Gen Z can do most things better than everyone else

…and they don’t have a clue this is the case.

It takes 10,000 hours of practising something to be an expert, according to Malcolm Gladwell. When it comes to certain things, particularly around digital ability, a lot of Gen Z have already passed that benchmark.

Their technological fluency and the traits they’ve developed as a direct consequence are unique to their generation. Which means that they are incredibly good at some things. Better than anyone else, really. But because of the way society is structured they are constantly being told they don’t know anything yet because they’re young and have no experience.

So I’m here to clarify — there are some things they do know and are waaaay better at than us. Some things that they are already experts in, but no one has told them yet.

They’ve been creating online content since before they got to double figures

When someone says ‘content creation’, people instantly think of the long, arduous process that goes into creating a brand video, or a hefty thought piece. But content creation applies to the quick bits too. For example, anyone who has ever posted on instagram knows that the caption is almost as important as the visual it goes with. This caption, even if it’s just a line, is content. The process that goes into thinking up the caption in itself is content creation. One tweet, even if it’s the most flippant of comments, is content creation. These small, overlooked bits of content are unnatural for anyone older than 25. But for those under 25, this is second nature — they’ve been creating these mini bits of content since they were 10 years old, if not younger. I guarantee if there were a competition that measured speed and ability for quick-fire content creation, Gen Z will win hands down.

They don’t need people to teach them things

Has a generation ever been more self-taught? No. They have a question, they google it and watch a youtube video. In 2020, paying for short courses is a fools game when everything you need to know is available out there. But the ability to have the discipline to teach yourself is difficult — older generations are used to theory, having an authority figure to guide, scheduled classes. Gen Z are hyper-intuitive when it comes to learning, which is partly as a result of immediate-google-response and partly because of their impatience for answers. They understand how to navigate the resources online so are used to working things out for themselves with the help of google. The perfect example of this — over 40s tend to google an entire question they want the answer to, including joining words. Gen Z tend to google keywords in that question that they know will give them the results they need. The perfect representation of difference in how young people know how to work the internet for research purposes.

They are WITTY

Back to the content creation theme. As Gen Z have been creating since they were wee bairns, they have absolutely nailed the social media tone. They know how to make you laugh — grammatical errors are irrelevant here and often add to the joke. They can whip out a joke on twitter quicker than a XXX. Their meme-creation is a wonder. The ‘caption this’ threads are incredible. Claps all round for the Gen Z wit.

They’re already working in teams

Their appetite for side hustles and collaboration is enormous. Creativity, wellbeing and community are all at the forefront of their priorities and the manifestation of this often means collaborating on projects together. On top of this, Gen Z are very into having side hustles. They are also hugely into volunteering. They’re just all round multi-faceted humans who tend to value spending time together making things and working alongside one another. So they have plenty of experience trying new things, testing stuff out, having a specific role or responsibility and everything else that goes alongside teamwork.

Their multi-tasking abilities and attention division is next-level

Lying on your bed chatting on the phone with a friend on loudspeaker so you can post something on instagram with a muted Netflix show you were watching on your laptop in the background. The compartmentalising of this situation is astonishing. The speed in which a Gen Z can absorb maximum information about something and then move onto the next topic is FAST. The internal list-making and shelving of things, ready to pull out later when they want to know more is an exercise other generations have a much more limited ability to do.

This article has actually been turned into a workshop by the author Sam and her business partner Mae. Watch or listen to them chat through the reasons for creating the article and how they’ve actioned these points in their own lives here.

This workshop is the first in a series titled ‘The Career & Self-Development Series by ERIC’. All are action-focused and designed to not only help you know what you want from a career but also find companies that are hiring, get in touch with them, interview with them and find people who can help you get the future you want.

Mae & Sam run ERIC together, a community that empowers Gen Z creatives through career & self-development content.

ERIC are launching a career and self-development app. Sign up to be an app tester at meet-eric.co/app.