In a recent interview with Comstock’s Magazine, Gen Z Expert and researcher Jason Dorsey highlighted how technology has groomed the youngest generation in ways we’ve never seen before.
“There’s this perception that millennials are ‘tech-savvy,’ but they’re really just ‘tech-dependent.’ Gen Z is truly tech-savvy,” says Jason Dorsey, co-founder, Gen Z keynote speaker, and lead researcher at the consulting firm The Center for Generational Kinetics. “They only know technology, and they don’t know any other way to do things.”
Defined by The Center for Generational Kinetics as those born since 1996, Gen-Zers already account for one quarter of the U.S. population and represent the entire pre-teen, teen, and traditional college age demographic. By 2020 they will make up 40 percent of all consumers, according to the magazine Comstock’s. Gen Z is also known by several other names including Centennials, Generation Z, post-Millennials, and iGen.
While Millennials pioneered the “second-screen experience,” Gen-Zers are more likely to use four or even five screens at the same time — laptop, TV, smartphone, tablet, Kindle. Remember when “mobile banking” was a hot new thing? “For Gen Z there is no other kind of banking; it’s just banking,” Dorsey says.
“For the first time in history, the youngest generation is driving behavior of the older generations. The 15-year-old is doing something before the 50-year-old,” says Dorsey whose TEDx talk on Gen Z has over 200,000 views. “Without question, it’s very safe to say that within the next five years, gen Z will be the major driver of all key trends.”
Now is the time for marketers, brand leaders, executives, managers, and influencers to pay attention to the difference that Gen Z brings as employees and customers as the generation is poised to impact every major market.
For more on this emerging generation, explore our original Gen Z research here! Join the conversation on Twitter at @JasonDorsey or @WhatTheGen and don’t forget to add your #generation!
