We need to instill a culture of curiosity within Gen Z & Gen Alpha

The world is rapidly changing, and the future? It’s truly anyone’s guess at this point. 

Automation, artificial intelligence, IoT, the metaverse, cybernetic augmentation—the list of technologies that are emerging right and left is truly astounding, and it can be hard to find our place in the midst of all of it. 

Whichever way you look at it, the world faces an ambiguous future. It’s exciting, but the thought of change can also be frightening. Since the turn of the century, we’ve witnessed a massive economic recession, a housing bubble, a global pandemic like the world had never seen before, and, well, social media. 

Considering Gen Z's experience of the world so far, it's not surprising that they are increasingly turning to a more nihilistic mindset to navigate modern life, a belief that life holds no inherent meaning. I can see the allure in it—after all, in this current socioeconomic landscape, nihilism can be euphorically freeing and disgustingly depressing.

I wonder if social media is partly to blame for the moniker ‘Generation Doomers’—after all, Gen Z averages nine hours of screen time per day, with over 54% of them spending at least four hours on social media a day. Social media has been world-changing. It’s allowed us to connect with people from across the world in an instant and brought together like-minded individuals, forever shaping how we live, work, and socialize.

Social media has such a hold on newer generations that have come to see some Gen Z’ers turning away from search engines like Google, and instead relying on TikTok’s powerful algorithm as a tool for their information discovery, exposing them to hundreds of unique perspectives and nuances of life each day. When I look at Gen Z and Alpha, I see young minds influenced by likes, shares, news headlines, and curated news feeds, among a sea of other factors. 

Keeping in mind the influence and role of social media in their lives, how can we instill a sense of curiosity and excitement about the future in Gen Z and Gen Alpha?

Let’s investigate…

A barrage of information and trends?

A product of capitalist culture, social media can reinforce consumerism values and feelings of never being enough, never having enough, and overall inadequacy, thanks in a growing part to influencers. One has to ask: if social media didn’t exist, would we still dress the way we do? I’ve been wondering lately whether or not today’s fashion is even about self-expression anymore. Although fashion has always been a way to signify status and group affiliation for centuries, social media has amplified it, making it more visible and obvious. 

Online trends are the reason why 13-year-olds now have a 13-step makeup routine. One week,  ‘Clean Girl Beauty’ is in, and the next we’re donning the ‘Mob Boss’ Wife’ look. Are these trends also not also the reason why so many are shooting up Ozempic to drop a few pounds rather than stepping foot in a gym (which happens to be the subject of an investigation by an Australian regulator)?

Fear creates clicks, clicks create revenue 

It’s no secret by this point that fear generates clicks, which in turn generates money.

Technology has taken this old lesson of sensationalism to new heights, as once the algorithms that run social media platforms understand one’s interests, they feed them more of the same, validating users’ preexisting opinions while creating echo chambers.

In simpler days, humans were not privy to this constant barrage of information. We could roll up the newspaper or turn off the radio, and before that, our concerns extended as far as our community’s town crier. 

Gen Z’s folly? The world’s fault? Or both?

Interestingly, looking back to previous generations like Gen X, and even Baby Boomers, they often worked one job all their lives, and we were content with living that way, focusing on family and a simple, stable lifestyle. 

Today, this kind of predictable life trajectory seems to be partially out of vogue, partially unachievable. While it is undoubtedly much harder to attain a house than in our parents and grandparents' days, thanks to the current state of the global economy, salaries, and the cost of goods and services, it also seems we are just rarely content with our lot. We crave and pursue more. While on one hand, this has bred positive entrepreneurial values, it has also led to a rise in feelings of inadequacy and unfulfillment. 

An era of curiosity, diversity, and growth

I believe that we ought to have a more positive outlook on the future - after all, we’ve come a long way from a period like the 1800s, when our lives were labor-intensive and short; and dying of something as simple as a tooth cavity or measles was commonplace. 

The world always changes, and technology always evolves. There is a lot of magic in the future: It’s likely AI will eliminate mundane tasks and give us more time to enjoy living and being human; healthcare innovation is constantly evolving to address lingering health issues that have ailed us since time immemorial; trailblazers are investigating ways to make regular space travel viable and accessible. What’s not to be excited about among all this?  

The transhumanism mindset revolves around the fact that we can guide the trajectory of our future. This all starts by adopting a curious mindset, a quality our youth has in abundance. I often wonder why we lose our childlike curiosity when we get older. 

It’s Gen Z and Gen Alpha who will be the vanguards of the coming decades, and they have many ideas to bring to the table given their unique strengths, like their adaptability, digital intuition, and critical thinking skills—as long as we invite them to the discussion…

We need varied and diverse voices to represent humanity’s collective best interests and plan for the future. However, according to recent research by my HYPERSCALE guest Sarah DaVanzo, a majority of futurists publishing works today are homogenous: 66% of them are male, 86% are caucasian, and 95% are located in Western developed markets. This trend also extends to Big Tech: OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced that its new 'initial' board is all white, all male, after the recent ousting and reinstating of CEO Sam Altman. Naturally, this representation doesn’t reflect our diverse world. 

This encourages me to do what I can to be more visible, and to let people know that we can all have an interest in the future – futurism doesn’t always take the form of STEM credits taken at university. That we can also be into fashion, wear six-inch heels and sparkes… After all, futurism comes in many forms, and we can all play a part in it.

We have the power to inspire a positive and inclusive future

Yes, change will come, but with it will come plenty of fantastic opportunities and possibilities to plan for. Above all else, we should not fear it. Instead, let’s cultivate upcoming generations like Gen Z and Alpha to keep their curious mindset, one that is not limited by the constraints or the challenges of the present. It’s empowering when we decide to play a more active role, live more consciously alongside our tech, and push back against the allure of the “cheap” dopamine hits the algorithms provide us. 

Let’s pull out a seat for them and invite them to join us at the table.

I’ll leave you with this message:

“No answer lasts forever, but we shape the future by asking all the right questions. We’re curious. We’re adapting with the times. We’re enjoying the discovery.”