Culture shapes who we are: our way of life, language, food, values, and the way we live together. Yet, the meaning of culture evolves with each generation. Today, Millennials and Gen Z view culture differently, but both remain deeply committed to their identity and community.
Millennials, born between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s, grew up during a time when the world was rapidly becoming interconnected but still rooted in strong traditions. For them, culture is something to be preserved and respected that is expressed through family customs, local languages, and traditional festivals. At the same time, Millennials embrace innovation, enjoying cultural fusions that blend global influences with their heritage. They see culture as both continuity and evolution: a way to innovate while staying grounded in the past.
Gen Z, those born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, came of age in an era defined by digital technology and global connectivity. They encounter multiple cultures daily through social media, online platforms, and affordable travel. Their cultural outlook is more fluid, dynamic, and personalised. To Gen Z, culture is not just inherited, it is chosen and self-defined. They freely adopt and remix cultural elements, creating identities that blend the local with the global. For them, culture should be expansive, inclusive, and free from restrictive or outdated norms.
Language highlights this difference clearly. Millennials often feel a responsibility to preserve their national language, equating language with culture. Gen Z, though attached to their mother tongues, readily code-switch especially into English online viewing language more as a tool of connection than a cultural boundary.
Food tells a similar story: while Millennials value traditional dishes and family recipes as a link to their roots, Gen Z embraces experimentation, seeing food as part of a broader cultural exchange. Religion and spirituality also diverge. Millennials tend to maintain the practices they inherited from family and community, whereas Gen Z is more experimental blending beliefs from multiple traditions or identifying as “spiritual but not religious.”
Despite these contrasts, both generations agree that culture must be meaningful and relevant to their lives. They value cultural plurality, reject discrimination, and seek harmony among diverse traditions. Their expressions of cultural pride, however, differ: Millennials sustain culture through celebrations, rituals, and support for local artists, while Gen Z showcases culture through social media, fashion, music, and activism, using new platforms to reinterpret tradition.
The contrast between Millennials and Gen Z reflects the accelerating pace of a digitally driven, globalised world. Each generation offers valuable lessons: Millennials remind us to honor and preserve heritage, while Gen Z encourages us to make culture more open and adaptive. Culture is not static, it bends and shifts with us. Listening to both generations reveals how culture bridges the past and the future, remaining the force that connects people in a world that never stands still.
