SMOKERS’ CORNER: MANUFACTURING GEN-Z

Generation Z is subjected to an unprecedented level of sociological scrutiny, a phenomenon fueled by the digital age. Unlike previous youth cohorts studied since the 1960s, Gen-Z is the first to have constant digital data portraits of their behavior. Commentators frequently assert that this generation rejects traditional academic and career goals.

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When corporate-backed surveys repeatedly declare that Gen-Z is anxious, boundary-setting and radical, the generation feels compelled to stage their lives to match these expectations, simply to feel visible.

However, a meta-paradox emerges: Gen-Z feels compelled to perform the very definitions assigned to them by market analysts and sociologists. When surveys label Gen-Z as anxious, boundary-setting, and radical, the generation stages its life to match these expectations to feel visible. This performative trap operates in the digital spaces where Gen-Z largely exists.

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Before Gen-Z could even define itself, marketers and cultural commentators had already done it for them, thus trapping an entire generation into performing an identity created by others

Firms like Deloitte and the McKinsey Health Institute label Gen-Z as prioritizing mental health and work-life balance. While this is often framed as "quiet quitting," the reality is more complex. A young professional might feel social pressure to leave work at precisely 5:00 p.m. to embody traits like better work-life balance, even if they privately wish to stay late to advance their careers. Marketers and commentators defined Gen-Z before the generation could define itself, trapping them into performing an identity created by others.

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According to Haidt, this has turned vulnerability into a form of social belonging.

Cultural commentators frame Gen-Z as the most stressed demographic in history. American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores this in "The Anxious Generation," suggesting vulnerability has become a form of social belonging. In a digitally saturated environment, sharing psychological distress has transformed from a private struggle into a public badge of identity. This has popularized "digital therapy-speak," defined by scholar Dr. Carme Isern-Mas as the superficial integration of clinical jargon into casual conversation. Gen-Z often feels compelled to adopt the vocabulary of trauma to be heard. One social media post by a 20-year-old attributed standard anxiety attacks to full episodes of "schizophrenia," illustrating how peer pressure to conform to online medical narratives drives youth to over-pathologize normal human distress simply to make their struggles visible.

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Haidt writes that, in a digitally saturated environment, sharing psychological distress has shifted from a private struggle to a public badge of identity.