According to an August 2018 report from Bloomberg, Gen Z is set to outnumber millennials within a year:
Gen Z will comprise 32 percent of the global population of 7.7 billion in 2019, nudging ahead of millennials, who will account for a 31.5 percent share, based on Bloomberg analysis of United Nations data, and using 2000/2001 as the generational split.
People born in 2001 will turn 18 next year, meaning many will enter university, be eligible to vote and, depending on their citizenship, smoke or drink alcohol without breaking the law. Gen Zers have never known a non-digital world and have grown up amid events such as the “war on terror” and Global Recession.
In this media-literacy lesson plan, we ask teenagers to study themselves. We encourage them to think critically about how their generation has been portrayed by the media and why, and to identify what’s missing in that portrayal.
Then, we invite students to participate in our new contest, which challenges them to take photographs that round out adult stereotypes or misconceptions about Gen Z and show us more interesting, nuanced, complete or real aspects of teenage life today.
Teachers can, of course, use this entire sequence as written, or pick and choose the aspects that work best for their students. Whether your students are participating in our contest, which runs through Oct. 15, 2018, or not, we end by inviting students to create something that “talks back” to the media portrayals they will study.
