iGeneration
I’ve been reading Cal Newport’s excellent Digital Minimalism, which is about reducing and tailoring your use of technology to make it serve your values. Newport cites this Atlantic article which details the alarming rates of smartphone usage the generation known as Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2012) is logging; an average of nine hours each day on their phones! This includes apps like Snapchat, streaming YouTube videos, texting, or basically anything else we use our phones for.
This information got me thinking about the generation following me, and learning more about them.
This weekend’s links relate to imagining the realities on the horizon with our next generation of adults:
According to Business Insider, they are nearly half minorities and consider themselves to be the most open-minded generation. This article gives a great overview of their defining characteristics and how they differ from millennials, other than not remembering a time before the internet.
They are already making changes in the restaurant industry. Relatedly, the Frappuccino as a rite of passage; coffee certainly was for me!
The account of a teenager’s 2014 suicide, encouraged by his girlfriend, made national news when she was charged in his death. HBO has recently made a documentary detailing the tragedy. Events like this bring into question whether ubiquitous technology erodes our humanity a little more, the longer we engage with it.
The once-fringe world of E-sports is becoming ever more mainstream, as outlined here and here.
Finally, it will be interesting to see what the soda industry looks like in about twenty years. This article polls Gen Z’s as only drinking soda 13% of the time, preferring healthier beverages. Couple with this longread on why ‘New Coke’ has failed spectacularly.
While it is impossible to know any about an individual based on research of millions of people, I find it fascinating to think about the role technology will play in our lives going forward! I anticipate smartphones will take up less of our time as we adjust to them and start to see an impact on our leisure time and quality of life.
Currently Reading: The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
Have a wonderful weekend!
