Much has been made about how millennials and Gen Z are different — or not — from their Baby Boomer elders, and what that means for business and society.
To some, the difference is glaring. Soft and dewy-eyed millennials, it was said, really do see the world in an entirely new way.
To others, not so much. Young people today (always loved that phrase) are just that, young now, with predictably fresh ideals that will, soon enough, age with them. In short — this narrative goes — younger generations of 2019 aren’t different from any other younger generation.
So which is it? Are the younger generations today really different, or is that just what people always say?
Of course there’s something to the latter point, but having cogitated about this quite a bit, I think we need to recognize that there really is something unusual about today’s younger generations.
If you buy that argument, there are huge implications here. But first let me explain why I think this is the case.
The first question to ask is, have there been historical or societal developments over the past few decades that might cause younger generations to be different? I would argue yes. After the tumult of the 1960s (more that later), not all that much changed in the world in the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s. But then, significant changes came, right as millennials were coming of age.
One of the first and biggest of those shifts was the Digital Revolution. And that —technology — is the most important reason why today's young people are unlike the old. Obvious yes, but there’s much more to this than you might think. Each succeeding generation is now increasingly digital, and that change is accelerating. A 6-year-old child today has as much digital knowledge and expertise as a 60-year old. Because of that, they say, Gen Zers have an eight-second attention span. Who knows if that’s really true, but it’s apocryphal enough.
Millennials and Gen Zers are used to conducting life through their cellphones, says Denise Dahlhoff, senior researcher for consumer research at The Conference Board. “The concept of having access to lots of info 24/7 shapes their behavior and their expectations. Also the idea of having a voice through social media that can be amplified throughout the world.”
Let’s face it: The import and effect of all that is unknown, incipient, and can’t be overstated.
A personal anecdote exemplifying differences: When I began in the news business in 1985, the exchange of information from my bosses to me was about 98% from them and 2% from me back to them. The editors told me everything about writing, reporting, interviewing, etc., on the one hand. On the other hand, a few editors would ask me which bars were cool now. That’s about it.
Today, I would say that ratio has swung to somewhere around 50%-50%. Yes, people like me are now the ones imparting best practices to young reporters. But I am constantly peppering them with questions about digital tools, analytics — never mind help with devices.
All of this is shifting the balance of power at work — and in our economy writ large. Think about Silicon Valley and the new corporate juggernauts that hold such sway over our economy. The youth-power of Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Facebook (FB), for example, is stunning and unprecedented. Unencumbered by legacy pre-digital thinking, those companies have almost overnight achieved positions of global dominance, which by the way — no small point here — would probably be best served by some older-think.