As a Gen-Z I have often contemplated on how certain experiences views and feelings shared by my peers seemed so relatable, taking into account and the most common one I believe is the motivation to turn my life around at 3 in the morning, like working out to achieve that dream bod of Greek-God we have always wanted or prepping for some exam and landing that dream job effortlessly. Unknowingly we insert ourselves into a pseudo-reality or genjutsu (shoutout to all my fellow weebs out there :)) where everything has been worked out and we are successful. The reason I use this particular adjective is that success is the only word that can truly capture the essence of how we feel. The sense of accomplishment varies from person to person. It could be recognition from our peers, mastering the sport we have always been average at, getting financially independent and secure, respect, power et cetera. Getting back into the topic at hand relate-ability is something everyone in our generation despite various cultural, demographic, and financial backgrounds gone through. A random American teen from a privileged suburb might share a short video or reel and some kid belonging to a middle-class family from Mumbai might find it relatable. I believe the plethora of social media posts about teen life and adulthood going viral is because of the innate feeling everyone in this generation is born with.
The statement is strongly backed by the recent pandemic where everyone in the world went through together. We started to find our collective life experiences too similar be it the dreadful online classes or the WFH situation. These funny posts or life experiences tend to provide others going through the same situation with a sense of relief making them believe that they are not the only ones out there having the same mental crisis It also provides them with a pedestal on how to overcome this dreaded mental fatigue with the productivity videos we see every other day. Social media is a tool that unites people on so many different fronts while maintaining their individuality. With a little introspection, we can conclude that we learned many key aspects and their importance through the help of social media like Body shaming is something that came to light recently and I believe it brought together a group who was feeling the same and un-sheathed their societal swords to make a small fraction of people understand that looks do not matter in the real world also brought to light the serious perils obese people face in their lives. It may have not made a big impact but it taught the importance of diet and exercise in one’s life. Another apt example would be the concept of consent which I believe should be made familiarized in a country such as India where until recently a high court said forced intercourse is okay if it is between couples. I love my country but anytime it makes a single step forward it seems to go three steps back. That’s a topic for another day. So, by teaching the importance of consent as well as being gay is okay to the younger ones we might be able to tweak the future of our country for the good. Soon it might make being big, being homosexual, understanding consent a new norm in the country, and can only then can we achieve the modern utopia where everyone is comfortable in their skin.
