Labels And Clichés Aside Young People Will Be Good For Media

Michael Hedges November 30, 2015 Follow on Twitter

Advertisers adore young people, always have, and the media sphere follows appropriately. Conventional marketing wisdom holds fast to the twin dynamics of brand adoption and family formation. A youthful cohort is choosing products and services on their own terms, often rejecting those associated with old people, and striking out on their own - or thinking about it.

Demographic characteristics are perfect targets for nice labels and broad generalizations. Young people always like to feel special, particularly different from old people. Market researchers have danced that generational tango with social science for, well, generations. Today’s favorite label for young people is Generation Z or, shortened to reflect attention deficits, Gen Z. The Z represents zero, no recollection of the 20th century rather that the alphabet’s terminal letter or anything that might represent.

Media and marketing anxieties over yet another demographic challenge to business has spawned a flurry of research intended to explain Generation Z, differentiating it from all that has gone before. Nielsen’s Global Generational Lifestyles report, released this month, revealed young people 15 to 20 years a bit less device-connected at mealtime - 46% in Europe - than Baby Boomers (41%) or Millennials (43%). Indeed, the young people Nielsen researchers refer to as Gen Z are far more likely to get their news from social media than folks over 65 years. An equal percentage of very young and very old (18%) access newspaper websites. It’s good to know, at the very least, that young people are digesting their food between Snapchats.

“Just as older people are increasingly embracing technology, sizeable numbers of younger people are turning to more traditional pastimes," said Nielsen Advertiser Solutions Europe EVP Terrie Brennan in a press statement. "Yes, there are differences between the generations. But when it comes to using technology, in many ways it's remarkable how similar we are."

Preparing for and entering the ranks of the employed - or trying - is the domaine of 18 to 24 year olds, often 18 to 34 year olds. Swedish consultancy Universum published a study in October showing most North American and Western European Gen Zs undecided about future careers. Asia/Pacific Gen Zs have decided on business. Gen Zs have moved beyond Facebook, said the Universum report based on a survey of 50,000 in 46 countries between 15 and 19 years, preferring “visual and temporary forms of social communication, such as Snapchat. They move fast and their attention span is as short as eight seconds meaning that those who wish to catch their eye need to move fast, be smart and keep things interesting.”

Baby Boomers are by far the most studied - and storied - identifiable demographic cohort. Between 1946 and 1964 in North America, Western Europe and Australia birth-rates soared following the end of World War II and the resulting economic rebound. Baby Boomer’s leading edge will celebrate their 70th birthdays next year, the youngest remaining in the workforce another decade.

Generations are defined by shared life-events “that predominate their youth,” offered imminent sociologist Karl Mannheim in a series of papers in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Baby Boomers, the demographic “pig in the python,” experienced together the Cold War, television’s ascendancy and the Beatles. Their progeny, the Millennials, came of age with the turn of the century, have never known a day without the internet, share every waking thought on Facebook and became workaholics because of the 2008 recession. Baby Boomer parents, born between 1925 and 1945, endured the Great Depression and World War II. They’ve been called the Silent Generation.

Between the Baby Boomers and Millennials are Generation X, often referred to as the slackers. They were, generally, born between 1965 and 1980. Gen Z, children of Generation X, has “the internet in its pocket,” said Wharton marketing professor David Bell. They also have Taylor Swift. Nielsen researchers - and others - have adopted flexible labelling of demographic groups, names not always corresponding with generally accepted social science. Since the Silent Generation each demographically defined cohort has demonstrated increasingly short attention spans.

Young people have long been a challenge for their elders. “I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words,” warned Greek poet Hesiod nearly three thousand years ago. “The present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient.”

The media world would be dismally boring without them.

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