One thing I've noticed for Zoomers is that they are much more likely to not draw a distinction between politics and their personal lives. Millennials might have had their own political opinions and engage in activism but still were friends with conservatives or often took a "live and let live" approach especially during high school. However, Zoomers seem far more concerned with not just condemning racism or sexism in the abstract but using social media to personally denounce supposed bigotry. For example, at my old high school a student who had been posting redpill/MRA type content on social media was reported by other teenagers to the school. I think something like that would have been much less likely to occur when I was in school. I suspect Zoomers are much less likely to countenance friendships with those who have problematic opinions.
I think you overestimate how concerned with politics and the opinions of others Gen Z is. Maybe the politicization level is slightly heightened among our generation compared to previous generations when they were our age, but by and large, the main reason people use YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit etc. isn't (believe it or not) to share info on political candidates and "cancel" others, but to laugh, have fun, much more lighthearted stuff (at least this is what I and most people I know IRL do). If you watch more political stuff, you end up with more content geared to you, and if you pay attention to it more, you'll likely be more likely to notice it when people do talk about politics and their opinions, but I wouldn't take that level of politicization as being representative of the wider world. It isn't like we use opinions as a greeting or anything ("Hey man it's good to meet you, now tell me what do you think about Trump?"
).
Another important factor that's being underlooked is that this polarization probably has something to do with less and less people these days living in politically heterogeneous areas.
I am a high schooler who lives in an area which was once virtually entirely Democratic. My area, though, has taken a hard turn to the right over the last decade, bringing it to maybe 60-40 these days. In my area, while it once was much easier to have no friends who leaned Conservatively or to the Republicans, today that is not the case. If you decided to filter out people (who barring politics might be great matches) then you'd have to consistently ignore a very large segment of the population. This is something that is very difficult to do. Moreover, more exposure to people who are different and believe different things than you increases your tolerance level (this is generally true for all things). It makes you more likely to realize that there are great people and lunatics of all races, religions, political beliefs etc. out there.
I would argue that the last sentence that you mention especially (less and less people having countenance friendships with those of problematic opinions) has probably less to do with our generation being wildly different as a whole and more to do with less exposure to others and most people living in places that are becoming more skewed in favor of one political direction.
I've noticed alot of Zoomers doing activism stuff.
Could you elaborate?
Many things on TikTok.
At the age when Millennial boys were fixating on XTREME SPORTS and Millennial girls were fixating on "like, shopping", left wing Zoomers were claiming tickets to Trump's rally
without going to it in order to mess with the campaigns internal numbers.
Lots of Zoomers matched in the George Floyd Protests.
As a millennial, I get the strong sense that we were disenchanted by the "hope and change" of Obama not coming close to fruition. Between Obama's election & the rise of Bernie/Trump, my generation just never cared to follow politics outside of a few choice issues (Namely gay marriage). It's a little better now, but a lot of formative millennial years that could've been spent in the political/activist field were practically wasted. I'm sure the increasingly dour state of the economy & a college tuition played key roles too.
On the contrary. Gen Z feels much more enthused to organize & be outspoken. Whether it's at the Floyd March or for a local campaign, I'm seeing much more 18-21 year olds taking public & leadership initiative. I'm really amazed and a little jealous how much more politically active my younger cohorts have been. 10 years later, my old high school now has a Young Democrats club. I never would've envisioned even 5 of my peers wanting to take time away from lunch to discuss campaigns.
I still can't envision this
