Inside Gen Z

I like the photo by Noah Lee. Our generation is too obsessed with mobile phones and electronic devices. Everything we see and hear is from our phones. This photo reminds us that we should not only find news or other stuff on the internet, but also look around ourselves, find interesting things happen around us in our everyday life. People spend too much time on their phones. This might cause damage to their eyes as they look at the screen for too long. I think the writer also thought about this and really want us to know the meaning behind this photo.

Google is the most traversed website in the whole world. It’s natural that most of us just scour Google for information,and not rely upon books and traditional media. Jack’s caption is accurate in that sense. For us ,the internet is not only a place for relaxation, but also for education. For most of us, textbooks are the only traditional media we read, and the rest is replaced by online resources. Generation Z embraces the change in learning style. With Google as our informat, its sometimes unnecessary to memorise stuff. Have you ever been asked to memorise a particular date or location of a historically significant event?I see no point in that, as we can just Google it. Some people just don’t understand it and are trying to revert back to the traditional way of learning.

Rawan Saleh’s Photo shows that her patriotic ambition has to be recongized. While I have not experienced the same hardships as her, I can understand the desperation and misery when being discriminated by others. With the development of social media, new stereotypes seem to be popping up everywhere around us, and it seems as if anyone who has a different ethnicity is immediately a terrorist or a spy. It is unfortunate that the world has degraded into such mess, but I hope those who see this picture can understand how people should be accepted into society regardless of age, gender or race. To the artist, do not stop defending your values and morals and keep up the good work. I’m sure you will be accepted among your peers someday.

My favourite photo and caption is from Alexis, 16. The teenager is inside the football pitch and his younger brother is watching from outside the fence. It looks like they are separated but actually the boys are looking at each other intently. Just as the caption says, I don’t think it is true - that “Gen Z don’t care about anyone else”. I think all teenagers fall into this mistaken truth in every generation and it is only a one-sided truth. This photo depicts the opposite - teenagers can and will look out for others.

Thank you NYT and Learning Network for coming up with this article and sharing our Gen Z of 2018! I love it and all the photos are magnificent. My favourite photo and caption is one from Alexis Ceniceros, 16. The teenager is inside the football pitch and his younger brother is watching from outside the fence. It looks like they are separated but actually the boys are looking at each other intently. Just as the caption says, I don’t think it is true - that “Gen Z don’t care about anyone else”. I think all teenagers fall into this mistaken truth in every generation and it is only a one-sided truth. This photo depicts the opposite - teenagers can and will look out for others.

I think the picture with a girl with two phones for eyeballs reflects on the actual world a lot. We live in a world where we cannot survive without technology and electrical devices. Like the author says, these days we see a lot of things through our phones. Pretty much any ordinary teenager would be obsessed with their phones and iPads from the second the device is put into their hands. People are reliant on technology. Think about it. How would people be able to find places in an instant without Google Maps? How can we get information directly without the Internet by only using books? How can we communicate with our relatives or friends who live faraway from us and not waste paper without email systems? The positives are overshadowed by the negatives. Parents are complaining that their children are spending too much time on their phones playing games or texting. We don’t communicate verbally these days, not when we have WhatsApp and all those texting systems. People are getting more and more isolated through technology. Like the author says, as I mentioned above, people see a lot of things through their phones these days. I have to admit that he’s right. How do we use this technology well but not get addicted to it?

I kind of agree with Noah Lee from Canton, Ga. Teens do need phones for different uses, like communication, social or to search for information on the web. However, I don’t agree to the sentence “We only see things through our phones”. Sometimes, our phones just can’t satisfy what we need. For example, going on holiday. We may go on holiday and learn other’s culture and visit museums, which can’t be fulfilled by just using our phones. In my opinion, phones are just one of the windows where we see and learn other things.

Read with appreciation. Scrolling through this offering by young people was worthwhile. The idea to see and hear them is welcome. Hope comments arrive. There were none. Are you there? Soon there will be a knock on my door. My daughter arrives from NC to support her daughter's first day at work after becoming a mother in July. My great-grandson will be with them, four generations, one inheriting the world (generation what?), boomer departing. (Must we categorize? Persons come in great varieties.) Dear Gen Z, keep on. Shape what you can. Be true. Learn and learn.

I'm a millennial (rounding on 30), and I'm so incredibly proud of my generation and Gen Z. We're socially and politically engaged, we're exceptionally well-educated, we're compassionate and open-minded, and we have the weight of a very dark future on our shoulders. Legitimately 90% of the schlock I see on my news feed comes from older people. The younger people are having discussions, pushing back against institutions who tell them "no," and traveling as far as they dare. Yeah, some of that travel is for the 'gram, and we have a thing for selfies, but for a group of young people who have been accused of responsibility for every ill under the sun, the kids are all right.

Is defining people by age/"generation" a way of understanding or is it a way to teach them how to conform with what their celebrities say is true about them? It seems to me that all of the defining of similarity among a generation is really a way to make them conform. Just as it is with "boomers", "gen-x", "millenials" and so forth. Also a way to pit the generations against each other so that the wealthy can profit from them sufficiently. They are not different or better or worse. They will not save us or destroy us. It is the same as it ever was.

I love this article. The photos are beautiful in and of themselves, as well as conceptually just beautiful. Teenagers are so smart and creative and their hearts and minds just fill me with joy. Great job to the NYT and the students who participated.

Thank you for a heart-warming article. Gen Z, you are beautiful, and exactly what América, and the world, needs now and always

Bravo!!