Germany

Sample Size: 51

In German, we call the future "Zukunft." Everyone cares about their own future and the future of the whole generation. I have heard several times that the age group belonging to Gen-Z would be pessimistic and careless. I believe it's not right to generalize that. I see that there are some people fitting those descriptions, but this is a matter of every generation and not just Gen-Z.

To be more certain about future perspectives, we conducted a survey in our generation. We didn't only ask people from our friends group; we tried to ask everyone to participate, even if we didn't know them. Surprisingly, almost everyone agreed to participate. The first point I want to make is that our generation is more committed than it's usually portrayed. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of teenagers without a sense of responsibility; however, there are indeed people who care. So, please do me a favor and don't judge people just because of their age group.

The survey itself is not really representative. Unfortunately, we don't have the means to make it representative, but still, it provides a good overview. It's way better than just asking in one country or even one school. We asked people from China, Germany, Russia, and Sri Lanka. As you can see, most questions were answered with more positive views. I find it interesting to hear what people said about AI, which has developed very rapidly in the past few years. Additionally, we are the first generation that grew up with mobile phones, social media, and AI. Still, people are - let’s say rather neutral - about it. How does this come about? Well, there are many pros and cons, as you can read in the debate from one of the recent issues.

Regarding the significant low ranking about inter-generational contact, I asked some people why they chose what they did. I find it interesting that they interpreted the question a little differently than I had initially thought after discussing it in the group chat. On one hand, you can interpret it as our desire to stay in close contact with them and try to understand them. On the other hand, you can interpret it as the fear of losing contact due to misunderstandings from the other side. Both perspectives are completely different. One is optimistic because they believe that their hope, their wish comes true by working for it, while the others may have a pessimistic view, not because they don’t want to, but because they think they aren't understood.

I don’t want to answer the questions I have raised in this report because I want you to find an answer yourself. Is Gen-Z the future? Are we optimistic? Can we be optimistic? And are we able to address the fears within us? It's something everyone has to face, but with more confidence in others, with more communication worldwide, and with greater global togetherness, I look positively towards the future. After this survey, I believe that I speak for many in my age group by saying this.