Generation Z has snowball’s chance in hell

The latest generations have faced so many world-changing events that the mental consequences are glaringly obvious.

From the turn of the century, it seemed like everything started to speedrun. There was a new earthshattering incident every few years, and the further we went into the 2000s, the less downtime was given to recover.

Generation Z, the population of people born from 1997 to 2012, have had a uniquely unfortunate experience because their brains were developing during this time period. The formative years so necessary for a child’s development and mental stability were filled with news of war, financial crisis and now sickness.

The first major event that happened in the Gen Zers time was 9/11, a day that will live in infamy across America. But for this generation, 9/11 wasn’t about the event but the effects. For those too young to remember the day or born after it, all they know are the videos shown in elementary and middle school classrooms every year of people jumping out of buildings and the towers going down in smoke. What did adults think being shown videos like that at such a young age will do to their psyche?

Then, there was an economic collapse. The 2008 housing crisis struck financial fear into parents and their children alike, but children didn’t know how to cope with that fear. All they knew was suddenly their family was stressed about something they couldn’t help with.

That feeling of helplessness is

VIEWPOINTS perhaps the only thing that every Gen Zer can relate to.

What can make someone feel more helpless than a global pandemic that forced them inside, away from human interaction?

COVID hit everyone hard, but it took years from the younger generation. The pandemic started right as many Gen Zers were entering the adult world and trying to find themselves, but then they were shut back in with their families having to make do on their own. How can that be seen as fair? Some younger members of this generation had to go through school in the pandemic. And for many, it was incredibly difficult. Some even had to graduate through a Zoom meeting, dressed in their cap and gown in an empty room instead of an auditorium, unable to walk across the stage and get the diploma that they just went through hell to earn.

The years that were supposed to be the best of their lives now are just under a haze of trying to survive and make it through with their sanity intact. Even with everything opened up now and schools open again for the youngest members to go back and return to normalcy, these constant beatdowns of sensational events have left their marks. religion an entire empire off of love songs.

The feeling of constant anxiety has become the norm and they have become numb. They know there’s always something in the news, which they can access through their phones.

Technological advantages have become a major contributor to the constant barrage of bad news. So many horrible things have happened, and we’ve had a front row seat to the carnage through a screen.

It wasn’t even just COVID during these past few years –riots, publicized deaths, political unrest, inflation jumps and a fullfreight boat that interrupted trade lines after getting stuck in the Suez Canal. Each of these is just another turn of the cog, winding up the anxiety and turmoil of a whole generation who will now have to live through the decades figuring out how to deal with this new normal.

Gen Z has been set up with a world to try and turn into something they can live in, but it seems like an impossible task. Instead of a push into the race with words of good luck, it’s a climb from the bottom of a pit that we didn’t dig. We have been buried under gas station price signs, COVID tests, masks and every single piece of technology that was supposed to pave the way for the better, but now just shows us every way it can get worse.

I believe “Fine Line” by Harry Styles is a heart aching, admirable story. Both are incredible artists, undoubtedly, but where along the lines had Taylor Swift’s content become so disconnected from Harry Styles’? I can’t help but feel like she had been dragged down too far and squashed too hard, another result of the standards for a woman in the music industry.

And think of all those eyes watching female artists.

It appears that women in the music industry are held to impossibly high standards, having to fight to stay on top and be the loudest in the room.

I thought about what it was like to grow up as a girl under the influential eye of a society that held the woman artist in the music industry under its thumb, gently applying pressure. To me and the rest of the girls growing up, we watched that thumb and did not want to be associated with it. For the women under that thumb however, it was just another day in the music industry.

In order for a woman to be accepted in that space, she has to be scrutinized and then approved on a level far more than the men, and until then she is under fire. Taylor Swift’s very legacy was criticized and I remember her being under that thumb since I was young. I did not want to be “the girl” who listened to her, because I was made to believe she was crazy, didn’t you know? Truthfully I hadn’t, I was only a young girl without access to the internet. Yet I was made to believe that Taylor Swift was the kind of girl who couldn’t get over her exes and each song was some reach to the men she once dated, she was simply crazy.

But Harry Styles seemed to have built

We can all recall Brittany Spears’ moments of mental struggle and shaved head, we know about Miley Cyrus’ transition from Disney’s Hannah Montana to her “Wrecking Ball” era and have not stopped talking about Demi Lovato’s addiction. It has been more than easy for the internet to speak about these women like they are only topics, not human beings.

It’s not hard to tell when the thumb will come crashing down on a woman in the music industry because it typically happens after a minor incident but expectations hit her like a freight train, crushing her under the weight. One moment of vulnerability will mark her fame for years to come.

I think it’s unfair that the freedom of women in the music industry is so restrictive that their content is limited to what is perceived as appropriate for her. It is often looked down upon to sing on sexuality and yet it sells more. She is wrong if she is honest and will not succeed unless she appeals. Do you see the contradiction?

She must do more in performances, dance, sing and maintain an image unlike any man in the industry. I have seen the world pass by Chris Brown’s actions, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop hearing about the mistakes a woman will make in the music industry at least once a month.

A dangerous narrative that has followed many hijabis throughout their lives has stripped their personalities bare and has not recognized them as someone who has interests, quirks, strengths, weaknesses and a plethora of other things that makes us truly “unique”.

With each school year that went by, compelling myself to get out of bed and into school had been harder to do. The first question that is usually asked is tell the class three interesting things about yourself. My response would usually be “I love Boba so much I named my cat after it, my name isn’t actually hi in Spanish and I’m taller than my dad,” which I would say is a pretty good answer.

However, it seemed that no one was interested in that answer. So instead of countering my answers with a question about the identity of my cat, it would sound more like “Why are you wearing that hat?”

I’m not unique because I wear a scarf on my head and wear modest clothing. I’m unique because I started reading novels when I was nine-years-old and have my instagram handle named after “Harry Potter”, the first series of books I ever read.

During high school this was a recurring theme, a dilemma that I struggled to get free from. My religion and ethnicity became something I based my personality on, since my true self didn’t appear to be important or worth discovering to others. I finally understood what in-person diversity brochures meant when other people expressed their opinions and asked questions that had nothing to do with the conversation at hand.

Almost daily, when I am going out in public I wear my scarf on my head, and wear loose-fitting clothing, so I am fully aware of what people see. I know that being Muslim is the first thing people notice, my wish is that it isn’t all they focused on.

When I started college, it was a whole different ball game. In high school I was one of maybe 10 people that wore a hijab, but on SE Campus I am one of probably 200-300 hijabis. As one could imagine I had a quarterlife identity crisis. I was no longer the “girl who wears a hat” but just another girl who happens to wear a scarf. Which in hindsight I was grateful for. But then I realized that I had lost what I had left of being myself due to a social narrative that perceived me as only Muslim.

Before all the critics come, I am proud to be Muslim, I don’t mind that it is the first thing people see, but I want to be known for more that just that. My friend and I joke about hating the word diversity and how every time we are at an event people make it known that they are diverse. It isn’t a bad thing, it just appears to be all that matters at times, and we wish it was different.

If there was one thing that I could claim as being absolutely true though, it would be that I am an extremely talented artist but I also happen to be a hijabi.