Amaar Zarrieff 
A few days ago, my friend’s car broke down while we were hanging out. After opening the hood of the car, we soon realized that we had no idea what to do (She ended up calling her mother and she solved the issue.). This made me think, what else do me and my peers not know how to do? Can we make it around town without a GPS? Do we know how to file taxes? Can we parallel park?
Gen-Z has grown up in a world controlled by technology and automation. What’s the point of getting a drivers’ license when there’s Uber? Why learn how to cook, when there’s Doordash or Postmates? In an era where so much information is so easily accessible, it seems like people are more clueless than ever. The generation before us had to learn how to drive, cook, along with a plethora of other skills because they had no other choice. So is Gen-Z equipped for adult life?
Can Gen-Z Manage Their Finances?
If I were to go to prison for anything, it would be accidentally committing tax fraud. Nobody tells you how to file taxes or budget in school, so most of my friends opt to use TurboTax.
After asking 10 of my peers what a credit score was, six of them had no idea, three tried to explain it (leaving me even more confused), and one person actually got through to me.
“A credit score is basically the government’s way of measuring how reliable you are with money given to you. It becomes heavily useful for adulting things like getting an apartment, getting approved for loans or even buying a house.”- Kevaughn Williams, sophomore at Howard University
Can Gen-Z Navigate Without A Phone?
After using a GPS to get everywhere around my hometown, I realized that I have no idea how to navigate without my Maps app. I don’t even know street names. In fact, none of my peers know street names well. I asked a few of my high school friends for directions to our old high school. Almost all of the responses I got went something like: “First turn left on the road next to the McDonald’s and then get on the highway for a few miles, and then exit on the road just after you see the giant Target billboard.” It made perfect sense to me, if I were to give these same exact directions to a person from an older generation, they might get completely lost.
Can Gen-Z Cook?
This year, my dorm room has its very own kitchen, a perfect opportunity to find out whether Gen-Z can really cook. For the past few days, I’ve had my friends come over to my room to cook dinner. Although every dish ended up tasting amazing, every single one of them used an online recipe for every single step. What temperature should the oven be on? How long does this bake? How much garlic do I use? Every single question answered by a quick glance at their phones.
So, is Gen-Z equipped for adult life? Yes and no. Generation Z (My friends at least) is fully equipped for life if technology is involved. Our phones solve all of our problems and answer every question. Even our money and bank accounts are on our phones now. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Not at all! The world is advancing. Although it would be nice for us to automatically know things without searching it up on Google first, technology is the new normal.
So no, Ubering from place to place and eating Doordash for every meal does not make you any less of an adult. We are simply witnessing a new age of adulting.
By Amaar Zarrieff, Freshman, Howard University
Instagram: amaar.fz / X: @Amaar_FZ
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