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The first "Gen Z" kids are starting to become teenagers (by many measures, anyway) so is it too early to think about how the world will stereotype their generation?
What traits do you think will characterize "Z'ers" and make them different from "Y'ers?" What traits do you see emerging in your own "Z" kids?
Here's my thoughts:
My experience is limited to my own kids (ages 13, 11 and 5) and their peers, but I am seeing a fairly big difference between my oldest and his friends vs the younger ones. For one, our once quiet neighborhood where the kids were all inside and/or on supervised "playdates" now has a whole herd of younger unsupervised kids running around just like things were when I was a kid. Kids seem to be most interested in nature, animals, exploring and doing physical stunts as well, and while they are great with computers they would rather play with friends in reality rather than online (unlike my oldest who only sees his friends at school but plays online with them almost every night.)
As most Z kids have X'er parents rather than Boomers, I think they are generally being raised under a different mentality which will lead them to be more independent, competetive and less entitled than the Y's.
Since they were raised immersed in fairly advanced technology they will wield it even better than the Y's, but I also think they will be more comfortable with being "unplugged" too... in other words better balanced between the virtual and the real than the truly tech-junky Y'ers.
I don't see them being though of as trouble makers like the Xers or young boomers though; they seem to be more "we" than "me" oriented.
Of course, it's a bit early to tell and parental hopes/biases might mess up the "calculations" but that's kinda what I'm seeing.
What about you? Feel free to tear my post up and/or add your own input!
I'm not sure what years are the cut-off for each of these generations, but I think the generations generally define themselves when they hit college age. It's too early to tell.
One problem they will probably have is their very high rate of early drug use -- the fact that so many of them grew up with a diagnosis of something that got them drugs. They are generally a generation that never knew discipline, but rather a pill of some mind-altering drug that let them sit in school too stoned to cause trouble for the teachers.
Geez talk about sampling bias! Anyway....generalizations based on age are meaningless. The only characteristics entire generations share are those that happen on a national and global scale (i.e. WWII, 9/11, economic struggles, etc.)
Their personality traits are less a function of what generation they are than parental influences, SES, etc.
Yes, maybe they should be called the "i" generation. They are all about iPhones, iPads, iPods. They aren't growing up with books and magazines, even the schools just hand them an iPad so they can play and text even while they're in class.
In my family, some of the nieces and nephews have been given phones with unlimited text messaging, and at one family get together, my dad commented how it was too bad the two cousins were sitting there on the picnic table back to back just texting away instead of talking to each other and everyone who was there.
It was pointed out to him that they were texting each other. Later you saw them side-by-side at the bonfire - still texting to the other, every now both laughing at the text one had just sent and the other had just received. Kids today will very often get fidgety if they haven't had their phone vibrate in a couple of minutes.
Yes, maybe they should be called the "i" generation. They are all about iPhones, iPads, iPods. They aren't growing up with books and magazines, even the schools just hand them an iPad so they can play and text even while they're in class.
In my family, some of the nieces and nephews have been given phones with unlimited text messaging, and at one family get together, my dad commented how it was too bad the two cousins were sitting there on the picnic table back to back just texting away instead of talking to each other and everyone who was there.
It was pointed out to him that they were texting each other. Later you saw them side-by-side at the bonfire - still texting to the other, every now both laughing at the text one had just sent and the other had just received. Kids today will very often get fidgety if they haven't had their phone vibrate in a couple of minutes.
My best guess is that they were gossiping about the rest of you. Texting allows gossip without the risk of being overheard.
Last edited by randomparent; 05-18-2013 at 04:14 PM..
I have always had something of a suspicion that generation-branding, so to speak, is simply an increasingly and more highly-advanced form of a specific type of social engineering...
Think about it: each generation has its own designated and "socially-approved" music. Each generation has its own unique set of wars and international conflicts. Yesterday's "Star Wars" is today's "Harry Potter" and "Twilight". Each new generation usually rejects the social conventions of the generation that preceded it...for example, Gen-Y largely rejected most of Gen-X music as uncool and unhip. Gen-Y and Gen-Z find it hard to believe and can't comprehend or even conceive that a large segment of Gen-X or the Boomer, etc. generations never had devices like the iPhone, iPad, iPod.
IMO, generation-branding is little more than a "divide and conquer", subliminal group-think tactic, when what people should really be doing and focusing on is taking the very best that each generation had to offer, and integrating them together, rather than using generations themselves as a tool of division...
[quote=Knight2009;29628796]I have always had something of a suspicion that generation-branding, so to speak, is simply an increasingly and more highly-advanced form of a specific type of social engineering...
QUOTE]
Advertising. Marketing. Pure and simple.
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