By Carson Carpenter |
As an 18-year-old student graduating from Arizona State University this May, I constantly think about what is next. Many people in Gen-Z are often told, “After school, you need to find a good paying job” or “You should go to graduate school.” But I find it sad that there are so few people telling Gen-Z to “raise a young family and provide for them any way that you can.”
Generation Z has the moniker of being the social media generation. Because of that, many tend to think that the majority of my generation is made up of a bunch of degenerates. But the reality is quite the opposite.
Generation Z has a very high percentage of individuals who want to enhance their lives by placing family at the center. Vice Media Group reported, “73% [of Gen-Z] say that becoming a parent enhances who you already are as a person.” This is significant because it shows that Gen-Z recognizes the inherent value of starting and sustaining a family.
The birth rate in America has been declining for some time now, and births out of wedlock are at an all-time high. Many often wonder what has gone wrong in America for this to happen. The truth is that the deconstruction of the nuclear family unit and a growing lack of faith have played a significant role. But despite all this, there is optimism. Between 2010 and 2020, births out of wedlock did not increase for the first time since the 1930s. Between 2020 and 2030, there are reasonable projections that this number will decrease for the first time. This can be attributed to Generation Z starting families and reverting to traditional values.
This brings me to the 2024 election. There is so much on the line for younger voters this November, and many of them will vote for candidates who will focus on the economy and homeland security. These hot-button issues directly affect the ability and environment to have a family. Many do not buy the claim that “their vote doesn’t count” because they have seen how the ability to start and keep a family has been much more difficult under the Biden administration’s policies.
Another important issue for Gen-Z is the value of faith in family life, and recent research backs this up, showing a resurgence in religious faith among Gen-Z. After the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health issues were at an all-time high, especially within my generation, and the return to normal life after crippling lockdown policies was extremely difficult for many. Due to this, Gen-Z began to wake up to faith and become believers. Of course, this is not a new concept. After the Black Death that crippled Europe, many people thought of religion in new ways, which eventually led to Protestantism and other forms of Christianity. Before COVID-19, faith started to decline in the United States, and many people were leaving it for atheism. But now that the pandemic is over and we move into the mid-2020s, we may be in the early stages of a religious revival that could prove to be similar to medieval Europe.
Generation Z has been shaped by a unique time period. We’ve seen family and religious values fall to dramatically low levels, and we’re starting to see what that can do to a society. When Rome and Greece abandoned these values, their empires fell into ruin. Now, Generation Z has the opportunity to keep us from this same fate by resurrecting this country to focus on family and faith once again.
Carson Carpenter is an Arizona State University student majoring in Political Science. He is the President of The College Republicans at ASU and is the National Committeeman to Arizona for The College Republicans of America. He has also interned for Reps. Gosar and Crane.
