as previous generations? Probably not. Will they experience more widespread and persistent emotional bullying (More impactful IMHO) via social media? Absolutely. Will they be placed under constant and invasive scrutiny forever going forward? 100%. Some of this is their own fault: Cancel culture IS lazy and narrowminded.

I mean, I even catch myself doing the old man thing from time to time - rolling my eyes at some hipster - and then I tell myself to cop myself on. Who are they hurting? Not me.

Sticking to Twitter as the focus of today's "next-gen-wasters" thread simply as this was specifically brought up: Look at the demographic of the people posting about their "avocado toast/spendy lifestyle". For one thing, that is such a lazy clichè: "Oh if they didn't spend so much money on their avocado toast and skinny jeans and beard moisturizer they could afford a house". But, let's say, simply for argument sake, that all the clichès are true. Look at the demographic: Mainly people in their early/mid 20's. Man, when I was the same age, we were in the pub most nights and certainly hitting the boozer from 7PM until the wee-hours each weekend. Spending a fortune on booze. Hitting Manhattan for food after leaving Coppers or wherever. I didn't have a holiday abroad until about 27 but that was just me for very specific reasons, but everyone else would go on a mad one each summer.

I just thank God there was no Social Media then!!!!! We would have been MUCH worse than today's generation. Except it would have been just p1$$up pictures.

So yeah, the 2nd post was this but more concise :) The next generation WILL work just as hard, albeit in potentially different ways. They will pay taxes, they will settle down and not spend more time instagramming their coffee instead of drinking it, they will buy houses if they can afford them, they will have kids and then b1tch about THEM being good-for-nothings. In the meantime, let them have their fun. Realise they are a different generation and remember grandpa Simpson

magicbastarder · 18-10-2021 1:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035971#Comment_118035971

that's an interesting statement to make!

18-10-2021 1:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118035987#Comment_118035987

That's the thing. While I know there can be cantankerous auld feckers, it's not always the case that "young = correct, older = wrong". I dislike when the older person's view gets dismissed just because they are not young. I mean, the younger person will often be wrong - that's the nature of being young! It's about naivety, lack of experience, idealism, making mistakes and learning from them.

And middle-aged folk trying to look like they're down with the kids by dismissing their own generation can be as cringey as the cantankerous ones.

gormdubhgorm · 18-10-2021 1:51pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118036145#Comment_118036145

Plus they don't 'get' the language of the newer generation. I am reaching that stage myself.

Mister Vain · 18-10-2021 1:53pm

They wouldn't work in a convulsion Ted.

BrianD3 · 18-10-2021 1:53pm

Young people are routinely disrespected by those in power and authority - often middle aged slobs who have convinced themselves that their "success" is solely due to their intelligence and hard work. LOL. The same w*nkers also have bad attitudes to the elderly IME.

Nothing new, I well remember when I was a student in the 90s we were patronised and treated as "harmless" by "adults" even though we were also adults. Now there young man - you've got a lot to learn, suck it up. Just get a job! 20+ years later, some of the same people who were annoyed by that at the time have now become that which they hated.

One of the most frequent insulting statements made by boomer managers about good staff in my previous job was demeaning the person's work along the lines of "Jeez, a little inter cert student or monkey could do that work". I think that is telling.

Gen Z will never work a day in their lives.

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