Read the text and do the exercises below.

Joanna Sobierska‑Paczesny …X, Y, Z… A?

Baby boomers, Millennials, Generation Z – which do you belong tobelong tobelong to? Labellinglabelling [label]Labelling people according to the generationgenerationgeneration they belong to started as a way for sociologists to talk about certain characteristics, blossomedblossomed [blossom]blossomed into an important tool in the marketing industry (this generation prefers regular coffee while that will only buy flavoured), to finally get out of control and become a popular topic of shallow pseudo‑sociological articles that spread stereotypes, often hurtful. Which is not to say that these characteristics totally miss their markmiss their mark [miss the mark] (idiom)miss their mark. Considering that each generation grows up in different technological, economic, and social situations, they will naturally be shaped by them. So, let’s take a look at what’s natural for each cohortcohortcohort, especially the two youngest ones – the Z Generation and the Alpha Generation.

Growing up in a world connected through a multiple of devices such as laptops. tablets, mobile phones, or TV’s hooked up to streaming services, Generations Z and Alpha are ‘digital natives,’ which naturally influences their attitudes. They are much more globalglobalglobal, compared to others. Reaching out to people, places, and services from all over the world, they’re not suspicious of them just because of a distant postcodepostcodepostcode. The digital world erases that distance, at the same time offering social opportunities which, unlikeunlikeunlike the previous generations, they treat as a rightful equivalentequivalentequivalent of face‑to‑face interactions.

In the same manner, they seem to have let go oflet go oflet go of other ‘analogue’ elements that made up the lives of the previous generations. Their music is pumped from Spotify into smart speakers. Their games are online, not on a board. Their books and news are likewise digital, not hard copyhard copyhard copy. Similarly, they have no use forhave no use forhave no use for paper notebooks and textbooks, much preferring to find and note things on their screens. This, in fact, earned them another nickname – ‘screenagers.’

While the Alphas are still too young to be assessedassessed [assess]assessed properly, it seems logical that being raised with screens they will have a lot in commonhave a lot in commonhave a lot in common with the Zs with respect to learning and working styles. Zs are very visualvisualvisual and participativeparticipativeparticipative. While the older generations preferred to sit and listen to a teacher who was the authority and whose learning was focused on the knowledge itself, the younger ones prefer that a teacher is just a facilitatorfacilitatorfacilitator, who helps them try and discover things for themselves and it’s about doing it their way and their development, not knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Knowledge itself used to be delivered mostly verbally, but Zs are much more visualvisualvisual and their learning as well as working is about images, discussion, and creating things together, with everyone participating rather than following one leader or teacher.

Their whole lives are much more governed by mobilitymobilitymobility, flexibilityflexibilityflexibility, and adapting to constantly changing situations than ever before. Their older counterpartscounterparts [counterpart]counterparts, even in their teens, sought stability and later, job security. Fate does not seem to have that in storehave that in store [have something in store] (idiom)have that in store for the Zs and Alphas. Graduating from universities in unprecedentedunprecedentedunprecedented numbers, both these generations will be changing jobs, careers, and homes much more than any before them, their lives changing as fast as the world around them.

What else will they be? Time will tell. Time will also continue to influence it, like it does for every generation. It’s important to note, that while every generation is shaped by the circumstances they grow up in, they also change as they move along their life cyclelife cyclelife cycle. People’s needs and values change, when from students they become parents and business people and then pensionerspensioners [pensioner]pensioners. Moreover, they’re influenced by circumstances. Middle‑aged baby boomers, coming in contact with the digital world for the first time, were very suspicioussuspicioussuspicious of it. The generation gapgeneration gapgeneration gap between them and Gen X, happy to explore digital possibilities, was clearly visible. But they’ve adapted since and now over 80% of them use online banking and social media. Naturally, the COVID pandemic forced that shift a bit, but that’s besides the point. The Alphas will probably never give up their screens but who will they grow old to be? What will they have to adapt to? Only time will tell.

1 Źródło: Joanna Sobierska‑Paczesny, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.