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Gen Z 1.0 and Gen Z 2.0

Eleven years ago, there was a generational split where people born between 1977 and 1983, the cusp between Gen X and Millennials, abandoned their generations and rebranded themselves as Xennials. In 2014, writers Sarah Stankorb and Jed Oelbaum referred to them as "a micro-generation that serves as a bridge between the disaffection of Gen X and the blithe optimism of Millennials,” they wrote in GOOD.

Now, writer Rachel Janfaza has proposed another split. She believes that Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) should be divided into halves: Gen Z 1.0 and Gen Z 2.0. Janfaza is an associate writer for CNN Politics in Washington, D.C., covering youth political culture and everything related to young voters in the U.S. Her theory is simple: the generation should be divided between those who graduated high school pre-COVID (Gen Z 1.0) and those who graduated after (Gen Z 2.0).

Janfaza shared her thoughts on X, highlighting the different attributes of each half-generation in terms of technology, social media, and politics.


What’s the difference between Gen Z 1.0 and Gen Z 2.0?

According to Janfaza, Gen Z 1.0 had flip phones before iPhones and grew up with Instagram but without TikTok. Politically, they were influenced by liberal political activism, which included the March for Our Lives, Climate Strikes, and Black Lives Matter Protests. The younger half of the generation, Gen Z 2.0, lived a different life heavily influenced by smartphones, TikTok, and the aftermath of the pandemic, in which a right-wing counter-culture developed.

The older members of Gen Z explained the split to their younger cohorts citing various factors:


How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect Gen Z?

There was universal agreement that the dividing line was between those who graduated high school pre- and post-COVID. Gen Zers who were still in elementary, middle, or high school during the pandemic suffered from a sharp increase in depression and anxiety. In the aftermath of the pandemic, 84% of schools agreed or strongly agreed that students’ behavioral development had been negatively impacted. This puts the dividing line between Gen Z 1.0 and 2.0 right around those born in 2003.


Some see the generational split as a time when online behavior jumped into hyper speed with young people gaining access to smartphones and TikTok.


It’s safe to say that the saddest members of Gen Z are those who graduated high school in 2020 and saw the senior year that they worked so hard to get to blow up in smoke. Many missed out on graduation ceremonies and proms and getting to give their school a proper send-off. They also entered their careers or college on very uneasy footing.


Janfaza’s Gen Z 1.0 versus 2.0 breakdown takes into effect a lot of significant technological, cultural, and political developments that helped shape a generation of people. However, Big Ellie's Single Braid on X may have found another, more critical division line between Gen Zers.

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Nicole Abate, a Registered Medical-Surgical Nurse living in New Mexico, starts her workday around 5:00 a.m. During her 20-minute drive to work, she gets to watch the sun rise over the Sandia Mountains as she sips her coffee.

"It's one of my favorite things to do," said Nurse Abate. "A lot of us need a little calm before the storm."

Nicole | Heroes Behind the Masks Presented by CeraVeyoutu.be

In March 2020, after a fairly quiet start to the year, Nurse Abate's unit became the official COVID unit for her hospital. "It went full force after that," she says. Abate was afraid, overwhelmed with uncertainty, never knowing what was next on the wild roller coaster in this new territory, "just when you think ...we know exactly what we're doing, boom, something else hits so you adapt… that's part of nursing too." Abate faced her responsibilities courageously and with grace, as she always does, making life a little better for patients and their families "Thank you for taking care of my father," reads one recent letter from a patient's family. "You were kind, attentive and strong and we are truly grateful."


Nurses are accustomed to losing patients—it's part of the job. The difference for Nurse Abate during the pandemic was watching her patients go through it alone. That's what hit her hardest and prompted her to bring an iPad into a patient's room so that the family could say their goodbyes via FaceTime before the patient passed away. "I don't think I have a greater honor than to be the person to hold someone's hand while they take their last breath," she says.

"Nursing can be a traumatic field to work in," says Wendy Mason, PhD, a faculty member in the School of Nursing at Purdue University Global. "Nurses are exposed to pain and suffering and trauma, and we are often traumatized and not even realize it. If we aren't caring for ourselves, we can't care for others."

Self-care is important for workers in every field, but especially for nurses, who spend their working hours serving the needs of others. A recent study found that self-care reduces stress, replenishes a nurse's capacity to provide compassion and empathy, and as a result, improves the overall quality of care. But nurses aren't always very good at making themselves a priority.

Nurse Abate says that because she wasn't taught the importance of self-care early on in life, learning how to put herself first has always been a struggle. "As I've grown older, I realized it's imperative," said Abate.

"I'm stressed until I finally walk in the door and my dogs come up and greet me … it's hard with COVID because you come home and it's all over the news and you just can't escape it," said Nurse Abate. "It's very hard work but it's the most rewarding work that I've ever done in my life."

Abate feels she's become more resilient over the past year and a half, finding other ways to ground herself like taking walks, reading, and visiting her parents from a safe distance. While she's managed to make the best of a terrible situation, she's looking forward to getting back to her normal self-care routines of monthly massages, going to the gym with friends, and antiquing. After all, even nurse heroes need a little downtime.

CeraVe® is a brand rooted in the medical community and committed to supporting healthcare professionals. As part of its commitment to nurses, CeraVe® is also a proud sponsor of the ANA Enterprise and their Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ initiative, a movement designed to transform the health of the nation by improving the health of the nation's 4.2 million registered nurses. Through the initiative, ANA is connecting and engaging with nurses to inspire them to take action in five key areas: activity, sleep, nutrition, quality of life and safety.

Additionally, over the past year, CeraVe® has donated more than 500,000 products to hospitals to help provide therapeutic skincare relief to healthcare workers and is continuing the product donation efforts. Nurses looking to engage with the brand and learn more about these initiatives can join the Shift Change: Nurse Essentials Facebook group, an online community hosted by CeraVe® where nurses come together for personal and professional empowerment.

To see more stories about nurse heroes, visit https://www.heroesbehindthemasks.com/.

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The global eradication of smallpox in 1980 is one of international public health's greatest successes. But in 1966, seven years after the World Health Organization announced a plan to rid the world of the disease, smallpox was still widespread. The culprits? A lack of funds, personnel and vaccine supply.

Meanwhile, outbreaks across South America, Africa, and Asia continued, as the highly contagious virus continued to kill three out of every 10 people who caught it, while leaving many survivors disfigured. It took a renewed commitment of resources from wealthy nations to fulfill the promise made in 1959.

Forty-one years later, although we face a different virus, the potential for vast destruction is just as great, and the challenges of funding, personnel and supply are still with us, along with last-mile distribution. Today, while 30% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, with numbers rising every day, there is an overwhelming gap between wealthy countries and the rest of the world. It's becoming evident that the impact on the countries getting left behind will eventually boomerang back to affect us all.

Photo by ismail mohamed - SoviLe on Unsplash

The international nonprofit CARE recently released a policy paper that lays out the case for U.S. investment in a worldwide vaccination campaign. Founded 75 years ago, CARE works in over 100 countries and reaches more than 90 million people around the world through multiple humanitarian aid programs. Of note is the organization's worldwide reputation for its unshakeable commitment to the dignity of people; they're known for working hand-in-hand with communities and hold themselves to a high standard of accountability.

"As we enter into our second year of living with COVID-19, it has become painfully clear that the safety of any person depends on the global community's ability to protect every person," says Michelle Nunn, CARE USA's president and CEO. "While wealthy nations have begun inoculating their populations, new devastatingly lethal variants of the virus continue to emerge in countries like India, South Africa and Brazil. If vaccinations don't effectively reach lower-income countries now, the long-term impact of COVID-19 will be catastrophic."


Nunn believes a comprehensive vaccination program needs to be sufficiently funded to not only acquire enough vaccines to inoculate people who may be missed otherwise, but also to ensure transportation, delivery, and administration of the vaccines. For every $1 in supply, $5 is required for delivery costs, she says.

"2021 finds us at a crossroads. One road leads from pandemic to endemic – and what some may see as 'acceptable apathy' where the lives of the vulnerable in low-income countries are deemed less valuable... "The other road is built on understanding the true cost of vaccines and the human cost of failing to deliver vaccines to the most vulnerable, and a joint commitment by all who walk it together to equity, equality, and human dignity. Our destination is a place where each of us is safe because all of us are safe," says Nunn.

The best interests of everyone on the planet are served by an investment in comprehensive global vaccination. For 75 years, CARE has been doing lifesaving work in the global community—and while the fight against Covid is far from over, the organization invites everyone to commemorate just how far we've come.

On Tuesday, May 11, CARE will host An Evening With CARE with Whoopi Goldberg and attended by former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter, as well as Angela Merkel, Iman, Jewel, Michelle Williams, Katherine McPhee-Foster, Betty Who and others, to mark the 75th anniversary of this amazing organization and take stock of the work that lies ahead. Please RSVP now for this can't-miss opportunity.

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Temwa Mzumara knows firsthand what it feels like to watch helplessly as a loved one fights to stay alive. In fact, experiencing that level of fear and vulnerability is what inspired her to become a nurse anesthetist. She wanted to be involved in the process of not only keeping critically ill people alive, but offering them peace in the midst of the unknown.

"I want to, in the minutes before taking the patient into surgery, develop a trusting and therapeutic relationship and help instill hope," said Mzumara. Especially now, with Covid restrictions, loved ones are unable to be at the side of a patient heading to surgery which makes the ability to understand and quiet her patients' fears such an important part of what she does.

Temwa | Heroes Behind the Masks presented by CeraVewww.youtube.com

Dedicated to making a difference in the lives of her patients, Nurse Mzumara is one of the four nurses featured in Heroes Behind the Masks, a digital content series by CeraVe® that honors nurses who go above and beyond to provide safe and quality care to their patients and communities.


When she isn't working in an official capacity at the hospital, Nurse Mzumara devotes her time to a local ministry known as SALT (Service And Love Together). While there are multiple arms of the organization, Mzumara works most closely with their Hospital Ministry. Pre-Covid, groups of hospital volunteers visited patients to lift their spirits with singing and encouragement. However, since that's on hold for now, they've found other ways to help meet the needs of the central Florida community—like focusing on the growing homeless population. SALT's Homeless Ministry has created trailers that provide the community with food, clothing, and access to showers, and laundry, all of which help those experiencing homelessness get back on their feet.

"My faith is what drives me to be the best person I can be and drives my passion in life to help people in need," said Mzumara. She says she truly loves people and tries to see the best in everyone she meets because you never know what someone else might be going through.

"When I am with my patients, I strive to bring them hope and healing...gaining that trust from them and being appreciated for what I do is invaluable. Nursing is more than just a job. It's a calling," said Mzumara.

Nurses like Mzumara are what inspired CeraVe® to launch the Heroes Behind the Masks campaign.

"While CeraVe® has long appreciated and supported the invaluable work of the medical community, their service and commitment to their communities has never been more profound or worthy of recognition," said Jaclyn Marrone, Vice President of Marketing for CeraVe®. "We're thankful to all nurses everywhere for their unparalleled selflessness and compassion."

Developed with dermatologists, CeraVe® is a brand rooted in the medical community and committed to supporting healthcare professionals. As part of its commitment to nurses, CeraVe® is also a proud sponsor of the ANA Enterprise and their Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ initiative, a movement designed to transform the health of the nation by improving the health of the nation's 4.2 million registered nurses. Through the initiative, ANA is connecting and engaging with nurses to inspire them to take action in five key areas: activity, sleep, nutrition, quality of life and safety.

Additionally, over the past year, CeraVe® has donated more than 500,000 products to hospitals to help provide therapeutic skincare relief to healthcare workers and is continuing the product donation efforts. Nurses looking to engage with the brand and learn more about these initiatives can join the Shift Change: Nurse Essentials Facebook group, an online community hosted by CeraVe® where nurses come together for personal and professional empowerment.

To see more stories about nurse heroes, visit https://www.heroesbehindthemasks.com/.