Gen Z is risk-averse yet cynical about decaying meaning systems

Evidence

Despite their insular cultural habits, Gen Z didn’t spark much worry among parents about being reckless youth. They drank less, smoked less, avoided drugs, and experienced teenage pregnancy at one third the rate of millennials. In fact, they were hard to quite define: tech savvy and environmentally conscious, yet quite cynical. In The New York Times, essayist Stephen Marche described his Gen Z son’s world as “a dark one—full of corporate triumph and the defeat of public spirit, where systems of meaning are decaying and a lack of clarity is spreading.” But they had a sense of humor about it. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 662

Categorization

• XREF: Marche’s diagnosis of decaying systems of meaning parallels the Frankfurt School’s culture-industry theses and Adorno’s reading of mass culture.