The Generations Reshaping Innovation, Culture, and Identity
What does it mean to live with the future in mind? Does it mean to live with innovation? Does it mean to live with curiosity? Does it mean to live seeking a return on investment? Perhaps it is all of these things. Trying something new, seeking out new opportunities, while protecting the legacy and work going in.
Is the United States living with the future in mind? Is the world living with the future in mind? Some may say yes and some may say no. According to the site Visual Capitalist, there are nearly 1.9 billion Gen Z’ers and with the majority of their formative years impacted by climate crises, global pandemics, and social and political unrest, it is fair to say they don’t view the same world as their predecessors.
Researchers Kim Parker and Ruth Igielnik, in their 2020 article for Pew Research Center, “On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future: What We Know About Gen Z So Far”, writes,
“We know it’s different from previous generations in some important ways, but similar in many ways to the Millennial generation that came before it. Members of Gen Z are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation, and they are on track to be the most well-educated generation yet. They are also digital natives who have little or no memory of the world as it existed before smartphones… Gen Zers are progressive and pro-government, most see the country’s growing racial and ethnic diversity as a good thing, and they’re less likely than older generations to see the United States as superior to other nations.”
With this in mind, many landscapes are changing, from media landscapes being driven in part by social media and podcasts, to the success of entertainment being largely influenced by accessibility- how accessible products or companies are. The incumbent generation that is coming of age will become a big part of how the world will be shaped and how everything will come after it is preserved. Cultural practices surrounding artificial intelligence, misinformation culture, and the rise and fall of economic prosperity are beginning to become meters that society and culture will determine what is appropriate and what isn’t.
Generation Z may do things differently than Millennials the same way Millennials do things differently than Gen X’ers and so on and so forth. But the way in which they do things will impact what will remain evergreen in human social practices.
So what does it mean to live with the future in mind?
