Gen Z's Identity Crisis

0:00 I'm met a girl in college who told me if a person she meets doesn't look like an aesthetic she likes or fits into her dream aesthetic group she will end the conversation this comment was left under a video titled Aesthetics and microt Trends have ruined the genen Z personality by the YouTuber emergency but wait a second haven't kids in school always done this Clicks in public school have been around probably since public education became mainstream based on your interests the way you dress talk the amount of wealth you give off and the grades you get you will inevitably find yourself falling into a friend group that best matches your identity there were plenty of identity names for kids in school the jocks the Nerds the preppy girls the Goths and depending on your identity you'd likely get ignored or ostracized by the other identity

0:45 groups much like the girl in the comment whom I presume to be gen Z describes so what sets gen Z apart when it comes to shaping their identities well I know I'm difficult we live in a time where young people are adopting so many labels to Define themselves that it's becoming increasingly rare for them to feel a genuine sense of connection with others this personalization of their personalities allows for a sense of freedom and individual expression which at face value is great but I do worry what the future might hold if this trend of endlessly multiplying labels and identities continues to grow so let's dive into the genz ident identity crisis

1:30 examine its Origins and explore the positive and negative consequences if I may I would like to participate in this unnecessary labeling myself before we move on and create a label you've never heard of the takeout maxer is that you someone who spends hundreds a week on takeout services that deliver crappy food that's cold by the time it gets to you delivered by someone who ate half your fries yeah it's time to be a health maxer it's time for today's sponsor factor factor is a meal deliv service that provides fresh never frozen meals that are chef-crafted and change every week they also have on the-go lunches snacks and beverages so you can stick to that New Year's resolution of driving by the fast food place and not actually pulling through the drive-thru like you might be doing you take out maxer well

2:17 let's say you're looking for some gourmet meals I'm talking flamon asparagus that stuff you wish you could have the same way it's easily prepared for you at a restaurant Factor has those too and you can change up pause or cancel your order without having to message a takeout apps customer service about how you got the completely wrong order of food that is not an experience you will have with Factor so if you want to eliminate the hassle of cooking cleaning up and preparing food and still get a healthy delicious meal you can use my link in the description to get 50% off and free shipping on your first Factor box I think our best course of action is to expand upon the opening of this video and analyze the differences between the identities of teenagers in the past versus teenagers now first the

3:02 imposition of these identities has been shifted from externally enforced to being self-imposed if you are considered a Jack or nerd it is because of how the broader culture define you if you played some sort of popular sport like football and you were good at it other people would perceive you as a jock and therefore it played a large role in your social life it wasn't really something you chose it was something that you were given conversely today teenagers now have the option to Define their own identities what you identify as more closely resembles your internal values experiences and Aesthetics rather than external group stereotypes speaking of Aesthetics the current labels that gen Z used to identify themselves primarily revolve around those Aesthetics labels like Cottage core dark Academia or eirl

3:48 which we're going to explore later in the video are rooted as much in visual presentation as in shared values or interests in the past labels often came with a fixed set of behaviors and roles within social hierarchies if you rejected mainstream culture you were seen as goth or emo jocks were seen as leaders in sports and nerds excelled in their academics it was based on what you did in relation to others instead of what you looked like Aesthetics were more of a secondary factor that reinforced your primary identity like how goth people usually wear very dark clothes and have straight hair and nerds usually wear dorky glasses and because of the relation to your roles within a social context these ident I ities were both rigid and exclusive you were either a jock or a nerd a preppy kid or a

4:35 skater and crossing over between these categories was often stigmatized if you did try to break out of the identity that those around you gave you you were likely going to get bullied though there are exceptions I can think of and the social hierarchy I just mentioned was very important in how others perceived you and how you perceived yourself jocks were typically seen as socially dominant as were preppy girls and boys then the skate were a bit lower the punks a bit lower than that the scene kids maybe they were like around the same level as punks or even skaters and the nures were at the bottom but now these modern labels emphasize fluidity and encourage you to rapidly change your identity making the social hierarchy aspect of it more relevant you can be both sportsy

5:20 and artsy a goth and a nerd or in some cases be both a man or a woman depending on how you feel that day while I'm sure that traditional power structure still exist within social contexts like school they are much less clearly defined now and the last key difference I can think of are the political dimensions of identity that are now more prevalent traditional labels were primarily social and cultural with limited emphasis on politics or personal values they often reflected stereotypes and group dynamics without delving into an individual's deeper identity but many modern labels are intertwined with social and political awareness for example identities like queer activist or neurode Divergent come with an emphasis on advocacy social justice and destigmatization gen Z uses these labels

6:07 not only to Define themselves but also challenge societal norms and create broader cultural change that being said we do have to employ a little bit of nuance here because some past labels entire identities were revolving around social and political change such as the hippie identity being a hippie typically meant you were promoting counterculture ideals rejecting materialism and advocating for social change today there are just way more identities similar to how being considered a hippie was in the past and what caused this change I don't know what do you think maybe this thing how about we set the stage real quick you're around 16 years old puberty is looming over your shoulder making you have intrusive sexual thoughts about

6:52 your English teacher what that was just me you're finally in the process of becoming your own person your parents are letting you drive the car alone cook your own meals and giving you a sense of Independence this brings new questions to mind with the most prominent one probably being Who Am I who is me when me isn't defined by how others perceive me or what is expected of me you have some hobbies and interests that maybe you're afraid to share with other people in real life even your closest friends or maybe you don't have anyone in real life to help give you an identity at all so you go to social media to see if there's other teenagers like you going through the same thing and sudden suddenly you find yourself identifying with every Trend that best matches who you think you are even if it isn't entirely accurate the validation and

7:39 feeling of belonging you get from thrusting yourself into a label or identity gives you a sense of freedom of expression you've never experienced before and it feels like you are unique from everyone else both validating the idea that there's other people like you out there while paradoxically allowing you to reinforce the idea that nobody in real life understand understands you there's e girls and E boys who are typically characterized by edgy fashion like chains eyeliner Vans and dark graphic te's there's a bit of flamboyancy to the dudes that identify as e boys and there's often a bit of dominance to the women who identify as e girls there's Cottage core and Trad wives focused on a rural lifestyle with flowy dresses baking sourdough bread for their husbands and occasionally talking

8:24 about how good butter is for you there's the doomers men usually between the ages of 15 to 30 who believe the world is [ __ ] have insomnia spend too much time inside and feel like nothing matters there's black pillars who believe looks are the only thing that matters and if you're not a six-foot Chad it's over for you there's queer platonic gender fluid neopronouns femboys and many other lgbtq plus identities all of which Challenge and dismantle the concept of binary genders I could go on and on dissecting and explaining each one of these micro identities that change and evolve on what seems like a weekly basis but I don't think that's where we should focus our efforts what we should really focus on is not the analysis of each of these identities but rather the consequences

9:10 of them so let's start with the good authentic expression you now have the opportunity to experiment and find out who you are without other people giving as much of an input and instilling their own beliefs and ideals into you there's still the element of receiving part of your identity from someone else based on the content you consume but it is usually a more intentional personal choice and that means you don't get placed into a box I know when I was a teenager whatever I identified with I had to match the actions of that group you know when I was kind of more of a nerd when I was in Middle School I had to like what the Nerds liked I had to play the games that they played if I identified more with the the sporty kids or the popular kids I had to watch the sports that they were watching and that meant that more of my actions were not

9:58 my own doing I believe for a lot of kids now this is less the case anymore now that there's more of an acceptance to explore who you are what you really like and what you want to do there's a greater opportunity of eventually pursuing a lifestyle that you don't feel forced into just because it's what most people expect of you based on how they identify you you can make a career out of basically anything now thanks to social media and the internet instead of spending half of your life stuck at a job that does not at all align with your identity in a lot of ways it also encourages a healthier approach to personal development a common sentiment of people in the self-improvement and Entrepreneurship space is to not let others Define you and take The Road Less Traveled if you're really passionate about something and you know that improving yourself in that thing will

10:43 lead to more fulfillment then it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks the cultural acceptance of the fluidity of our identities can now make that process a lot easier for many individuals without receiving as much hate think about it would you rather live in a world where you have know saying who you are and you follow orders based on societal expectations or would you rather be able to figure that out as you go realizing you are an everchanging human being who can change what type of Life they want to live at any moment I think this is something many people who are very anti-individualistic don't realize they ironically want the freedom of expression to pursue what they really want to do in this life but they just don't want anyone to express themselves in a way that doesn't align with their freedom of expression kind of

11:30 contradictory no and like I briefly discussed earlier social media in the internet enables gen Z to connect with like-minded individuals worldwide fostering Niche communities with shared interests many modern identities come with built-in online support systems that provide validation and resources which were previously inaccessible to the average person all that being said there are of course downsides to a constant shift in identity expression and fluidity as well the most obvious problem is the sense of isolation you might feel when trying to connect with other people in real life if most people in real life don't share your very Niche specific identity you may find it harder to connect with others and build large unified communities this sort of tribalism has been a plague on the internet as division amongst different groups of teenagers is becoming more and

12:16 more prevalent it can ironically do the very opposite of what the intended goal of identity fluidity is which is inclusivity and pin two different types of Niche internet communities against each other I've already seen this play out many times like the far right versus far left black pillars versus red pillars antivaxers versus Pro vaccine Advocates and so on what can also potentially have more downsides than upsides is assimilating to a very specific identity you see as soon as you identify yourself as something and truly believe it you begin to only see and believe what is in accordance with your perception of that identity it's another thing I've seen happen with internet Echo ch chers if you only consume a specific type of Niche content then your

13:03 external reality will start to reflect that consumption for instance to a regular guy who barely Scrolls women might just be seen as human beings who possess no ill intent unless given a reason to but to a guy who's heavily invested in red pill ideology who identifies as redpilled if he's on a date with the girl he's going to try to analyze how many guys she's been with based on how many times she looks at her phone and if she looks at her phone one too many times she's not wifey bro if you are so entrenched in a certain identity you can't even consider opposite or even adjacent viewpoints that disagree or invalidate your identity you're just a biased person stuck in an echo chamber but perhaps a more Insidious version of this that has more real life consequences is the

13:50 amount of identity misdiagnoses that happen due to apps like Tik Tok talked about this in a video I think a couple years back now so I'm not going to spend too much time on it here but many people are finding articles in Tik toks that list out symptoms of certain types of neurod Divergent disorders and they self-diagnose based on this content it's creating a generation of kids who may have otherwise not had the thought cross their mind that they had these things and then exhibit the behaviors of these disorders more just because they identify with them though I will say the fact that many people who actually have these disorders are now getting recognition and validation from social media is a great thing there's also the risk that a lot of people who assume tons of different identities online don't end up doing it out of

14:35 authenticity it is purely performative for the sake of validation and engagement just like how very anti- individualists have flaws in their ways of thinking we can also make the ironic argument here for hyper individualists and say that many of them change their identity and aesthetic all the time not to express their individuality but for the exact opposite reason to fit into a group and pleas pleas others and what's probably the trickiest part of this to talk about that could potentially have the most long-term permanent consequences is gender identity I've got to be careful with the way I approach this because I know with one wrong sentence I could be seen as a bigoted [ __ ] personally I think it's great that there's more acceptance around gender fluidity and gender dysphoria the

15:23 concept of gender dysphoria has been around since ancient times and people in the past who otherwi would have tried to suppress that part of themselves just to not get a bunch of hate are now being more accepted due to the inclusivity going on two thumbs up for that the issue I see is if a kid is struggling with their identity like all kids do then finds themselves on a corner of the internet that helps them feel safe but makes them only more confused about who they actually are by misdiagnosing themselves in a similar way that those who potentially have neurod Divergent disorders might diagnose themselves now I don't doubt for a second that a lot of these kids who are confused about their gender and have gender dysphoria will later go on as adults to get gender

16:09 affirming surgery and feel so much more at peace with their life as a result but when we're kids we all do stuff for attention and validation or to rebel against the system or our parents many of those decisions won't irreversibly impact the rest of our lives forever like quickly changing our Aesthetics or seeking a micro Trend or changing our identity a little bit but when you solely get gender dysphoria based on what you consume on the internet that does pose the risk of potentially permanent life-changing consequences can teens start experimenting with gender fluidity and see what feels right and true and authentic to them absolutely but content that influences you to change your body completely permanently

16:56 before you know who you are or house of those consequences might be that's when it becomes a bit of a concerning Factor amongst all this individuality to me if they want to do it when they're adults more power to them I don't think any laws or nothing like that should stop them I don't think that's a controversial take either but maybe I'm wrong look kids have always tried to figure out who they are by dressing different ways affiliating with different cultures or acting in a certain manner the issue arises when hyper individualism and tribalism sets in and you are confused and anxious about why nobody really ever understands you for the rest of your life this might be incomprehensible to some people out there and I know there's going to be people in the comments attacking me because they misinterpreted my opinion or something I said that's fair game but

17:42 guess what you can advocate for uniformity and a dissolution of hyper individualism while also respecting and supporting people's decision to express their identity fluidly and freely those two things aren't mutually exclusive they just require you to exercise nuance and see that people on the extreme sides of both spectrums make the benefits of both spectrums seem irrelevant humans are far more alike than social media and all these Aesthetics have led us to believe each person has common goals to generally feel fulfilled have genuine connections help others and live comfortably but the way in which each of us reach those goals is a bit different and if more inclusivity and fluidi in

18:28 our identiti allows us to reach that great but if you're a young person and you're letting social media entrap you in all these Bubbles and suppress your ability to see your fellow humans as fellow humans leading to isolation and anger towards any group that isn't closely related to your specific Niche interests you're falling into a very dangerous hyper individualistic trap that will leave you miserable figure out who you are with that extra Freedom you have but stay cautious so that you don't let someone else convince you that you're something you're not and if someone has a different appearance than you or a few different beliefs than you they are not your enemy and they might not even be the version of themselves that you think they are because of their identity believe it or not not every person with purple hair is a Karen who hates straight white men not every

19:14 person who advocates for Donald Trump is a racist Nazi and not every person who watches Sports and listens to rap caviar on Spotify is an NPC you can learn something from just about everyone but as soon as you start to get angry at them for being even slightly different from you that's when they have power over you and that's when division in our world accelerates tell me why I'm wrong in the comments I would love to be humbled and I would love to have a change in perspective that may allow me to completely change my perspective and if you want to see more videos where I talk about modern issues check out my whole playlist on it that's it yeah love you I think I love you I don't know