In 2020, the eldest ‘Gen Z’er — the name given to people born in and after 1995 — will be 25. Soon, this will become the new cohort with spending power, deciding which brands outlive the transition into the new decade. They’re a generation that has grown up with the idea of wellness, of non-stop connectivity, and social media. Here’s what they think of health and how they approach it: with sensitivity to planet and people.
It starts with the planet
If there has been one uniting cause for Gen Z in the past decade, it has been an overwhelming anxiety about the future of our planet. This has been the decade that policy makers agreed that we could not look at our personal well-being without taking into consideration the planet’s (The Paris Accord came into being, the planetary health diet was born, veganism grew popular). A big reason this movement snowballed was a passionate group of teenagers.
Greta Thunberg’s raw emotional speech (“How dare you?”) at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit was emblematic of a generation that says it has had enough of inaction by adults they should be trusting.
“I feel frustrated and angry. The older generations have lived their healthy life, and we are the ones getting bad-quality air and water. We haven’t done anything: We don’t drive cars or own factories, our carbon footprints as individuals is meagre. Why do we have to suffer because of their needs and greeds?” says Haridwar-based Ridhima Pandey in angst.
Barely 12, her days of carefree childhood are punctuated by strikes, campaigns and petitions. She is one of the 16 children, including Greta, to jointly file a complaint with the United Nations, accusing five of the world’s leading economies of violating children’s rights by inaction towards climate change. “My friends and I conduct awareness campaigns in schools and strikes together,” she says. “I also carried an online campaign on air alert, because of the high AQI levels of Delhi.”
While critics have often put down this children’s revolt as idealistic, this is the group that brands will cater to soon. “I have stopped drinking cold drinks from certain brands because of their factories’ carbon footprint,” she says.
The fear for their planet’s, and consequently their, health is common across the world, found a recent study by Amnesty International. The Future of Humanity survey of over 10,000 18-25-year-olds across 22 countries revealed that climate change was the most important issue facing the world, followed by pollution. Lack of access to safe water and healthcare insurance also made the top 12 list.
Focus on the mind
Depressive symptoms among Generation Z are about two-thirds higher than those in the millennial generation, according to research by University College London. It analysed two studies, the Millennium Cohort , which follows 11,000 young people born in 2000-01 and the Children of the 90s , which has followed 5,600 since 1991-1992.
It is not necessarily a sign of poorer mental health, however. It could simply be because they are more likely to flag a mental health issue, perhaps showing a better understanding of its priority. American Psychological Association’s Stress in America Survey focussed on the concerns of Americans aged 15 to 21, and found that Gen Z is more likely to report their mental health as poor, and are also slightly more likely to have received therapy from a professional. This, says APA’s chief executive officer Arthur C Evans, “could be an indicator that they are more aware and accepting of mental health issues.” Let’s not forget that this is the generation that has grown up with a mandatory psychotherapist in school.
Chennai-based 22-year-old Kirtana Jawahar recalls how she tried talking to an adult about the symptoms of depression that she was feeling, two years ago. “They told me I am from a privileged background, and have a comfortable life, so what is there to be depressed about? They made me feel ungrateful for the life I was given. But when I spoke to people my age, they helped me out.” Her generation, she believes, is smart enough to understand what is happening to them, and when to ask for help — thanks to a vocabulary that their parents never had. For her final-year project at her college, she ran an awareness campaign on mental health, through posters she shot and designed that she put up on Instagram. The social media platform has proven popular among young artists like Priyanka Paul (@artwhoring) and Anjali Kamat (@anjisdoodles), both 22, to spread awareness on mental health, toxicity, and body positivity.
One of Anjali’s works ‘My knees are brown’ is a moving reference to the shame inculcated in brown women about darker body parts. Priyanka, too, has been vocal about body positivity and queer rights, teaming up with Levi’s for this.
The medium is the message
The influence of Instagrammers points to a shift in the way wellness products are marketed, especially in fitness and beauty. This digital native generation is more likely to pay attention to social media advertising. Young adults are more likely to buy a product if it has good reviews by YouTubers and Instagram-ers they follow.
Trifecta Research’s survey, which found that 70% of Gen Z watches two hours of YouTube daily and the same percentage consults the platform before making a purchase. In fact, 71% of Gen Z discover new fitness opportunities on social media. So, in order to get into the wallets of Gen Z, brands are first getting into their social media feeds.
Published - December 30, 2019 02:08 pm IST
