iGENERATION: THE POST MILLENNIALS Diana Hull Senior Associate University Registrar University of Florida

AGENDA  The generations  How they differ  The iGeneration  Who they are  What they are like  How we engage them  Questions

THE GENERATIONS  Baby Boomers  Generation X  Millennials  What comes next?

WHAT DEFINES A SOCIAL GENERATION?  Cohort born in same date range  Share similar cultural experience  Tendency toward similar characteristics  Values  Terminology  Response to social change

BABY BOOMERS  1946 – 1964  Large numbers  First generation with widespread mass media  Shaped by the culture of the cold war, “Under the gun”  Social upheaval  Wholesale rejection of traditional values  Characteristically free spirited, socially aware, distrust of government

GENERATION X  1964 – 1979  MTV generation  Shaped by AIDs, human rights campaigns, need for change  Confronted issues of diversity and inequality  Characteristically highly educated, latchkey, entrepreneurial

MILLENNIALS  1980 – 2000  The “Me Generation” & “Trophy Kids”  Shaped by internet, helicopter parents, post cold war  Embrace diversity  Cultural divide based on socio-economic status  Characteristically entitled, confident, “connected”

“GENERATION Z”  2000 – Present  Up and coming population  Challenges faced in addressing their educational needs

WHAT ARE THEY CALLED?  Generation Z  iGeneration  Gen Tech  Gen Wii  Post-millennials  Homeland Generation

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS  Egalitarian  Global  Technologically savvy  Continually connected via social media  Justification is unnecessary

GROUP DISCUSSION  How have students and coworkers changed over the years  Admissions criteria  Learning style  Response to policy and procedures  Has your office adapted to these changes

THE iGENERATION What we know about them

ATTENTION SPAN  Attention span (or lack thereof…)  In 2000 average attention span was 12 seconds; in 2015 that had dropped to 8.25 seconds  Compare that to a goldfish with an attention span of 9 seconds!  Impatient  Used to communicating in 140 characters or less  Increasing reliance on mobile devices

HOW DO WE REACH THEM?  Social Media  Texting   Web  Video

SOCIAL MEDIA  Web content  Facebook  Twitter  Instagram  Snapchat

TEXT  Instant gratification  In 2014, over 500 billion text messages were exchanged monthly  Resistant to verbal exchange  “Text Speak”

 What is the point  Too slow  Older generations ask too many questions, “too much detail” “we want it done now”  Too many words

WEB PAGES  17% of web page views last less than 4 seconds  Read 28% of the words on an average web page  Less is more!!

VIDEO  YouTube  82% of teens and young adults use daily  Up to 48 hours of content added each minute !  How would you deliver?  Do students really want?

GROUP DISCUSSION  How did you feel about Marc Prensky’s concepts  Digital natives  Digital immigrants  Would a course in communications bridge the gap?

Questions???

SOURCES     Social theory Karl Mannheim, et al

iGENERATION: THE POST MILLENNIALS SESSION ID M5.4 Diana Hull Senior Associate University Registrar University of Florida