Nowhere is generational differences more evident than Bucket Listing. While Gen X and Millennials planned, Gen Z wants it all, now.
Gen Z has changed life’s check boxing forever. Bucket lists used to be blueprints for retirement or empty nesters who wanted to go and cruise the world or just renovate their homes in their sunset years.
It was a list of ideals that Generation X and predecessors have that confined them to life’s waiting room, waiting for ‘the day’. The right time and place to have some curated adventure.
Now, it’s all turned on its head with Gen Z.
Travel reigns supreme, but differently, it’s about swapping a visit to the pyramids for a night of tenting on the ice, watching the northern lights.
Getting the corner office promotion now means less than going to a mental health workshop in the middle of nowhere.
Living life to the fullest and the bucket list that maps it have changed fundamentally as a new generation has rewritten the rules of what it means to be alive.
Pack Bags and Travel
A McKinsey study found that Gen Z treat travel as a need, not a luxury, with more than two-thirds of Genz Z preferring to spend on experiences over possessions.
For Gen X, travel is something to be earned or squeezed in between responsibilities of adulting. Millennials, on the other hand, are sandwiched in between and love meaningful breaks, at some point.
Gen Z wants it all, now, and will gladly ditch a corporate job for an opportunity to go backpacking in Thailand while teaching English to pay for the bills.
Forget brochures. TikTok rules
Online companies Thrillist and Vox Media’s 2024 travel survey revealed that Gen Z’s pick destinations based on how viral they appear on social media.
A trending video can turn a sleepy coastal town into the next bucket-list hotspot overnight. On the other hand, Gen X still rely on guidebooks, travel agents and the good old internet for research.
Millennials hover somewhere between hashtags and what Gen X does.
There’s ethics in them bones
Sustainability is built into almost every aspect of Gentz’s decision-making process.
A report in Tourism Management from researchers Taylor and Francis in 2025 found that they prioritise eco-lodges, volunteering and low-impact travel.
Millennials, while also somewhat eco-conscious, are still creatures of comfort. The difference is thus: Gen X would love to spend a night in a cave, and along with Millennials, would enjoy the experience of it comes with aircon and Netflix.
Gen Z cares about the cave and would rather make a fire by rubbing sticks together and admire rock art than flick a remote.
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The long hard search for purpose
Gen X and Millennials may view a relentless search for purpose somewhat like a dog chasing its tail. But Deloitte’s 2025 GenZ and Millennial Survey suggested that Gen Z laces their bucket lists with purpose.
Mentoring and digital detoxes are now bucket-list checkboxes. Forget about bonds, wills and insurance. Those mean little to a generation that wants to live in the why, not when and what if.
Sommer nou, bro’
Planning is for plant life. Unlike any other generation before them, Gen Z does not like to plan much.
There’s more fun in the here and now. Quick deals and spur-of-the-moment decisions to head out on a road trip or fly to Bali are more in line with their thinking.
Booking.com’s 2024 global survey found that Gen Z travellers often plan less than a week in advance.
Edits all the way, all the time
Gen X makes a bucket list, shelves it, and perhaps edits it every now and then as life’s oopsies and happies nudge them older.
Gen Z, on the other hand, loves making changes to their lists all the time. There’s no waiting for what could be one day; it’s one day when today or tomorrow would do.
Gen Z has made the bucket list ideal a drive-through, instant satisfaction, opposite to a Gen X and Millennial long-term goal.
EY’s Global Generation Report in 2025 noted the difference and said it reflects a life lived in motion rather than milestones.
