What are the key identifiers, characteristics, and traits associated with Zoomers? What do millennials think of them, and what does this mean for politics? Here’s a quick rundown.
Google trends shows us that Generation Z is the most searched for generational term. Increasingly, in popular internet culture, they are referred to as Zoomers- a play on the abbreviation ‘boomer’ for Baby Boomers. It’s important to note that generational cohorts aren’t naturally occurring phenomena. There is no official definition of how people should be categorised, with the limits of birth years varying slightly depending on the sociologist, journalist, or- most likely- market researcher who happens to be writing about it. It’s also worth noting that generational definitions vary hugely in relevance and meaning across the earth, with the discussed categories pertaining mainly to the western world. The general consensus is that Gen Z includes people born between 1997 and 2012. Some definitions are less specific, citing ‘the mid-to-late 1990s’ to the ‘early 2010s’. However, a generational age boundary is usually drawn to encompass an age group within a specific cultural, historical, and economic context.
A popular signifier attributed to Zoomers concerns 9/11. Millennials are often cited as the youngest people who remember the attacks, whereas Gen Z have grown up in their shadow; to them it's purely part of history, not memory. The attack on the twin towers falls under the label of ‘things that happened before I was born’, much like the fall of the Berlin wall happened just before millennial memory. For Generation Alpha, currently ages ten and younger, the 2008 crash will fall into that same category. Other events include; the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the US and UK; the last Labour government; the election of Barack Obama; the Arab Spring; ‘Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’, and so on. All these things will be just out of memory for today's ten year old, but most of Gen Alpha aren’t even born yet, so back to Zoomers.
Zoomers have recently been in the news for their apparent sabotage of Donald Trump's big comeback rally this past weekend. Through coordinated efforts on TikTok (Vine for Gen Z), and ‘alt Twitter’, over a million reservations were made by teens from around the world who had no intention of going. This is causing a lot of excitement in the media as it shows bored teenagers stuck in lock-down are capable of causing Donald Trump more damage than the Democratic party has managed in years. It was a form of direct action, entirely online, that affected the real world. The whole world watched as The Orange Problem gave a speech to a half-empty arena.
Movements like Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter have been seen to have huge Zoomer support, as well as support for trans rights, and increasing freedoms regarding gender identity. Experiencing childhood in the aftermath of 9/11, and teenage years in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis, Zoomers have been seen to foster a dark, existentialist sense of humor online, including references to school shootings, poor job prospects, racism. In the US, Gen Z first came to prominence in the aftermath of a string of school shootings in 2018, when they staged a national school walkout in protest of their country’s gun laws. Similar school strikes happened as part of the 2019 Climate Protests, led largely by perhaps the most famous Zoomer, Greta Thunberg.
For all that is said about them online in millennial circles, the perceived ‘left-wing’ politics of Gen Z cannot yet be taken as certain. Most of them aren’t yet adults, and events may happen in the near future that could change the political landscape.
In current internet culture, much content references or alludes to the notion that millennials are increasingly inspired by their attitudes and perspective on social issues, and see them as a beacon of hope for the future, and an ally in the war against the Boomers. Large corporations are wising up to the progressive politics exhibited by Zoomers so far and are increasingly concerned with portraying their brands and products as socially-conscious; a trend no one can have missed over recent years.
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