Forget Gen Y, What Will We See with Gen Z?
Cyndy Aleo-Carreira via Profy.Com shared by 4 people
This week has seen a great deal of nattering on about Generation Y: how the interact with the web, how they are going to solve all the world’s problems with no coherent business model, and what they expect out of social networks.
To be honest, I’m old. Very old. I’m Generation X. And when someone suggested that Generation X was defined by the Web 1.0 bubble when it comes to tech, I see much of the same “can’t happen to us” mentality in Gen Y that we had in the late 90s. Much like we did, Gen Y will have to learn their lessons the hard way, and they, too, will see another generation of users even more tech-savvy than they are come up behind. It’s with both pride and terror that I realize I’m raising members of that generation.
Gen Y has been fond of saying that they grew up with computers. While I wheedled my way into as much time cranking out line after line of BASIC on my school’s single TRS-80, Gen Y doesn’t remember a time without PCs everywhere they turned. But Gen Z takes it a step further: they have instant access to everything everywhere they turn.
My children are growing up in an era of hyper-connectivity. At my son’s kindergarten open house today, I saw at least one parent on a Blackberry while taking the tour of the room and the work that the children have done. If I need a phone number or directions, they immediately grab my phone for me. They don’t understand why we get phone books delivered once a year, because they’ve never seen one being used. All photos are digital and sent at the click of a button. When my son surprised us today by reading books aloud to us at school, he thought nothing of my quick video on my phone sent to his grandparents, who are out of town this week. My eight-year-old is already better at social networking than I am; she belongs to more social networks than I do, can move around a new web site much faster than I can, and when I asked her to get her dad for me at work one day, she went right to IM. She wants to know when she can have her own Twitter account (I have no idea WHY she wants one, since I’m sure her friends have no idea what it is), and already understands the allure of the closed beta, lording it over her friends if Mommy gets access to something cool with an invite.
Obviously, living in my household, the kids are probably being exposed to a little more than your average family (my oldest had her own blog when she was three), but even among her friends whose parents share a single email inbox (the thought of having only one inbox myself makes me want to hide under the covers until the nightmare passes), the kids are all hanging out on Webkinz and Disney Fairies and pestering their parents about how old they have to be to get a Facebook account. While I was horrified at the demo for Disney eXtreme Digital, I’m willing to bet that she already wins hands down in a multitasking contest with Louis Gray and his “Continuous Parallel Attention.” While most of us are still learning how to manage the firehose, these kids are growing up with it, lapping it up like a baby’s bottle. Something tells me they @won’t be taking the same time we do for the navel-gazing. They’ll just want to get on with it. And for all our use of Web 2.0, and analysis of it, to them it will be as outdated as a^ typewriter.
Image used with permission. All rights reserved.
Tags:Generation Z,Generation Y,Generation X,web 1.0,Web 10,web 2.0,web 20