This chapter critically interrogates the concept of Generation Z, arguing that it functions less as an empirical category than as a socio-technical and symbolic construct shaped by media infrastructures, institutional agendas, and market logics. Rather than treating the cohort as a homogenous entity, the chapter foregrounds the structural inequalities, particularly those linked to class, gender, race, geography, and digital access, that fracture any coherent narrative of youth identity. Drawing on recent Portuguese survey data on cultural practices, it illustrates how access to digital infrastructure and media literacy remains deeply stratified, undermining generalisations of a universally connected and technologically fluent generation. The analysis challenges essentialist and deterministic accounts of generational identity, exposing how algorithmic profiling and generational branding reinforce normative scripts while erasing lived complexity. In response, the chapter calls for a more grounded and critical approach to youth research that values concrete data, recognises differences within the generation, and avoids treating generational labels as fixed truths. Generation Z is reframed not as a demographic given but as a contested terrain of meaning and representation.

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• Sociologia - Ciências Sociais
• Ciências da Comunicação - Ciências Sociais