Gen Z: Redefining Success

Tech companies increasingly shape how we interact, learn, and even define ourselves. But now there is Gen Z: a generation that doesn’t just use these tools, but bends them in new ways. Their ways of learning and organizing are unlike those before them.

A recent report from Vice mapped out the trends shaping this generation. Gen Z sees life as a never-ending journey of exploration, discovery, and purpose-finding. They aren’t chasing a fixed “absolute.” Instead, they are constantly testing, reinventing themselves, and redefining success on their own terms. What they adopt, whether in how they learn, work, or consume music, soon ripples into older generations. They are not just participants in culture; they are shaping it and setting the pace.

The Flip Side: Stress and Struggle

The flip side of this is an enormous sense of stress, emptiness, and uncertainty.  The number of young people with mental issues is increasing enormously. The waiting lists at mental health institutions are huge. Although professional help is needed, mentorship, as a tool for social emotional development, where you can sound board with other people with relevant life experience, can meet approximately 80% of the needs. Especially if we start early. 

We can leverage the power and impact of social media to update mentorship and make social-emotional development scalable and affordable for everyone. As far as I’m concerned mentorship is not a ‘nice 2 have’ but a ‘must have’. Helping each other is one of the most meaningful and fulfilling things we can do.

The 7 Minutes Mentoring Revolution

Do you want to be a mentor? “Yeah, but I’m way too busy right now” is something we hear often.  Mentorship currently mainly takes the form that a mentor and mentee sit together on a regular basis.  People see such a conversation, including travel time and preparation, as a major investment. I am convinced and have the experience that mentorship can be done with a smaller investment of time. I call this ‘7 minutes mentoring’. Mentoring with short messages as is done on social media. Inspiration can be as small as a post or a comment on a post.

Mentorship for Life, Not Just Careers

Traditionally, mentorship has carried a corporate image. Large companies were the first to recognize its power, often using it mainly for career development. But mentorship is far too valuable to be limited to career advice alone. It can serve a broader group of people and address all kinds of life questions, especially those tied to our social and emotional development.

I know this personally. After my divorce, I longed for a mentor who could help me navigate the emotional rollercoaster that followed. And we hear the same need from students: many lack insight into how their choices will shape their lives, Short Doesn’t Mean Shallowfrom the financial consequences to the culture of the workplaces they enter.

Short Doesn’t Mean Shallow

Simone Weil once said, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” She was right. But does introducing a concept like 7 minutes mentoring diminish that value? Will something be lost if the time is shorter? Those are fair questions. Yet can we really measure the quality of attention by the clock?

Instead of one long, occasional conversation with a single mentor, imagine a network you can tap into in real time, mentors who are available exactly when you need them. In this model, there is always someone online, ready to listen and share. And beyond immediacy, a network brings another advantage: multiple perspectives. Rather than being limited to one viewpoint, you gain a richness of insights. As Harvard points out in ‘‘Why You Need Multiple Mentors’: this diversity of guidance is a powerful form of growth.

From Scrolling to Growing

On average, we spend 90 minutes a day on social media. If we were to use just 7 minutes of this to mentor someone, it would make a big difference. You can type about 240 words in 7 minutes. At the same time, you will also gain valuable insights in these 7 minutes. To mentor is to learn twice! This way of mentoring fits in modern society.

Does the concept of 7 minutes mentoring appeal to you? Do you want to accelerate your own personal development? Join us in the Gide-nuhs app and see how 7 minutes can change everything!