Gen Z is the worst at connecting with their grandparents, but building a better relationship could help fight loneliness How to start

Still, survey data collected in 2018 (well before the coronavirus outbreak) shows that there are places where this younger generation stands out as having a somewhat different outlook. Since most of them are still under 10 years old, it’s hard to make definite predictions about how this generation will turn out. This should come as no surprise considering that they grew up during the tech boom (the late 00s to 10s). Early on the researchers’ radar, Gen Z generation still remains somewhat a blind spot for employers, marketers and business leaders. To add some clarity, we analyzed various Gen Z statistics and dipped into Voice of Customer data to paint a better picture of this new global force and their impact cross-industry. All of the above made them somewhat more cautious when it comes to their future and, at the same time, more vocal and socially conscious in regards to corporate responsibility, environmental issues and politics overall.

That differs by generation, however, with only 18% of Gen Z saying they have a strong relationship with grandparents compared to 32% of millennials and 41% of Gen X. Similarly, the youngest Republicans stand out in their views on the role of government and the causes of climate change. Gen Z Republicans are much more likely than older generations of Republicans to desire an increased government role in solving problems.

TikTok currently rules trends, feelings, and culture for Gen Zers, who make up 60 percent of the app’s one billion-plus users. Gen Zers flock to corners of the internet where they can discuss their passions and interests with those who share them—from gaming to K-pop—bonding with both people they know in real life and ones they’ve only met online. This is particularly true of the youngest Americans eligible to vote — just 48% of Gen Z/millennials said the U.S. should publicly voice support, as compared to 63% of Gen X, 83% of baby boomers and 86% of the Silent/Greatest generation.

Your grandparents, parents, children, and children’s children all make up a distinct generation in relation to you. But each of them also belongs to a diffuse category of their peers, grouped together based on when they were born and what they experience during their lives. Social scientists have studied generations—in theory and more practically—for millennia. More recently, thinkers like August Comte have argued that generational change is the engine behind social change. More specifically, each generation entering into a new life stage at more or less the same time is the pulse that creates the history of a society. Some reports have noted members of Generation Z as more pragmatic and earlier to mature than those of previous generations, Gen Zers being more likely to graduate high school, more likely to go to college, and more cautious in their career choices.

• That has all changed now, as COVID-19 has reshaped the country’s social, political and economic landscape.
• The percentage of Gen Zers who consider saving for retirement to be a financial priority.
• We know it’s different from previous generations in some important ways, but similar in many ways to the Millennial generation that came before it.

However, what is clear is that any babies born right now definitely belong to Generation Glass, a nickname they’ve gotten thanks to how omnipresent technology has been in their formative years. Another huge factor in shaping these younger kids will be COVID-19—kids born at the start of the pandemic in 2020 will be turning 3 this year and will have no memories of life before quarantine. Only 45% of nonwhites approve of the job he’s doing, 21 points below where he was with the group in the Marist poll shortly after he was elected to office. Americans so far aren’t impressed with how the president has handled himself during this war — despite his strong show of public support for Israel coming as two-thirds report saying they want a strong show of public U.S. support. By a 49%-to-42% margin, nonwhites said U.S. support for Israel makes the region more dangerous. Whites were 17 points more likely compared to nonwhites to say U.S. support for Israel made the region safer.

Our approach to generational analysis has evolved to incorporate new considerations. Learn more about how we currently report on generations, and read tips for consuming generations research. Additionally, the 2022 Investopedia Financial Literacy Survey found that younger generations are factoring cryptocurrency into their retirement plans, so understanding cryptocurrency may be extremely important for children. In my own interactions with Gen Zers, I am much more likely than I used to be to listen closely to what they say, and to refrain from making a judgment about their ideas, values and behaviors based on an assumption that they are wrong and I am right. They often do things differently, have some different values and have some different ideas about the future than I do, and I have come to appreciate and trust that they often have a new and better approach. But the younger people are necessarily future-oriented, and as we all are increasingly coming to appreciate, the digital-age future is quite different from the industrial-age past.

They are more likely than any previous generation to have at least one parent who graduated college. They were found less likely to engage in underage drinking or to ride in cars without wearing a seat belt. This may be partly because of their being mostly raised by Generation X parents, who were largely concerned with childhood safety.

As Gen Zers grew up dur­ing 2000 to 2020, the share of white kids fell from 61% to 50%. Chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies grew more com­mon, too, jump­ing from 19% to 25% of the country’s child pop­u­la­tion gen z meaning dur­ing this time­frame. Like the Millennial generation, Generation Z is comfortable with new technologies because they have grown up in an Internet-connected learning environment from birth.

Digital natives often turn to the internet when looking for any kind of information, including news and reviews prior to making a purchase. They flit between sites, apps, and social media feeds, each one forming a different part of their online ecosystem. Generation Z considers itself more accepting and open-minded than any generation before it. Almost half of Gen Zs are minorities, compared to 22% of Baby Boomers, and the majority of Gen Z supports social movements such as Black Lives Matter, transgender rights, and climate change.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of Gen Z face a future more uncertain than many previous generations encountered. Specific major-scale events can also shape the outlook of a generation and are often reflected in how they’re named. The Lost Generation, for example, is named for the malaise and disillusionment experienced by people who lived through World War I. Later, the Greatest Generation was named for the heroic sacrifice many made during World War II. Their children, born soon after the war ended, are called baby boomers; their outlook, in turn, was colored by the Vietnam War and the social upheavals of the 1960s. More recently, millennials’ worldviews have been shaped by the September 11 attacks and the proliferation of the internet.

They communicate primarily through social media and texts, and spend as much time on their phones as older generations do watching television. Gen Alpha, which includes children born after 2010, is already set to be the most transformative generation yet. Alphas haven’t just grown up with technology—they’ve been completely immersed in it since birth. Early in their formative years, these children are comfortable speaking to voice assistants and swiping on smartphones. They don’t consider technologies to be tools used to help achieve tasks, but rather as deeply integrated parts of everyday life. As America’s demo­graph­ics con­tin­ue to shift, Gen Z will be the last gen­er­a­tion that is pre­dom­i­nant­ly white.

Gen Zers are much more likely than those in older generations to say they personally know someone who prefers to go by gender-neutral pronouns, with 35% saying so, compared with 25% of Millennials, 16% of Gen Xers, 12% of Boomers and just 7% of Silents. Gen Zers and Millennials are less likely than older generations to say that single women raising children on their own is a bad thing for society. Still, relatively few in both generations say this is a good thing for society, while about half say it doesn’t make much difference (roughly similar to the shares among older generations). Across a number of measures, Gen Zers and Millennials stand out from older generations in their views of family and societal change. Roughly half of Gen Zers (48%) and Millennials (47%) say gay and lesbian couples being allowed to marry is a good thing for our society. By comparison, only one-third of Gen Xers and about one-quarter of Boomers (27%) say this is a good thing.

There’s not much that can be said about them now, but it probably won’t be long before Gen Alpha are hitting the headlines as much as millennials are today. “The flip of this is younger people think older people are not adjusting to the digital world and to https://www.xcritical.in/ technology as quickly as they’d like them to, and are holding younger people back,” she explains. Researchers and popular media loosely use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years for defining Generation Z.