DIALOGUES 41. Generation Z What Do Teenagers Wish We Knew
Known as “digital natives,” this generation is challenging a multitude of old stereotypes, is remaking norms, and seems poised to dynamically redefine the way its future is being shaped. On Wednesday, March 31 at 18:30 (EET), SNF DIALOGUES, a series of events held through journalism nonprofit iMEdD, hosted a discussion with teenagers on “Generation Z: What do teenagers wish we knew?”
For them, communication, entertainment, and even education—especially over the past year—take place through screens. Who are today’s teenagers? What matters to them? And what do they want to tell us?
The March DIALOGUES event was not about young people. It was led by them. Trading places with the adults, they became the event’s co-creators and speakers, sharing with the rest of us what they think we need to hear. In a first-of-its-kind DIALOGUES discussion, the eleven teenage panelists, who participated at the Tipping Point program, were free to choose the topics, the questions, and the mode of conversation.
Their parents, for the most part, experienced the global financial crisis as working adults, shaping their outlook. For their part, these teenagers may have developed their own very different perceptions of work. They have grown up through significant changes in the education system, and, more than previous generations, they know what the term “bullying” means.
Even as they are held up as the future of humanity, they are also held responsible, in some cases, for flouting pandemic safety rules and provoking violence at protests. And more than any generation before them, they are threatened by the prospect of a dystopian future foretold by predictions of the increasingly catastrophic effects of climate change they are likely to see during adulthood.
The 41st SNF DIALOGUES event was held by teenagers and for teenagers, seeking to spark discussion about the stereotypes they face, the worries and concerns they share, and the future they dream of.
The DIALOGUES are curated and moderated by Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou.
*The opinions expressed by DIALOGUES participants, whether representing officially institutions and organizations or themselves, are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) or iMEdD. Speakers’ remarks are made freely, without prior guidance or intervention from the team.
