Wait - Is Gen Z totally awesome?

The New York Times, via email, March 28, 2019

Everyone always talks about the millennials, but no one does anything about them!

Now Gen Z is coming along to take care of that — take a look at the incredible digest of 995 Gen Zers in their own words, published by The Times today. Hold on to your hats, because the older millennials are 38 now — almost 40! That’s right: almost old enough to move out and get their first apartment and/or phone plan!

Meanwhile, American Gen Zers, now aged about 7 to 22, are making it through grade school and even graduating from college and going off into the world with their many-splendored hair and youthful vigor. They grew up in a very different America than previous generations. They’re almost twice as likely to have had a parent who went to college than an average American Gen Xer did in the mid-’80s, according to Pew. Generationally, they’re much, much more diverse in ethnicity, and more likely to live in cities.

But, perhaps more meaningfully, they also have portable machines that allow them access to almost any cultural product from any period as desired, compressing the evolution of the arts into one giant creative soup.

They also owe a debt to millennials, whose principal value generationally is about fairness. What will the new kids want or care about? Only time will tell. We already know that they’re detail-oriented — young Jewish Gen Zers on the coasts are converting bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs into plain old gender-free “b mitzvahs.”

Already, though, Gen Z should feel a next crop of young people snapping at its heels. What will we name them!? (I suggest the Learn to Build a Raft Generation, though that’s a little long.) If you want to talk more about the parenting of this nameless next generation, our new Parenting newsletter just started this week and you can sign up here.

Finally, a very happy baseball opening day to you and yours! For the non-sports-fans, that means it’s really and truly spring and we’re going to be O.K.

— Choire Sicha, your trusty Styles editor