The Characteristics and The Importance of Building Characters for Gen Z

By Ria Kusmawati, S.Pd.

(Guru Bahasa Inggris SMAN 5 Cirebon)

In celebrating Indonesian National Education Day, 2 Mei 2022 in Digital Era 4.0, with the theme “Pimpin Pemulihan Bergerak untuk Merdeka Belajar”. I remembered of my student that recently followed English Competition of Newaxist Contest English students Association of UMC Cirebon. The committee offered 3 titles of speech contest, they are : Millenial, Modernization and Gen Z.

I chose to take the theme about Gen Z. Because As long as pandemic condition all people are busy with gadget and internet to work and socialized. And because this condition related with one of Generation who always connect with Social Media and who use and do all their activities with the sophisticated Technology of gadget and internet since their child, We call this generation as Gen Z or iGeneration. I think it’s very interesting for me to learn and talk about the characteristics of them and the importance of bulding character of them.

What is Gen Z?

In the theory of Generation which described by “Graeme Codrington & Sue Grant-Marshall, Penguin, 5 Generation of Human Beings based on year of birth those are :

1.         Baby Boomer Generation, born in 1946-1964;

2.         Generation X/ Gen X, born in 1965-1980;

3.         Generation Y/Gen Y, born in 1981-1995, it’s often called Millennial Generation;

4.         Generation Z or Gen Z, born in 1995-2010. Wikipedia

According to Merdeka.com, There are 5 positive characteristics of Gen Z, they are :

1.         Tech Savvy

Related with the definition of Gen Z itself that is the generation who was born and life in Technology Age. So Gen Z really like technology to make them easy for doing anything they like. Their ability of using computer, gadget, internet is innate from birth, therefore, Gen Z be able to use the access fast and easy, so that they are reliable for science and technology.

2.         Love to Communicate

This characteristics of Gen Z is very different with the others. Gen Z like to communicate with all people, all ages. They like to tell about themselves, their hobby, their activity to other people. They are open personality and have a good communication skills. It makes Gen Z liked by people. But Nowadays, they expand to communicate, expression spontanitely in social media and sometimes no longer maintain the politeness of communicating. It must be controlled by adult.

3.         More Independent

Other Characteristics of Gen Z is More Independent. It’s very significant difference If we compare them with another Generation before. This characteristic is showed by A young Gen Z always make decision by themselves without asking opinion from others. Not only that, But Gen Z also choose to learning and growing up alone without help from others. It shows that Gen Z have high self confidence

4.         More Tolerant

Millenial Generation seems more tolerance and can accept various cultures in our country. Gen Z who were born at the end of 19th century begin to accept all the differences. They also can accept and honor to all people and the environment which difference with them.

5.         Full of ambitions

The last characteristics of Gen Z is Full of ambitions. They have the passionate ambition, carrier, self development and success that reflect the special character of Gen Z in the digital era.

This Generation is not quickly to satisfied, they always want to develop, chase all their dreams well.

Beside the positive characteristics that Gen Z have, They have the negative characters too. In fact, based on https://blog amartha.com there are 6 Negative Characteristics of Gen Z which influence their behaviour, such as :

1.         Too Ambitious

2.         Like Instant Things

3.         Tend to be lazy

4.         Like to compare

5.         Too free on social media, and

6.         More cool

Below are the influence of 6 negatives characters for the Gen Z’s behaviour.

The first is Too ambitious. The most of Gen Z have the passionate ambition for their life, but of course the positive ambition. However those positive ambitions can bring this generation into negative things if there is not well controlled.

The Second is Like Instant Things. One of the Gen Z’s character is like the instant things. It’s almost similar with the Milenial generations who like the instant and easy things to do. But this character is not good for them, because Life needs the process to reach the success.

The third is Tend to be lazy. Related with the character of Instant things, It makes them to hinder their desire to get the ambition or dreams because they don’t want to do the difficult things which need the long process. The laziness brings them to the negative things even get them depression.

The Forth is Like to compare. The people in this community are easier to get depression to live their life because by comparing of their own life is not in accordance with others.

The Fifth is Too free on Social Media. Gen Z becomes the group of people who very familiar with Social Media. This generation knows the sophisticated technology very well. They use social media for various needs. Sadly, they often use social media in unwise way, even too free. This matter to make Gen Z is being hated.

And The last negative character of Gen Z is More Cool. Human beings need to socialized because we are the social creatures who need one and another. But Gen Z is the generation who do not like to socialized. They prefer focus on themselves to socialized. So, In other words Gen Z like to look after themselves better than socialized.

If we are talking about Character of course we are talking about mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.

“According to Merriam Webster since 1828”, definition of Character is :

1.         One of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual

2.         The detectable expression of the action of a gene or group of genes.

According to Cambridge Dictionary Character Building is “Helping to make someone emotionally stronger, more independent, and better at dealing with problems”

Based on 6 negative characters that Gen Z has, It’s very important to Build the special Character for Gen Z.

Through Survey of “Gen Z social Media Behaviour 2021 By Gadis Magazine on April 2021 to 1.717 respondens. Social Media is one and the only Facility for them to express, to give their voice for the important issues and to change the world. Besides that, they can have two important behaviors, such as the high self confidence and hold on to the values they believe in.

With two behaviors they have, Gen Z feel more Active, Positive and Inovative and They can build the Special Character. It is Build The “Sweet” Character of them.

The sweet character means that Gen Z must have the Positive behaviour

The importance of build “Sweet” character can avoid the negative characters of Gen Z and make Gen Z have the good behavior of their life.

From all the characteristics of Gen Z above and Build the “Sweet Character” of Gen Z, we are as teachers and parents have to give the positive respons, support to control them and “Lead Them Free to Learn” as the theme of Indonesian National Education Day.

Thank You.

6 Mei 2022