I've stopped waiting for Gen Z to save us

When we published our Gen Z study that looked at their evolving beliefs and how they'll change society a while back, I truly believed in one of our conclusions: that Gen Z are the long-awaited saviors that will fix everything from climate change to the culture wars. Since then I've seen this idea repeated across the media and I've changed my mind. Not only have Gen Z themselves started to beg us to remove this burden from them in subsequent studies, but it makes no sense. We were looking for a savior and the new traits of this generation seemed to offer one up.

They are a fascinating generation, but half of them are still children. What does our fawning over them say about us, the grown-ups? Perhaps a society that idolizes teenagers has trouble growing up. Perhaps the real job is for us to start adulting so that the as yet, still underdeveloped Gen Z can get on with the business of growing up at an appropriate pace.