Gen Z’s superpower may be turning fear into action
John Della Volpe is the author of "Fight: How Gen Z Is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America."
Martha Stewart/St. Martin's Publishing Group
As director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, John Della Volpe has been talking to America’s young people for over 20 years. In “Fight: How Gen Z Is Channeling Their Fear and Passion To Save America,” he brings some of those recent conversations to life and looks at what Generation Z – those born from 1997 to 2012 – is doing to overcome challenges and contribute to the country. He spoke recently with the Monitor.
What are some of the formative experiences that have shaped Gen Z?
Every generation has its share of angst and turmoil, but I don’t think that any generation in the last seven or eight decades has been confronted with more chaos than the 70 million or so young Americans that are a part of this generation.
Why We Wrote This
Every generation faces turmoil. But a new book argues Gen Z is channeling recent societal unrest into civic activism on racial justice, climate change, and other pressing issues.
They dealt with the aftermath of Occupy Wall Street [in 2011] and grew to have deep concerns about income inequality.
The movement that was Parkland came out of the lockdown drills and school shootings that made schools, places that were once safe, become uneasy. One of the other impacts that not a lot of people know about is the connection between the climate movement and the Parkland movement. Greta Thunberg was a middle schooler trying to find ways to engage her peers in the existential threat of climate change and it wasn’t until she was tracking the impact of the Parkland [Florida] students that she began to think about her own kind of walkout, which turned into climate strike and has touched tens of millions of young people around the world.
Also, George Floyd’s murder in May 2020 and the fact that that also happened during COVID lockdown forced conversations on racial justice and systemic racism.
You describe Gen Z as “united by fear.” How have they worked to overcome that fear?
What makes Gen Z so special is that when many of us are afraid or fearful, we tend to withdraw. This generation tends to vote. In fact, in 2018 and 2020 when we track the activities of those folks who say they’re fearful or they’re anxious, they are more likely than other young Americans to actually vote.
A recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll found 78% of 18- to 29-year-olds say it’s important that the United States is a democracy. How is this age group supporting democracy?
They have voted in numbers. No other generation can claim that when they were young. They doubled the turnout in the 2018 midterm elections relative to 2014, and relative to the average of the last 32 years of midterm elections, which had dramatic effects. They’re working within the current system to fight for the systemic changes that they believe are required for America to have a fully functioning democracy.
I find this generation to be the least selfish, most empathetic group of young people that I’ve engaged with. Rather than melting like snowflakes because of this incredible period of American history that we’re living through ... they’re emerging as ... stronger and more resilient and more determined to improve our democracy and change the world.
How do you see this generation going forward into adulthood?
Younger people are searching for jobs and careers that allow them to make an impact on the issues they care about. Their definition of success is far more modest. It’s less to do with money and more to do with the bonds they create in terms of friendship and family. They’re pressuring the private sector and government to modernize capitalism in ways where success is not only measured by the health of the balance sheet, but by the health of the communities in which they operate.