In as much as I am a millennial, I am also a gen z since I am a zilllennial. Generation Z thinks they are better off and more knowledgeable and bolder than other generations. In my country, the Gen Z community thinks we are in dipshit because the previous generations didn’t do things right in terms of shaping our policies and laws as a country. They also say millennials are cowards who didn’t fight against oppression and bad programming by society.
Gen Z has been very vocal in political matters and heavily protested in the streets of Nairobi for the past few weeks. I am not a political blogger and I don’t want to touch on that as much after all Gen Z has said that as millennials we are timorous souls who would rather be steamrolled by oppressive regimes and not fight back against what we don’t want.
I am more concerned with whether dating a Gen Z is any different from dating a Millennial, generation X, or even a Boomer if you are into cougars. I have addressed the accusations of millennials being a bunch of milquetoasts and soy boys in a past article so I would rather not revisit a covered ground.
I will only point out that every generation usually thinks the generation after them has it a bit easier, generation X thinks millennials and Gen Z are soft. To Gen Z everything hurts, the power goes off for an hour, they are hurt, the deal doesn’t get closed, they get depressed. These radical views you see in young minds result from a lack of empathy. Young people who haven’t lived long, read enough history, worked and lived with different types of people, and immersed themselves in different cultures to be able to have a firm grasp of how government and society work. And because of their skewed view of things, they lack a realistic picture of the world. We cut them some slack when they do or say some things.
If you complain to a 60-year-old man about the things you are going through at 21 or 30, he will be unmoved because he probably complained about similar things at that age and he eventually outgrew those things and came to understand that the world is just like that sometimes.
I have touched a bit about a society there and yet I set out to write on Gen Z and dating. Well, dating a Gen Z is not going to be different from what you would have experienced when dating a millennial who was 24. There is no set of rules and encoding that a new generation comes with in dating. Our parent’s generation would talk about how they would date differently from us and they would not date for money and status but it is all cap. The way people choose partners hasn’t changed, and the way people behave in a relationship hasn’t changed a bit. We are still the same mammals and animals who enjoy inclusion and intimacy.
Gen Z just has it easier in getting new partners because the world has opened up. There are apps like Tinder and Instagram that they can use to meet partners. Communication is a bit easier in this generation between partners as opposed to the 90s or 80s when there were no cell phones.
Gen Z’s are young and definitely lack experience in dating. You expect that from any young person. If you haven’t been around the block, you haven’t been passed around enough, and you lack the reference points. Gen Z’s might have access to information on dating on their hands but that doesn’t mean they have lived it to talk about it. I hear some of the dating advice by Gen Z’s influencers on TikTok and IG and it is utter rubbish. And I blame technology for that, Gen Z’s are glued to the screens so much that they don’t spend time around people interacting face to face and honing their social skills and dating intuition. They are not smooth yet but they will get there. It comes with more practice.
Whether narcissism and entitlement have been on the increase with Gen Z and Millennials is not mine to stay but a typical break up for a Gen Z or a millennial will be over some silly reason. There might be a bit of entitlement in the younger people. The younger people usually feel like the govt or parents, or their lovers owe them something. And yet nobody owes you nothin’ young task.
Another major difference you notice in dating among Gen Z is that they are more accommodating and like dating out of their culture, tribe or race. Generation Z is less tribal and easily integrates with others. They are also less religious and more into spirituality so dating them is a bit fun because they are open-minded in their views.
Sex with Gen Z is also a bit different as they are more adventurous and freaky. They have access to information earlier in their lives. I bet people in their 60s especially in a conservative society like the African society ever got to try out sex positions such as reverse cowgirl or 69. They didn’t even know what that was. As for Gen Z, they can google these things on their phones and start engaging MFM threesome at a young age. They are clearly going to have more fun with their sex life than any other generation. However, don’t be fooled, in old Roman cultures, the ancient Greece and just about any other time the sex lives of those generations were more explicit than what we see today. Nasty Things were happening back then, Gen Z didn’t invent reverse cowgirl or scissoring or collapsed doggy or BDSM. It came from somewhere thousands of years ago. There was widespread immorality back then.
The lack of phones back then doesn’t mean immorality and hedonism were not there or were not captured. The only upside is that Gen Z’s can make sex tapes and store memories of their good times but generations have been nastier than you think.
In terms of cowardice, our forefathers were bolder, they killed bears and leopards with their bear hands. My great-grandpa actually killed a leopard so I can bet Gen Z, millennials and the gen z alpha lack that grit and toughness the previous generations had. The world is very comfortable today, there is a lot of food even in less developed countries. I am in an African city and I see a lot of solid waste. Most of the food that comes to the city ends up in dumping sites.
Gen Z might think their generation is unique or having it differently but not really. I won’t deny that they have some difficulties in finding jobs as opposed to boomers and Gen X who easily got employed after high school, bought homes, and had large parcels of land. The economy is what is not favorable to Gen Z, they are coming to a world that is very capitalistic and competitive and they are facing hardships in making money. There are YouTube and social media channels and ICT but not everyone can excel in these platforms. And thus economically, most Gen Z’s cannot afford to date or even marry because they don’t have a piece of land to till or a stable job to provide for a family.
A Gen Z might thus be better off building skills and a career first before trying to date considering the starting point of most people in this generation. Many people would actually benefit from doing that, getting a wife or a serious girlfriend at 24 or 27 is not usually the best idea, most of the time. You can have fun at this age, you are still developing.
Nice week ahead.
