I’ll be upfront and say that as a millennial, I was a shithead in my 20s. I never put my best foot forward and my work ethic was questionable at best, especially when I found the job to be bullshit. I think this is common for every generation growing up, so the amount of Gen Z hate I see constantly is staggering. Everywhere you look it is Gen Z being berated for not caring about work and how tech illiterate they are… But honestly I don’t really see that at least in the White Gen Z men. They seem fine and not anymore phone-addicted than Millennials and Gen X’ers, and if they did have a “lacking” work ethic, I don’t really blame them since they are still so young and living in a damn clown world and being constantly reminded of how much of a clown world they live in.
I don’t see a group of failures, I see a group that has been failed by whatever vestiges of a society we have left, and everybody seems to be more interested in keeping them down than bothering to lend a hand in any meaningful way.
As you said, you, and everyone, was a shithead in your youth. You wouldn't appreciate or listen to any help if it was offered, as most of us didn't because we thought we knew better or were invincible. That's the river every boy must cross. The "my dad was right" moment when you stop resisting and finally let that helping hand actually help you before you fuck it up. And a lot of the current crop of boys won't be able to cross that because society has failed in so many ways that they can't naturally mature into such a mindset.
Millenials already showed how things like fatherlessness, porn addiction, broken gender relations, and the messy economy can leave boys listless and aimless for way longer than generations prior, and very few of those problems have improved in any meaningful way.
A lot of guys will rebel against it, and make their own way, because men are resilient and capable by nature. But that's only those who have the nature to be such, for the rest it'll be an uphill battle.