You may have often heard the claim that Gen Z is inherently more lazy than any other generation... This claim is rooted in cognitive bias and lack of context. In order to look at the psychology behind generational conflict we must understand the phrase "kids these days".

It is the illusion that children in the present are significantly worse than how kids were in the previous generations. So why do people believe that the generation will be worse than the last one? Well for two reasons, the first of which is memory bias.

To some extent we all are victims of memory bias. Our ability to recall events solely on the basis of memory alone is flawed. This is the reason that witness testimonies alone can't solve court cases, and thus the need for proof. The longer the time gap between the event and you recalling it, the more opportunities you give yourself to forget specific details or have your memory manipulated by you unknowingly to fit your current belief, this is known as selective recall.

For example, if someone already believes they had a harder childhood they are more than likely to recall memories that justify their statement. Thus to say that your beliefs framed your memories would be more accurate than your beliefs coming from your experiences.

The second reason is the tendency to criticise others who lack in areas where we are already good at. Have you ever played a game or sport that you are really good at against someone that was a beginner, and you nitpicked everything they did to the point that how bad they were actually started to offend you?

If you are already really good at something you tend to be overly judgy and the problem with this is that even if we try to relate and attempt to think back to how we were when we started, we still only do so from the perspective of how we are today. Thus we say things like I remember struggling but I wasn't even that bad.

The people who compare Gen Z to their generation often forget that they are already way into their careers and have objectively more responsibilities and are already used to hard work and sacrifice. Obviously if you look at a younger generation who barely got out of college, we are going to look lazy because they are not comparing how they were back then but to how they are right now.

Coming back to the claim that Gen Z is lazy, people believe that the next generation doesn't want to work while not understanding that as society advances, the standard of how we work also changes. Gen Z is the first generation to grow up with the internet.

In an age where companies fire employees as fast as they hire them, the rise of the internet gives us more options that ever to make money. Thus Gen Z isn't lazy so is no other generation that came before us or that will come after society advances the standard of work will always change.