Forget Gen Y, What Will We See with Gen Z?
by
on May 23, 2008,
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 as I could get 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.
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I’d show people my iPhone when I got it a year ago, and most would handle it like they’d break it if they weren’t careful. But my 6 year old grandson and my wife’s same age nephews took to it instantly; snapping pics, watching the skateboarding dog on Youtube, etc. Impressed the heck out of me.
I guess it must have something to do with the natural curiosity and abundant brain plasticity of kids that age. It does make you wonder where they’ll wind up, though.
I do believe I’m already starting to develop a fear of this happening. I have a cousin in the 7th grade who’s had a cellphone since he was in the 5th grade. He also has a Myspace page (don’t ask), and both shocks and amazes me. I wasn’t on Myspace until my 10th grade year or somewhere around that time. I think he may know more about Myspace than I do and that’s a problem for me.
@tommyl Isn’t it downright scary? We take my kids into the Apple Store and they plop right down and fire stuff up. I regularly log into my email and find things my daughter has sent me from some kid-geared social network she belongs to. My oldest has had her own laptop for going on three years now (she got it the year we homeschooled her), and the younger ones want to know why THEY don’t have their own laptop. The second they can spell, they are off and running.
@Corvida You should be! My daughter already needs a password manager for her online accounts, and the older she gets, the more she wants to do online. Kids are sponges, and the are soaking up the Web.
Who’s navel gazing? I think that’s a uniquely Web 2.0 “I want to be meta!” meta-conversation. Web 1.0 and Gen X built eBay, Amazon, Google, etc. What has Gen Y built? Soft and fluffy Web 2.0 “social networking” like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. What do those have in common? Well, they don’t make any money, for one; they don’t work or are slow half the time, for another; and they will likely all fail, leaving nothing but echoes in their wake. Gen Y, let’s be honest here: You’re building apps to make it easier to find people to drink and hook up with. Calling it anything else is lying to yourself.
What else should we expect from a generation of excess, growing up in the longest sustained period of economic growth in US history? Gen Z will know what it’s like to eat rice and beans or ramen because you have to. They’ll know what tough times look like and, hopefully, they’ll focus on something more substantive than conversations about conversations on FriendFeed (and seriously, you’re in danger of *poof*ing out of existence up your own asses there).
@Grendel Gen X also created the 1.0 bubble, crashed the hell out of it, and many have either left the start-up culture for less green but more stable pastures, or are desperately trying to grab the brass ring, no matter what it takes. Gen Y has managed to make something of Javascript, and AJAX is a helluva lot prettier than the old DHTML stuff I was cranking out back in the late 90s. There IS value here, but there’s a lot of chaff to separate out.
I have to keep up with my kids. Our kids are technology wise. Yours are too. And I hav learned the internet so I know what is going on. I am not out of the loop. I am from the old school. I just learned the computer 5 years ago. And I will continue to keep up with technology. You will not leave me behind. I have to keep up with my kids.And I think that is a good thing.