Gen Z is signing up

I have never read the words "Gen Z Core" more times than I did this week. At the time of going to press, Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and cities around India (and the world) stood in solidarity with students who exercised their right to protest, this time citing grievances against the current education system.

As the youth movement lit up the streets, for us observers of sub-cultural currents, it was interesting to see how democratic dissent was expressed. Like the many chapters of history—the Women’s Suffragette Movement in the UK and the West during the early 20th century, where women’s right to vote and its symbolic white uniform became a soft war cry for the generation. Then came the bra burners, the Black Panthers, and so many more communities, cliques and covens (as they were often termed) that stood for what they believed in, and made their own impact or wrinkle. It didn’t really matter which one it was.

When it comes to Gen Z, its style of dissent relays its own complexities. This is a generation born in a global economy that is underlined by declining salaries, attention deficits, and AI think tanks. Many get their news from social media (not all reliable), and they voice their opinions on the same channel. Content creators are left defending their jobs, apologising to brands for delaying promised Reels rather than risk seeming tone-deaf, while fielding followers who tell them to “stick to their jobs.” Is it worth losing followers and brand collabs that pay rent? Or is it worth being called out for not using the same following for activism? For some, the answer is simple; for others, it’s more nuanced. Neither is incorrect.

The content coming out of the protests in India is emblematic of this clamour. There are young individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community who have had to defend not only their political asks, but also the way they dress or speak. Swiggy and Zomato orders abound by strangers to ensure the gatherers are fed, while small businesses make #sendingsandostostudents a thing. Coffee chains are being applauded for giving shelter to protesters, while playlists are being dissected to see if any song makes sense for a post as much as a 20-year-old Bollywood film’s soundtrack does. Every generation has protested; it has voiced its opinions, and every dissent and demonstration has offered a peek into the desires and disquiet that it holds. Today’s youth is no different.

In 2019, the then 16-year-old Greta Thunberg delivered, perhaps, the most quoted protest slogan of recent years. The Swedish climate change activist is among the prolific faces of youth advocacy in the world, and her words call upon generations that came before hers to be held accountable. “Adults keep saying: ‘We owe it to the young people to give them hope.’ But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire. Because it is,”—she famously said at the World Economic Forum. This urgency lies at the core of all Gen Z protests around the world, the flames of which have been seen across Nepal, Bangladesh and other parts of South Asia and the Middle East.

But what exactly is Gen Z Core in the context of India’s new student protest movement? It’s actually a mix of angst and joy. You’ll find stories that are heart-wrenching, and then you will find a spark of hope—the same Thunberg once blamed adults for promising. This ‘unserious’ digital documentation gives every doomscroller a reason to pause. Find a satirical GRWM Reel where a protestor calls “a spine my favourite accessory” or Strava Stats recorded @Jantar Mantar. Call them anxious. Call them obsessive. But don’t call them apathetic. Gen Z will film the moment on their iPhone Pros, Instagram will remember, and they’ll clock history even as they make it.

Lead image: Getty Images 

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