Generation Z

Generation Z

Generation Z (or Gen Z for short), colloquially also 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. 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 have been dubbed "digital natives", even though they are not necessarily digitally literate. Moreover, the negative effects of screen time are most pronounced on adolescents compared to younger children. Compared to previous generations, members of Generation Z in some developed nations tend to be well-behaved, abstemious, and risk-averse. They tend to live more slowly than their predecessors when they were their age, have lower rates of teenage pregnancies, and consume alcohol less often, but not necessarily other psychoactive drugs. 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 though the consequences of this remain poorly understood. Meanwhile, youth subcultures have been quieter, though have not necessarily 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. In addition, adolescents and young adults in Generation Z have higher rates of allergies, higher awareness and diagnoses of mental health problems, and are more likely to be sleep-deprived. In many countries, Gen Z youth is more likely to have diagnosed 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 span, their vocabulary and thus their school grades, as well as their future in the modern economy. At the same time, reading and writing fan fiction is of vogue worldwide, especially among teenage girls and young women. In Asia, educators in the 2000s and 2010s typically sought out and nourished top students whereas in Western Europe and the United States, the emphasis was on low-performers. In addition, East Asian and Singaporean students consistently earned the top spots in international standardized tests during the 2010s.

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