By Emily Schopfer
NEW JERSEY – Every generation faces its challenges. Baby Boomers lived through the Vietnam War and Cold War. Generation X was hit hard by the 2008 economic crash and Great Recession that followed. And Millennials have battled rising housing costs most of their adult lives.
But these generations share one thing: they lived in a world before Sept. 11, 2001.
The oldest members of Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, were barely in kindergarten when 9/11 happened. Most have never known a political or social environment not shaped by the attacks. The War on Terror, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, mass surveillance, even Islamophobia, all became normalized after Sept. 11, 2001.
Many Gen Zers are now young adults who must reckon with the painful reality that, even though they learned about the events through history lessons, the aftermath of the attacks impacts their day-to-day lives, whether they realize it or not.
History and Reality
Most Gen Zers born after Sept. 11 seem to view the day as a historical event. For those born in the few years before 9/11, feelings are divided. If 9/11 impacted them personally – through the loss of a family member or friend – they tend to view the day as a lived experience; others still see the day through a historical lens, even though they technically lived through it.
“I was 3 years old, and it was my first day of preschool. We were all picked up early. I remember there being a lot of chaos,” recalled Christina B., a 28-year-old from Monmouth County. “I consider it a lived experience. Even though I was very young and didn’t understand what was happening at the time, I remember faculty and parents screaming, trying to get in touch with their loved ones.”
Megan D. is also 28 years old and grew up in the tri-state area. She lived in Monmouth County during her teen years. Although she was born before 9/11, like Christina, and personally knows someone who lost two loved ones in the attacks, she views the day as a historical event. She only learned specifics about 9/11 years after the fact. “I was too young, and my mom didn’t want us to hear all the details if she could prevent it,” Megan said.
Cara D’Agostino, a 25-year-old Monmouth County native and public school teacher, views the day as a historical event because of the aftermath. Since 9/11, “many things have changed in the United States,” she said. She learned about these changes through her parents’ perspective, “such as how traveling has changed, (their) increased anxiety of travel safety, school safety.”
‘Hyperaware’ and Anxious
Cara is not alone in feeling increased anxiety.
“I am always nervous to visit the city – and I live one hour away,” said Erin Yetman Kelly, a Monmouth County resident who sits on the cusp of Gen Z at age 30. “I feel nervous (about) any large event that I am attending.”
The American Psychological Association reported that, in a 2018 study, 55% of Gen Z identified the current political climate as a source of stress. The timing of this study is significant because it was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have influenced results.
Out of those surveyed in 2018, 68% said they feel very or somewhat significantly stressed about the nation’s future, and 66% did not believe the nation is moving toward strength.
Growing up post-9/11 has “made me very, very hyperaware of my surroundings,” Erin said. Many of the Gen Zers who spoke to The Two River Times for this article felt the same about the threat of large-scale attacks and terrorism in their daily lives. “I’ve always been very hyperaware that something like 9/11 could happen again,” Christina said.
Cara said she feels that both the heightened awareness of their surroundings and their anxiety happen subconsciously for Gen Zers. “I do believe since 9/11, even though we have more laws on travel, there has been an increase of violence across the country that has affected everyone. Since schools always talk about it, there is a subconscious anxiety about more attacks happening elsewhere,” she said.
Emotional Contradiction
A September 2021 article in The Daily Eastern News, the student newspaper of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois, noted that every Sept. 11, members of Gen Z are “trying to process what we were taught about a national tragedy. However, through this yearly process, Gen Z slowly became desensitized” to the actual events.
“I have grown up (surrounded) by hate and fear that it’s almost numbing,” said Madyson Lagotta, a 24-year-old Monmouth County resident. “From cyberattacks and data breaches to general Islamophobia because of 9/11, it’s like this isn’t anything new; it’s all I know.”
It may not seem that feelings of anxiety and hyperawareness can coexist with desensitization, but these are all common trauma responses, experts say. “The symptoms of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) tend to be varied and complex,” according to BetterHelp, a popular virtual therapy platform.
When the weight of feelings becomes too much, dissociation, or the disconnect from one’s emotions or feelings, is a common strategy for surviving traumatic experiences.
Studies conducted in New York after the attacks suggest PTSD is the most common health impact of 9/11, according to nyc.gov. Although those who were directly exposed to the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks displayed the highest risk of developing long-term psychological problems, those who were repeatedly exposed to them through television or newspaper reports were also at risk. Up to 20% of adults directly exposed to the disaster or injured in the attack reported PTSD symptoms five to six years after the attack, according to nj.gov, about four times the rate of the general population.
Gen Z was routinely exposed to the attacks on television, in news articles and during history lessons. It is possible that growing up in the aftermath of Sept. 11 has led to a delayed trauma response for millions of young adults.
NYC Memorial & Museum
Healing this trauma will be a long and complex journey for many in their 20s, and it has already started to bleed into younger generations.
“As a public school teacher, I have noticed there is a disconnect with students as they may grow up with the memorial, but it is not as talked about,” Cara said.
One way to help bridge this disconnect could be a focus on understanding 9/11 rather than just memorizing the facts about the day. Visiting monuments and museums or participating in memorial events can help young people gain a deeper connection and understanding than if they only read about it in a textbook.
“Go and get all the facts,” said William “Bill” Kuzmin, a 51-year-old Tinton Falls resident who will serve as lead runner in the seven-day-long Great American Relay, a 9/11 tribute run beginning Sept. 10. “But facts only go so far.”
“We have an entire generation now who weren’t even born when those events took place. People in their 20s who never saw the towers against the New York City skyline. Those of us who lived through that time have a responsibility to ensure the events are not forgotten,” Kuzmin said. This responsibility is less about teaching the facts or history, and “more so the messages that came out of 9/11.”
The biggest message, he said, is to honor the heroes of 9/11 and tell their stories. These heroes were ordinary, everyday people who were faced with hopeless situations and chose to fight, he said. Learning those stories and participating in events like the Great American Relay are what can make 9/11 a lived experience for younger generations, Kuzmin said.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City “helps make 9/11 tangible by placing visitors in the physical location where the attacks occurred and surrounding them with artifacts, photographs, oral histories, personal testimony and the stories of the people who experienced the attacks firsthand,” said a museum spokesperson. “Its exhibitions explore not only what happened on September 11, 2001, but also the aftermath and the ongoing global repercussions of the attacks.”
The outdoor memorial opened on the 10th anniversary of the attacks in 2011, and the museum May 21, 2014. Since then, the museum has seen more than 10 million visitors from all 50 states and more than 170 countries, the spokesperson said. But even with this diversity, “Visitors under 30 often view the 9/11 Memorial and Museum through the lens of history rather than personal memory. Older visitors frequently feel direct emotional grief from recalling where they were that day. Younger people process the site as an educational space about a historical event that happened before they fully understood the world,” the spokesperson said.
For those with no personal memory of 9/11, the museum’s educational programs are particularly focused on connecting history to individual experiences. The museum offers on-site and virtual field trips for grades 3 through 12, which include age-appropriate programs led by the museum’s education staff. “In 2025, the museum also announced expanded free field trips for students in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, with the goal of making 9/11 education more accessible,” the spokesperson said, adding that such school trips are a significant part of the museum’s educational work.
These trips expand on history to reach deeper and teach about “the individuals affected, and consider the attacks’ ongoing significance. Programs use age-appropriate materials and focus not only on the events themselves, but also on themes including courage, heroism, resilience, empathy and civic responsibility.”
The museum’s educational focus has become even more important as the number of Americans who did not experience 9/11 firsthand grows. The spokesperson said the museum’s mission is to educate a new generation, inspiring them through stories of compassion, resilience and service.
The Two River Times asked members of Generation Z to complete an online survey about the impact of 9/11 and did not require them to include their last names.
The article originally appeared in the September 3 – 9, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
