The term “generation gap” has been used since the 1960s. At the time, conservative parents were astonished at how the younger generation seemed compelled to go against everything that they held dear.
This applied to music, politics, and personal values. Today, more than ever, we attribute certain characteristics to the era in which we were born. Although there have always been differences between the generations, the acceleration of change over the last few decades has vastly changed our life experience. Hence the large generational differences. This infographic adds two emerging generations to those that have been around for a while.
Next year, the first Gen Z’s will leave school. This is the largest generation on earth, comprising almost 2 billion people. This generation grew up with technology and they don’t know a life without it. Gen Z’s see technology as a tool rather than a part of life, unlike Gen Alpha which is completely immersed in technology.
The first children of Millennials, Gen Alpha, have started school in the last few years. This is a sector of the population that grows globally by 2.5 million people per week. Some claim that this generation will be the best-educated and wealthiest of all time. They have, of course, had the highest level of exposure to technology. In fact, they are sometimes referred to as the Glass Generation because they will communication mainly through their screens. These children are likely to do the bulk of their learning through iPads rather than textbooks, and they will interact daily with robots and artificial intelligence.
Human resource professionals and marketers take the differences between the generations seriously. They use it to design workplace strategies and advertising campaigns to attract target audiences.