What's the gen z experience like?

[Ambivalent1]

How old were you when you started going online as a hobby?

 

[Gloomislost]

How old were you when you started going online as a hobby?

I think i was 7 or a little bit younger. I remember watching lots of anime and fnaf videos. The early interent was definitely not meant for kids because I remember my uncle showing me my first gore video at 9 (it was a man getting shot and you could see his brain fly out.) I really did enjoy games though !! And the brony community, despite it being kinda creepy.
It's like 50/50, I wish I didn't grow up so fast with it but I also like some of my memories with it.

 

[lethargic]

Gen Z is being born during the decline of your country, witnessing everything only get worse over time, living through an average of one global crisis or catastrophe a year, working 40 hours a week for absolutely no benefit, all the while being aware that your grandparents and parents lived a life that can aptly be described as an unbelievable utopian fantasy.

 

[anaerobic_bacterium]

it sucks

 

[Starry✧･ﾟDaze]

I'm in this weird micro-generation between millenials and Z, aka Zillenials. So I remember the early days of the internet, but most of my childhood was VHS and some video games.
I think I was around 10 or 11 when I started to actively spend time on the internet.

 

[fearandloathing183]

I'm more of a "Zillenial" (23 born in 2000) and I was like 6 when I started using the internet for fun. I used to play on webkinz, everythinggirl, and all those virtual worlds that were popular in the 2000s. I've been on actual social media since I was like 12 or 13 at the oldest.

 

[cgrtt.brns]

we didnt have internet until i was maybe 9 or 10 icr exactly. all i did was watch gaming/minecraft youtubers bc i couldnt play games myself bc i didnt have a pc or console. im glad we didnt have internet when i was a young kid, i can imagine i wouldve ended up getting groomed or smthn. idk how but i managed to develop a fear of giving my personal information away on the internet, so i never understood how ppl can post their face and name and age for everyone to see, and start conversations with strangers and tell them so much identifying information, its terrifying. bc we didnt have internet i just remember being rly bored all the time as a kid, having undiagnosed adhd made me run away from home a lot just out of boredom (and other reasons).
as far as the gen z experience, i feel like its just being painfully aware of how shit the world is and how fucked every single societal system is bc of the selfish humans that lived before u, and knowing theres nothing u can do about it. everything you do and say is scrutinised bc everything is on the internet for everyone to see, theres no privacy, ur not allowed to make mistakes. everyone elses life seems way better than urs bc everyone posts the best parts of their lives or fakes success and happiness for likes and follows. u realise how small and insignificant u are and the future seems hopeless, all there is in the future is fire and war and extinction. u just feel guilty for being alive. at least in my experience anyway. sometimes i wish i didnt know about all the shit going on in the world. i feel like humans just arent supposed to know as much as we do, its stressful knowing everyones business and how fucked everything is.

 

[psp3000]

I probably started using the Internet when I was 7 - 10

I don't want to identify as a Gen Z-er I do not identify with most of them and I find a lot of them insufferable at times

but it is weird being the generation that is desensitized to everything

and the generation that grew up seeing people being beheaded on television

and the generation that has everything yet nothing at the same time

because everything is such a commodity with the Internet you can have just about anything and everything at the click of a button or even create a fake persona

I don't know how to explain

rambling below about my experiences

Spoiler

mostly stuck to YouTube, Poptropica, various flash game websites

as I got older I started browsing chat rooms all the time and various talk with strangers websites very bad idea and I would lie about my age which is also a bad idea

I would also browse Tumblr without an account and use Wattpad and Kik

and would look at various shock sites out of boredom and curiousity which is also a bad idea at that age and I wish I never saw such things so young besides the whole discovering pornography thing since my Internet access wasn't monitored


really makes me painfully aware of how desensitized and traumatized everyone in my generation is when it comes to the Internet despite all of the warnings and PSAs at school about people like Amanda Todd or the whole "what if they are a 50 year old man" thing but I guess everyone isn't since everyone is so willing to post all of their information online publicly knowing that it will be out there forever

and it's weird seeing so many children online now using social media when I was their age I would just play flash games and whatnot but I guess they have no choice since social media is a way to fit in

I learned that when I was in middle school
social media is one of the worst things ever and I am so glad that I have abandoned it and stopped using it besides this website I guess

 

[StolenLife]

I'm a Zillennial too. I remember playing flash player games when I was 6-10 and creating my Facebook profile in primary school. I don't have Instagram or Tik Tok, though. Also I find gen z memes bizare and unfunny. Though I prefer gen z as a generation to Millennials.

 

[Ambivalent1]

I'm a Zillennial too. I remember playing flash player games when I was 6-10 and creating my Facebook profile in primary school. I don't have Instagram or Tik Tok, though. Also I find gen z memes bizare and unfunny. Though I prefer gen z as a generation to Millennials.

Why don't you like millennials?

 

[StolenLife]

Why don't you like millennials?

It's not that I dislike them, it's just... It feels like gen z is way more bold and actually tries to fight their circumstances. Millennials always say that boomers ruined everything but then they just leave it at that. Idk, they seem kind of... whiny, I guess? No offence to anyone. At least gen z deals with everything using humor, even though that humor is cringe.

 

[LostinCyberspace]

I always felt like an outcast among my generation. I dislike all forms of social media, as I think it does more harm to the world than it does good.

I also think there's so much hatred involved in politics these days that people should try and focus on things that connect them together rather than continue to drive them apart, otherwise this world we live in will become an even more brutal and cruel place to live.

 

[lethargic]

It's not that I dislike them, it's just... It feels like gen z is way more bold and actually tries to fight their circumstances. Millennials always say that boomers ruined everything but then they just leave it at that. Idk, they seem kind of... whiny, I guess? No offence to anyone. At least gen z deals with everything using humor, even though that humor is cringe.

Have you noticed that people older than you, not just millennials, just seem to not give a fuck at all really? That's just because eventually you accept reality and time squeezes the soul out of you. Beware, it will happen to you.

 

[brainwormz]

How old were you when you started going online as a hobby?

As a protozoomer I'll say around 8 or so. I'm old enough to have been on the socials no one remembers before myspace and Facebook.

Have you noticed that people older than you, not just millennials, just seem to not give a fuck at all really? That's just because eventually you accept reality and time squeezes the soul out of you. Beware, it will happen to you.

I care deeply. I'm in nihilistic anarchist who believes in small government. I also give zero fucks cause I don't believe I'll ever manage to get even a single person to agree to my worldview. I want to watch the world burn more than anything in the world. World War III can't come soon enough. I don't believe existence has any meaning and I'm tired of being forced into everyone else's little boxes. But God wouldn't it be amazing if we can get everyone to agree to just treat each other nicely and respectfully and take care of what we have? But you're right, I don't ever happen, and part of adulthood is excepting that and either becoming an alcoholic or workaholic.

 

[Sprite_Geist]

It's not that I dislike them, it's just... It feels like gen z is way more bold and actually tries to fight their circumstances. Millennials always say that boomers ruined everything but then they just leave it at that. Idk, they seem kind of... whiny, I guess? No offence to anyone. At least gen z deals with everything using humor, even though that humor is cringe.

Millennials do (or used to) deal with their issues using humor too. Their generation helped to popularize early-2000's meme culture, and it eventually evolved into what it is now. I think the reason why millennials do not deal much with the issues in the world around them, is because they feel powerless to do anything, and this feeling of hopelessness can also be heard or seen in Generation Z too. So I have to disagree.

 

[HoleintheDark]

I was on the internet as soon as I learned how to move a mouse. My mother made me a facebook account and personal email at 6. I browsed early youtube completely unsupervised, so I ended up in some really bad places. The worst was probably the bronies, I was completely convinced that grown men could like a children's show in the same way that a child does, and that it's normal for those grown men to interact with children in online spaces. I was force-fed political fear-mongering both on the internet and in real life, and it came to a head during the 2016 election. I was only 12 years old and already totally exhausted by politics and social media. I'm just grateful that I deleted my facebook without actually ever using it, and that I never caved and made a twitter/tiktok/basically any other social media accounts.

Club penguin was pretty fun, though.