Gen Z is better than previous generations

People have been saying “this new generation is doomed” for literally thousands of years… and yet somehow humanity keeps progressing.

If you go back far enough, you’ll find older generations complaining about younger people being lazy, disrespectful, lacking discipline, or “not like we used to be.” And every generation grows up hearing that—then turns around and says the exact same thing to the next one.

So what’s actually going on here?

I think part of it is perspective bias. People compare the best of their past (their memories, values, struggles they overcame) with the worst of the present (what they see online, news, or extreme examples). That creates this illusion that things are declining.

But if you zoom out, the pattern looks very different.

Yes, every generation has flaws. But they also solve problems previous generations couldn’t:

Advances in technology

Better healthcare and longer life expectancy

More awareness of mental health

New ways of thinking, creating, and organizing society

A lot of what older generations call “weakness” is sometimes just change. And change always looks threatening when you’re not the one growing up inside it.

At the same time, it’s not wrong to criticize certain trends. Not everything new is automatically better. But saying “everything is getting worse” ignores how much has actually improved.

So maybe the real question is: Are we actually declining… or are we just uncomfortable watching the world evolve in ways we didn’t expect?

Curious to hear your thoughts—do you think each generation is actually getting worse, or is this just a repeating cycle of perception?