There are people who have turned 30, but still say they are members of the latest, i.e. Z, generation. According to the psychologist, that is technically incorrect because such people are Millennials – Gen Zers were born between 1997 and 2012. Just like with the other generations, the differences and views of these two are shaped by the environment and the historical and even technological context.

"Technological advancement, scientific advancement, etc. influences every generation and allows for a better categorization," Buinickaite said.

Sure, different generations sometimes have not only varying opinions, but also certain character or psychological nuances. According to the psychologist, it is difficult to determine whether the constantly improving technologies or readily available information is actually beneficial to Gen Z, but at least we can say for certain that they are surrounded by comprehensive diversity.

"If we are talking about diversity, they are more welcoming towards it, more tolerant and definitely understand it, which may not always have been the case. Some of you may remember the good old days of your grandmothers and their stories about various conflicts with people of different racial or national background. It was a thing. Lots and lots of misunderstandings. Firstly, due to the lack of knowledge, and also the government played a huge part in terms of disseminating information and forming opinions. Especially in the Soviet Union," she said.

According to Buinickaite, Gen Z also has a unique trait – its members were born and grew up with technologies.

"Of course, as I have already mentioned, there are pros and cons to that, but they haven’t seen a world without technology. Nowadays, some kids get their first smartphone before their turn 10, and in some cases seven and eight-year-olds get their first smartwatch. For them, this is the norm," she said.

According to Buinickaite, one of the advantages of such a life is quick access to information.

"They can find it quickly, you don’t have to go to the library anymore and read books to find what you need. It is so much faster to just google it. Is the information always good? Not necessarily. They can’t filter it. The amount of data available on the internet is overwhelming, but we are unable to filter it," the psychologist explained.

She added that Gen Z is also very gullible.

"They don’t necessarily believe in competent people. One of the worst things about TikTok is the fact that inexperienced or incompetent users present their opinions, which are then taken for granted by Gen Zers. Whatever an influencer is saying, they think it’s the truth, but that’s not always so."

People also say that Gen Z is financially literate.

"They know more about finances. Why? Again, these are the same kids who grew up during the financial crisis of 2008. They saw how difficult it was, how their parents had to wait it out to survive and start counting their money," Buinickaite said.

According to the psychologist, Gen Z is the generation that talks the most about its mental health.

"We didn’t have this before. During a recent conference, I spoke about the differences between previous generations and Gen Z. How did the previous ones deal with feelings? Don’t feel, don’t be mad, don’t be happy, and don’t be sad because that’s what mom or dad told you to do. And why did they tell us so? Because that’s what they heard from their parents," she claimed.

Now it was obvious, she added, that such an approach did a lot of harm.

"Everybody’s stressed, burned out, etc. Ok, so we feel bad, perhaps we should teach our kids to feel. How did it go? We can’t, but they have learned to express feelings freely. The gap is really big because now we have to catch up with them, but don’t have the knowledge or skills. We try to learn, try visiting psychologists and such, but that’s still not enough because our upbringing was different, the brain is wired differently," she explained.

Buinickaite thinks that there’s another problem here: "We haven’t taught them one important thing. To feel is OK, but there’s a time for getting one’s act together."

The psychologist argues that his has led to the fact that the current generation cannot see through "discomfort", and identify any troubles as depression without trying to understand their actual emotions, which have a wide spectrum.

"How do our emotions work? If we look at the list that we make during training, the number of emotions is limited, but I often hear: "Gintare, look: so many negative emotions, and so few positive." You see, our brains are hardwired to look for threats in the environment. Why? Because we need to protect ourselves. That’s why it may seem that there are more negative emotions. It is so because the protection is instrumental," she commented.

As stated by the psychologist, all this shapes the current generation’s view towards their mental health.

"What happens is when I start feeling something (and if I’m allowed to express my feelings), I’ll still see more negative aspects and talk about them more. So Gen Zers look like cry-babies, but they were actually allowed to feel, and that’s what they are doing, and since there are more negative emotions, that’s how they feel," Buinickaite shared.

It has been noticed that Gen Z is not only open to new things, but also empathic. And yet quite often the empathy is only limited to themselves because supposedly they see the environment slightly differently.

"They claim to be empathic to the environment, but according to a study, that’s not the case. What is empathy anyway? It is the ability to understand how another person may feel. I keep stressing that empathy is not crying together. It means that I understand how you feel and what I can do to help," the psychologist explained.

Buinickaite also thinks that not everything is fine with Gen Z’s tolerance.

"According to research data, it is very difficult for Gen Z to accept the opinions of others. They are tolerant on gender issues and similar world-view matters, bet very intolerant towards other people’s opinions. As many as half of the respondents said that if another person had a different opinion, they would simply want to cancel him," she pointed out.

The saddest thing to Buinickaite is the fact that more than a quarter of the participants agreed with the opinion that in order to create a good state governance model, the president should not consult the parliament and need not be elected by voters.

"Again, this means not dealing with the opinions of other people to make my life easier. Why are they afraid of other views? Young people admit that it is easy to write something online, but if they had to repeat the same comment face to face, they would never do it. On social media, it is easy to hide behind the computer or smartphone. Live interactions become very scary, and so they hide," she said.

Buinickaite thinks that hiding is not the answer either.

"It arrests development, natural social development, and the development and improvement of general competences," the psychologist noted.

Although Gen Z is frequently criticized by society, fortunately, not everything about it is bad.

"I actually find them very pleasant. You can definitely have an open, calm, and nice conversation with them. There’s also the ability to express feelings. It can be a big advantage, you know. I think it’s charming. Charming because I’m not very good at it myself. If you have mastered this ability, it can be very useful," she shared.

Buinickaite mentioned that creativity was another important aspect of Gen Z, as well as the fact that they knew their worth and what they could have.

"I have one example: a 19-year-old girl started working at a café in the summer and some time later she goes: "You know what, Gintare, I’ve decided to quit my job." I asked why, and she said: "We finish our shifts late at night, I feel tired, but I also have internship and studies. I’ll look for something more manageable." I guess we think like that when we are in our thirties, and these people are capable of setting the boundaries for themselves and others. I see this as a huge advantage," she recalled.

When considering the peculiarities of Gen Z, a question arises: what will the next generation, brought up by the current one, look like? According to the psychologist, the upcoming generation, Alpha, will become the focus of attention some seven years later, taking the spotlight from Gen Z.

"Some say it will be the most perfect generation ever. Will it, though? It is impossible to tell at the moment. People still make and will continue to make mistakes," she said and added that it was difficult to imagine what Gen A would look like.

"Maybe we will have learned the lesson from the current generation and start teaching Gen A kids resilience – something Gen Z lacks. Maybe Gen A will be better than all the previous ones, emotionally mature," she speculated.