Generation Z seems little comfortable with certain daily tasks. One of them, however trivial and necessary appears too dangerous to them to accomplish it themselves.
Would generation Z be little resourceful? The British automotive brand Halfords carried out a study, in December 2024, on these young people born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s. The study revealed that on the 2012 people interviewed, who were all aged 18 to 27, most of them Tend more to delegate everyday tasks: small DIY, house maintenance, car … This generation would spend an average of 1550 euros per year to let professionals help them with them, while generation X (people Born between 1965 and 1979) would be limited to 460 euros.
22% of these young adults are also counting on their parents. Part of these live, in fact, again at the family home. According to a study published in 2020 by Eurostat, the British leave the family home on average at 24.7 years old, an average of a year greater than that French.
These data may surprise in the digital age where many tutorials are available to learn to perform such tasks. Perhaps, precisely, access to technology has removed manual capabilities. This trend has a name: the GOTDIT (“Getting Others to Fo it”, ie “let others do it”).
Among these small tasks, 21% do not dare to change a bulb and prefer to call a professional: they consider this operation “too dangerous” for several reasons. A quarter believes that the bulbs are too hot and that they may burn. One in five young people from generation Z fears to have to get on a scale. Two thirds simply prefer to avoid anything that is “in connection with electricity problems” for fear of electrocution.
11% of them even call to hang a table or a photo frame on the wall. One of the explanations may be in the lack of knowledge on the use of tools: 53.% were unable to identify a jack among images of five elements and 30% could not spot the flat -headed screwdriver.
Young people are not more reassured about everything about the car: 44% said they would need someone to change their wipers and to re-inflate a tire, tasks, which are not quick and which does not ask that few skills. Andy Turbefield, an automotive expert at Halfords, concluded: “The results very clearly show that the ability to perform elementary and practical tasks is lost among the young generations”. A phenomenon that could then increase in alpha and beta generations.