Post Millennials: Gen Z and Disruption Natives

Isvari Mohan, one of my favorite GenZ professionals (also a student & writer) on LinkedIn recently wrote a great post about her generation. While I often write about Millennials and future trends, iGen represents the actual people who grow up with AI and the first generation of the information age proper. 

It's these folk who witness first-hand the convergence, where a great many technologies sync together before the technological singularity. If Millennials grew up with the internet, social media and are digital and mobile natives; iGen are immersive natives, favorites of VR, 3D printing and coders with a data -literacy that's more chat-bot friendly, than Facebook friendly. 

Like Isvari points out, iGen are not nostalgic rebels or spoiled brats, they are futuristic realists. iGen is not even omnichannel, they are so digitally influenced we can call them unified immersive natives, this is because they also hugely value in person meeting, teamwork and demonstrate another level of AI-human transhumanism. Some of them will grow into if you will, the pioneers of cyborg culture and genetically enhanced citizens ( tech mutants). 

 In the world iGen graduates into: AI, IoT, Big Data, facial recognition, robotics, smarthomes, driverless cars, Airbnb, FinTech, drones, quantum computing, blockchain, 3-D printing, bioTech, EdTech, HealthTech, VR and the sharing economy are all normal. 

iGen were born circa 1996 - 2012 before the Alpha cohort generation. Many of them grow up with Netflix, Amazon, SMS, and watch less TV, do less Email and use less social media that past generations. They aren't just primed to technology, entrepreneurship and experiences to compensate for 2008 ripples, they are the kids who grew up with many parents impacted heavily by the economic downturn of 2008. 

iGen are not just mobile natives, they are wearable natives, smart ear pieces, smart glasses, smart clothing, they certainly won't depend on their phones as much as Millennials. They grow up in part in a world of smart devices and different layers of work and play. The oldest of them are 20 years old, with the youngest just 4 years old. 

Four Types of GenZ

We can think of iGen as 4 segments: 

1. Born 1996-2000:  Net iGen (Netflix) 

   e.g. Anna Makosinki (b. 1997)

1. Born 2000-2004: VR iGen  (Virtual Reality)
2. Born 2004-2008: Q iGen (Quantum)
3. Born 2008-2012: M iGen (Mutant)

Due to how quickly exponential technologies converge in the 2020s, each segment of iGen fundamentally graduates College to a different world. A lot can happen in four years, in the 2020s or 2030s. 

iGen Research 

These post-millennials are digitally immersed in that they grow up multi-tasking and thus process information somewhat differently. These young adults are starting to define themselves, and have already matured early. Anna Makonsinki, pictured above, is a young inventor-entrepreneur of Filipino and Polish descent. 

If you thought Millennials were diverse, think again, The 2000 Census found that just over 31% of Generation Z are from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds, and this percentage is growing. 

iGen Values System and Adaptable Lifestyles 

iGen are even more global citizens who typically will not identify with their country or religion of birth, and be thus, perhaps the first truly post-modern generation who grow up with unparalleled inter connectivity of the planet. 

iGen are assertive yet highly philanthropic and grow up in an era where corporate social responsibility is a growing concern amid a widening wealth gap, corporate monopolies and ineffective and out of date government, banking, education and healthcare facilities and a shaky global economy. As such they believe in community and technology, to overcome the challenges of rising populations and environmental concerns, among others. 

iGen grow up in flexible homes were the non-traditional arrangements is the new normal. With single mothers, living with their parents longer, working part-time, you name it. iGen represents a far more inclusive work environment where gender and racial divides are less contemporary. They also must deal with a workforce where analytics and AI is present, you might even say omnipresent. Automation will be seamless and technology will still be at the service of human beings, at least some of them. 

Exponential, Immersion and Disruption Natives 

iGen also witnesses the development of the colonization of Mars, the advent of quantum computing and the immersion of and trials of virtual reality. They experience wave after wave of innovation directly and engage with a fundamentally different world where the divide between physical and digital has all but disappeared with more complexity and more seamless interfaces and automation than ever before. 

iGen makes up 26% of the USA's population, a significant cohort of globalized citizens. 

The sharing economy and the global village is so innate to iGen that new forms of human unity in diversity spring up based upon their divergent values and will to change collective institutions and laws to better reflect a more progressive world.

With technological advance comes endless adjustments and the will for an experience where citizens can expect more social justice, as manifested by compassionate androids, the blockchain and a general cleaning up of elitism, corruption and legacy institutional bias. 

iGen List of Traits: 

Humanitarian Entrepreneurs 

• More educated on social entrepreneurship and the possibility of turning interests and hobbies into a career path
• Social inclusivity, more accepting of transgender, demanding of gender equality in the boardroom and in leadership, more globalized and mobile and highly experiential both digitally and in travel. 
• iGen value congruent transparency, what Millennials might have called authenticity, but they also value and are the early adopters (as the youth generally are) of more agile tech.  
• iGen are highly motivated to transform outdated institutions and continue the work of Millennials to create corporate entities and collective organizations that are more accountable and systems like blockchain that prevent fraud, corruption and manipulation. That is, iGen practice social justice advocacy. 
•  iGen are greatly concerned with the optimal marriage of humanity with technology to create more sustainable solutions in business, civic and their professional lives. Thus they seek more freedom from bureaucracy, legacy politics and "old-school" forms of hierarchy. 

Beyond Digital 

• iGen are digitally collaborative, they live in a crowd-sourced, open-source API and coder's paradise. They are able to see the big picture, and can collaborate with "competitors" to create conditions that benefits everyone. Growing up in virtual reality environments that is pro-social, tends to do that. 
• iGen enjoy immersive media: VR and video, live-streaming and augmented reality, holograms and digital signage and the breaking of barriers in how content itself will evolve. 
• iGen are conditioned to be independent diligent self-learners, many will be home-schooled, others will have MOOC degrees, while internships and apprenticeships will be more common among this cohort. Growth hacking their education, will be among one of their many talents. 
• iGen females in particular, will be cultural leaders of social trends as young women often are in consumerism. In the 2020s, women leaders will be much more common for startups, in venture capital and in educational and government institutions. iGen therefore will grow up in a far more gender-fluid world. The gender gap in years of education, favoring women, is likely to continue to grow. 
• Hyper-individualistic. The trend of Millennials to live alone for more years of their lives and not have families or get married will continue with iGen, as well as having children later than previous generations. iGen will therefore take it for granted they will have lifespans of at least 120 years, and plan accordingly. The freedom of the citizen will outweigh tradition, duty and legacy concepts of the nuclear family. 

How do you believe iGen is different from previous generations?