As the famous saying of Sadhguru goes, “Our children are the future of this world….” These children are us. It’s the Gen Z. It’s the Millennials. The generation who are exposed to each other’s influence, the ones who have a vast array of knowledge of one’s way of life, without necessarily intruding into each other’s personal lives.
(Photo credit: Julia M Cameron)
The UK’s urban culture is a great melting pot for our future leaders. It’s a mixture of students, academics, and creative types like artists. They tend to be less religious, open-minded, and multi-cultured, especially believers in environmentalists’ ideals. Hence, many of Gen Z today is particularly fascinated by sustainable living. Environmentalists’ ideologies seek ‘to conserve and protect an entire ecosystem… found in different habitats throughout our planet.’ (Lovelady and Shrestha, 2019).
And this is practised through thrifting; although popular amongst young peers, it is often overlooked. De Mesa (2022) argues that thrifting is another way ‘to take care of Mother Earth.’ She states that this type of shopping will help ‘reduce energy consumption, air pollution, mountains of a landfill’ and ‘keep the ocean cleaner.’ This makes Gen Z the most socially conscious generation, especially in setting environmental awareness and social impact standards, thus having excellent adaptability to change, which most older generations don’t.
(Photo credit: Cottonbro Studio)
Researchers found that both Gen Z and Millennials are always open to change, and one of them is being open to mental health, especially Gen Z, who are big ‘advocates of having balance in work-life and their personal wellbeing.’ (Carlson, 2020). Being open-minded and welcoming to the idea of change allows the process of adapting easier and smoother for everyone involved.
This type of mindset is one of the reasons why Gen Z and Millennials are the future of culture and lifestyle. They question specific rules that need to be challenged and shift values to adjust to the ever-changing world. This group of generations can handle complexity and higher levels of ambiguity; they are confident to take more risks as they are big thinkers who can simultaneously focus on the tiniest details.