The drumbeat of criticism directed at Generation Z insists that something is wrong with them. As this cohort between the ages of 14 and 29 comes of age, they are said to be distinguishing themselves from other generations with their comparative mediocrity and self-reported emptiness.

Employers report that Gen Z struggles not only with basic intellectual skills like focusing, remembering, and reflecting on ideas, but also with basic social skills like introducing themselves, listening and responding, and empathizing with others. Older colleagues complain that they are humorless, superficial, and are so shortsighted that they routinely blow their tiny salaries on food delivery services. These qualities have even come together, their critics quip, to create the much maligned “Gen Z stare,” a slack-jawed, dead-eyed countenance that supposedly marks members of this age group.

In fairness to Gen Z, these deficiencies—if true—are not altogether their fault. For many of this cohort, parents and teachers unwittingly sapped their potential early on by handing them highly addictive devices that would keep them quiet and compliant for much of the day. Unless their parents were exceptionally disciplined and resisted these shortcuts, virtues like patience, curiosity, and circumspection that normally develop during childhood were not given sufficient opportunity to take root.  

To make things worse, during their most formative years, the world forced Gen Z to stay in their rooms to “protect” them (or, more probably, their elders) from a disease that ended up posing little threat to their health. At a time when they should have been pursuing hobbies, working their first jobs, cultivating long-term relationships, and making plans for their futures, they were instead relegated to their bedrooms to languish in front of the same screens that already had consumed so much of their existence.

Now, Zoomers are facing yet another obstacle to success as they struggle finding remunerative work. As writer Juliana Frieman explained in a recent essay, many employers are refusing to take on younger workers: “Entry-level positions now demand mid-career competence, while offering entry-level pay and security.” This situation prevents many of the most talented and competent members from Gen Z from even gaining a foothold in a career path.

This is to say nothing of systemic discrimination against white men that failed screenwriter Jacob Savage detailed in his recent, harrowing essay in Compact magazine, “The Lost Generation.” Although the generation Savage meant to discuss there is the millennials (ages 30 to 44), the description of their experience applies just as much, if not more, to Gen Z. While the world blocked millennial white men from career advancement, it has effectively shut out white male Zoomers from even getting started.

If some Zoomers somehow make it past these barriers, they will still struggle to find safe and affordable housing in most markets. As I noted in an essay in The Federalist two years ago, finding a house or even renting a decent apartment has become so prohibitively expensive in some areas, that one must be a millionaire or the child of millionaires to move out and live independently.

In response to all this, older generations tend to blame the Zoomers for their supposed failure to launch. Speaking from their own experience—divorced from today’s realities—the Boomers (ages 62 to 79) will insist that today’s young adults just need to work harder and show a little more initiative. If Gen Xers (ages 45-61) are too busy and disinterested to speak out, my own generation, the Millennials, are too self-absorbed and immature to be of much use. (Mark Bauerlein devoted two books to Millennials, fittingly titled The Dumbest Generation and The Dumbest Generation Grows Up which I reviewed here.)

Nothing about this situation is remotely fair. As my friend and fellow teacher Jeremy Adams described in his book Hollowed Out (which I review here), Gen Z grew up in a materially rich, yet spiritually poor environment. The fundamentals of meaning and purpose were never really passed on to this generation. Well before Jonathan Haidt detailed the disturbing levels of angst and nihilism creeping into the Zoomer psyche in The Anxious Generation, Adams saw this firsthand in his classroom. Along with a disturbing lack of the usual knowledge and skills needed to help people become competent, responsible adults, Adams noted a lack of the necessary inspiration and support to make something of themselves.

Ironically enough, so much of current Gen Z malaise and the collective response to it was captured in the classic novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy over a century ago. The novel’s protagonist Jude Fawley is abandoned by his parents and grows up in obscurity with his elderly aunt, but he nevertheless aspires to become a great scholar. Sadly, everything and everyone in his world works against him: teachers and relatives refuse to help him, employers exploit and shortchange him, neighbors accuse and condemn him, and his wife and children place intolerable burdens on him.

The reader can only wonder what would have happened if even one person supported Jude on his journey. Instead, everyone in his life blames him for his failures and feels entitled to judge him.

If one merely adds the prevalence of digital technology and internet memes, the great majority of struggling Zoomers bear a striking resemblance to Jude. Perhaps they once had dreams, but circumstances prevented their fulfillment. Meanwhile, the older generations can only sit on the sidelines and blame them for things largely beyond their control. And now, as they toil away in fruitless obscurity, we openly wonder why they won’t marry, have kids, and pay taxes.

This low regard for Gen Z needs to change. Handicapped as they are by substandard education and upbringing, they need more tangible guidance and assistance as adults. Not only does this mean hiring and training them, but it also means including them in the national discourse, hosting gatherings for them, and actively bringing them into the community. They cannot continue to be left to their own devices indefinitely, standing apart from the rest of the world. It is killing them.

Of course, this will require a great effort on the part of older generations and will often mean tolerating behavior we find irritating and ignorance we find shocking. They will not always be articulate in their attempts to explain themselves. And at the beginning, prolonged interactions will certainly feel more like work than pleasure. But, over time, the Zoomers’ latent humanity will gradually blossom, and they will become what they were always meant to be. They may even have something important to teach us—as I submit they do—in what they’ve been denied. I’ve seen this time and again in my own experience teaching high school English, and it continues to give me profound joy and hope.

It is never too late to reach out to the youth in our midst. Gen Z and the country can be saved. We should heed the lessons of Jude the Obscure and finally give these young adults the chance they never actually had.