Are you ready for Generation Z? They’re growin’ up fast

I had a generational epiphany about technology last weekend. It started with an urgent wake-up-call from Dad on Saturday morning; he needed help installing a new printer and also couldn’t figure out why he was staring at what turned out to be the BIOS set up screen on start-up. A couple of hours later, after breakfast with the folks and a half-hearted attempt at tech-support, I had successfully muddled through the printer installation, debunked the BIOS mess and prevented my dad from throwing his computer out the window. When I finally got back home to my own family, I glanced down at my phone to check my messages and discovered that a new app had materialized on my home screen. Hmmm?

Over the holidays my nine year old got her first hi-tech device, an iTouch. Since she’s too young to have an email identity and her own iTunes account, I set up her device up with my account and enabled the magical “cloud” to back up our apps and other data on both devices. And, oh yeah, I gave her the password with explicit “free version downloads only” instructions. What I didn’t realize was that whenever she downloaded an app, the cloud simultaneously dropped a copy of it on my home screen. By the way, any parent quickly realizes the advantages of this… ingenious.

When I asked her where she’d heard of this game, she said “it was in the free section of app store and had five stars.” Duh, Dad. After making sure she had only downloaded the free version, I launched it and tried to figure out how to play. Within seconds I was getting an over-the-shoulder tutorial. “No, Dad you have to hit the stars to get the power boost, and stop running into the front of the hills, it’s slowing you down,” she summarily instructed. Then the epiphany hit me: if my nine year old is already besting me in this frivolous game, how long will it be until she’s providing me with tech support? And, if she’s wise enough to browse the app store for the top rated games at nine, what kind of consumer will she be at 10-20 years?

Talking About My Kids’ Generation

My kids, and all those born since the early nineties, are referred to as Generation Z, also known as Generation I (Internet) or Generation “text”. They are born into a world where computers and mobile gadgets provide seemingly limitless access to communications, media and information via the World Wide Web. Being connected to their world, both locally and globally, through technology is all they know. It’s not the “cool new thing”, as getting a smartphone was for Gen X-ers like me, nor an indulgence of the modern age, as it appears to the Silent Generation (like my dad), it’s just a way of life — the new norm.

Many of these aging Generation Z-ers will be entering the working world within five years and starting families of their own. Stop for a second to think about what kind of consumer they will be. What will they expect from their suppliers? And how will suppliers respond to their demands? Time will tell and provide answers to these questions. What is clear from the current vantage point is that Generation Z is used to having unlimited access to information, and they’re used to sharing their experiences through social media channels. In a world where a five star ranking from a group of peers is perhaps the most effective form of advertising, is your company ready to compete?