Generation Z (often shortened to Gen Z), colloquially known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years. Most members of Generation Z are children of Generation X or younger Baby Boomers.
As the first social generation to have grown up with access to the Internet and portable digital technology from a young age, members of Generation Z, even if not necessarily digitally literate, have been dubbed "digital natives". Moreover, the negative effects of screen time are most pronounced in adolescents, as compared to younger children. Compared to previous generations, members of Generation Z tend to live more slowly than their predecessors when they were their age; have lower rates of teenage pregnancies; and consume alcohol (but not necessarily other psychoactive drugs) less often. Generation Z teenagers are more concerned than older generations with academic performance and job prospects, and are better at delaying gratification than their counterparts from the 1960s, despite concerns to the contrary. Sexting among adolescents has grown in prevalence; the consequences of this remain poorly understood. Additionally, youth subcultures have been quieter though they have not disappeared.
Globally, there is evidence that the average age of pubertal onset among girls has decreased considerably compared to the 20th century, with implications for their welfare and their future. Additionally, the prevalence of allergies among adolescents and young adults in Generation Z is greater than the general population; there is greater awareness and diagnosis of mental health conditions, and sleep deprivation is more frequently reported. In many countries, Gen Z youth are more likely to be diagnosed with intellectual disabilities and psychiatric disorders than older generations.
Around the world, members of Generation Z are spending more time on electronic devices and less time reading books than before, with implications for their attention spans, vocabulary, academic performance, and future economic contributions. In Asia, educators in the 2000s and 2010s typically sought out and nourished top students; in Western Europe and the United States, the emphasis was on poor performers. Furthermore, East Asian and Singaporean students consistently earned the top spots in international standardized tests in the 2010s.
Etymology and nomenclature
The name Generation Z is a reference to the fact that it is the second generation after Generation X, continuing the alphabetical sequence from Generation Y (Millennials).
Other proposed names for the generation included iGeneration, The Homeland Generation, Net Gen, Digital Natives, Neo-Digital Natives, Pluralist Generation, Internet Generation, Centennials, and Post-Millennials.
Psychology professor and author Jean Twenge used the term iGeneration (or iGen for short), originally intending to use it as the title of her 2006 book about Millennials, Generation Me, before being overruled by her publisher, Atria Publishing Group. At that time, there were iPods and iMac computers but no iPhones or iPads. Twenge later used the term for her 2017 book iGen. The name has also been asserted to have been created by demographer Cheryl Russell in 2009.
In 2014, author Neil Howe coined the term Homeland Generation as a continuation of the Strauss–Howe generational theory with William Strauss. The term Homeland refers to being the first generation to enter childhood after protective surveillance state measures, like the Department of Homeland Security, were put into effect following the September 11 attacks.
The Pew Research Center surveyed the various names for this cohort on Google Trends in 2019 and found that in the U.S., the term Generation Z was overwhelmingly the most popular, from then on calling it Gen Z in their research. The Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries both have official entries for Generation Z.
In Japan, the cohort is described as neo-digital natives, a step beyond the previous cohort described as digital natives. Digital natives primarily communicate by text or voice, while neo-digital natives use video, video-telephony, and movies. This emphasizes the shift from PC to mobile and text to video among the neo-digital population.