"Be seen and be heard" Digital behaviors and the direction they are evolving.

Children should be seen and not heard, that’s an English proverb you won't hear anymore and although it is great that we have given the younger generation a strong voice, are they using it right?

The world is led by change enforced by Millennials and Gen Z’s, they are all about the 'fight' but is their direction contradictory? They are ironically the generation that wants to be out there, in the public eye but they are also the generation’s striving for more privacy.

Tik Tok has an estimated 60 million users in the US alone, 60% of these users are Gen Z and I find it puzzling that this generation that has no problem with revealing themselves in online videos, exposing their homes and family life, pranking and shaming their friends and even mocking their own parenting styles and are the same generation that are pushing for more privacy. The evolution of the world wide web into web3 is imminent. We will see the web evolve into a decentralized and more private version. We will move away from a time where centralized organizations own the rights to our data and we the users will have more control but what will they do with it?

If you ask a kid what they want to be when they grow older, would you blame them that they don’t want to work a 9-5 for minimum wage when they can stay at home and make videos for more money? Kids no longer aspire to be what we traditionally wanted to be, becoming a youtuber is now 3 times more popular than wanting to be an astronaut. Soon we will have over 50 million people that consider themselves content creators.?

It is no longer the 15 minutes of fame, that we wanted as kids. It is a lifetime of fame, and the world is evolving to facilitate this. Don’t want to do your job anymore, it’s ok we have a new term for that. “Quiet quitting” you can check out psychologically from your job, do the bare minimum and wait to be dismissed. A recent survey from a firm called Gallup claimed that 50% of US workers are already quiet quitters, can’t blame them. Post pandemic people are more interested in their own wellbeing and prioritize differently. But what happened to hard work and where will this lead us in the future?

Gen Z is the target audience for the majority of relevant brands but soon this will change with the growth of Gen Alpha (anyone born after 2010). This will be the first generation to be fully born in the 21st century. This generation will be more tech savvy than any prior to it and more materialistic. They are expected to stay in education longer, live at home longer and have a longer life span. This generation will care more about the environment and social responsibility and push brands to evolve and dedicate their resources into activities that help the environment and the underprivileged but will they themselves be as active?

This generation are the ones we are raising now, the ones we placed in front of unlimited screen time during the global pandemic just so we also could survive with our sanity. I am not saying that we are not to blame but, in my opinion, we are raising a generation that is lazy and that will be hiding behind a screen and not doing much else than “creating”.? Will they visit events or just put on a headset and see the world digitally? Will they live through the digital meta verse and prefer to dress their avatar, or will they opt for NFTs instead of hanging art on their walls??

A recent study from a company called GWI found that 38% of children said they would rather play online with friends and engage on social media with them than hang out.

So, where does that leave us as parents as well as marketeers? We need to evolve to be able to stay relevant but where does all that fit with our responsibility as parents and humans? Also, can we fight the majority? If I make my child play outside and not have access to online social media, I will feel better but how will my kid feel, when they are the only one not with Tik Tok??

What is the balance? Do we just go with the flow and allow them to disconnect because everyone else is? We are just too busy and too tired to fight and after all the voice of Gen Z and Gen A will be louder than ours with more views.?

Ultimately as a marketeer and a parent I also feel I have to move with the majority and put aside my personal feelings about raising my kids in this age and evolve my marketing strategy to suit the majority or I too will stay behind the times.

I would love to hear how you feel on this topic are you resistant to the change like I am?

#marketing #myopinion #thoughtleadership #movingwiththetimes #evolutionofmarketing #tiktok #generationalpha #web3 #parenting