Monday Mornings with Madison

Millennials vs Zellennials: What’s the Difference?

Word Count: 1,532
Estimated Read Time: 5 Min.

There are basically five generations alive right now.  In January 2022, the breakdown will be as follows:

Silent Generation – Born 1929-1945 (Great Depression to WWII) – ages 77-91
Boomers – Born 1946-1964 (post WWII to early 60s) – ages 57-76
Gen Xers – Born  1965-1980 (Space flight to Computer age) (Civil Rights to Computers) – ages 40-56
Millennials – Born 1981-2000 (From Computers to Y2K) – ages 22-39
Zellennials – Born 2001-2015 (9-11 to 2015 Paris Climate Agreement) – ages 6-21

We know a lot about Boomers and Gen Xers already.  And a lot has been written about Millennials, not all of which has been kind.  But there is a tendency to think that Zellennials are just an extension of their Millennial predecessors.  And that assumption would be Wrong, with a capital W.  The world has changed a lot from 1980 to 2015, and those major changes have had a profound effect on the way these generations think and act, and especially what they value and how they operate.

While businesses are really focused on catering to Millennials, which is the biggest generation in the U.S. today and comprises a huge portion of the purchasing power and workforce in the U.S., it is important to also start to understand and compare them with Zellennials who are now coming of age and will be the up-and-coming driving force behind politics, the economy, and business over the next decade.

So if Millennials and Zellennials are not the same, how are they different?  Let’s look at eight areas of differentiation.

1. Technology

We know that Millennials are tech savvy, and initially adopted and used technology more than Boomers and Gen Xers (although that gap has closed almost entirely for Gen Xers).  Almost all Millennials (nearly 100%) now say they use the internet, and 19% of them are smartphone-only internet users – that is, they own a smartphone but do not have broadband internet service at home.  More than 93% of Millennials own smartphones, and 86% use social media.  In terms of specific platforms, around 84% of Millennials now report using Facebook.  And even their attitude toward technology is positive with 73% of online Millennials saying the internet has been mostly a good thing for society.

And, it would seem that the same should be true of Zellennials.  Well, not exactly.  Zellennials aren’t just tech savvy.  They are tech innate… let’s call them tech naturals.  Cell phones and computer screens aren’t things that they started to use when they were adolescents or teens, like many Millennials.  Screens are an innate part of Zellennials’ lives, in many cases, from a very early age.  From watching their parents on their phones to viewing educational programs and engaging in learning games on tablets, toddlers as young as one year old know how to swipe left or right on a screen.  For Gen Z, computer devices are to them what TV screens were to Gen Xers in the 70s… a daily part of their lives; practically an extension of their own bodies.  About half of all Gen Zs spend an average of ten hours online every day.

These digital naturals are adept at using five screens at once.  They intuitively know how to root out all of the functionality of any software.  They are also very comfortable juggling multiple tasks – the so-called “multitasking” which is really just toggling between assignments — and think they’re inefficient if they’re not bouncing back and forth between projects.  But, because they are used to interacting in snippets and being constantly interrupted by social media, they tend to have a shorter attention spans.

In the U.S. alone, there are 70 million Gen Zs.  That is about 25% of the population, and they will be entering the workforce over the next 15 years.  In fact, the first class of Gen Zs will be graduating from college this coming May.  Businesses selling to and/or hiring Zellennials need to keep all of this in mind as they speak to and engage with Z’s.  For employers, jobs will need to offer a lot of task diversity.  For companies selling to Zellennials, they will need to engage with Z’s online.  Billboards, bus bench ads, signage and other forms of in-the-moment and place-specific advertising is likely to be entirely missed by Gen Zs who are far less present in the moment.

2.  Communication

How Millennials prefer to communicate is a departure from past and future generations.  Millennials were the first generation to use phones for texting more than for calling.  The Silent Generation, Boomers and Gen Xers all used phones for speaking because that’s all phones did before Smartphones.  But Millennials embraced texting as their preferred way to communicate; short snippets rather than entire conversations.  Of course, lack of face-to-face or even phone-to-phone conversations created a lot of opportunities for miscommunication, such as ALL CAPS being deemed by some as “yelling.”  And both spelling and punctuation became less important.  As a result, a slew of new acronyms – such as TYVM, LOL, ROFL and TTYL – emerged to shorten the number of characters needed to convey a thought… a sort of acronym code.  Also, text communication was far less personal than calls and offered no auditory inflection to communicate emotion, such as excitement, laughter or tears.  To resolve that, emojis were added to communicate frustration, doubt, embarrassment, happiness, laughter, etc.

Interestingly, unlike Millennials, Zellennials went in a different direction with communication, preferring to communicate with photos and videos over spoken or written words.  While Zellennials do text, they also embraced the idea that a picture paints a thousand words.  And having the benefit of a digital photo and video camera built into every cell phone, Zellennials will opt to use a photo or video, which says so much more, than a written or spoken message.   Rather than posting images mixed with messages on social media sites like Pinterest, LinkedIn and Facebook as Millennials do, Zellennials prefer to post photos with minimal text or short videos.  For companies that want to speak to Zellennials, photos and video messages is more likely to resonate with this audience.

3.  Content

This is another area where Millennials and Zellennials differ a lot.  Most Millennials are content to consume, curate and share content created by others.  They will spend hours viewing and liking YouTube videos, liking memes, and sharing posts and tweets.  On LinkedIn, a typical Millennial will scroll through, reading other people’s posts, ghosting those who posted or occasionally making comments.  But, relatively few Millennials actually create original content on a regular basis that they share either on social media, blogs, or via email, or even sell.

Zellennials, on the other hand, are much more likely to create content and collaborate with others on projects such as podcasts, co-working projects and issues.  They are sure of their “voice” and are confident that they have something of value to add to the conversation.  Generally speaking, Zellennials aren’t shy to put what they create into the world, making crafts that they sell on Etsy and eBay, photos and videos that they monetize on stock photography and video sites, and graphic design services that they hawk on sites like Upworks.  If they have something to say, they say it.  For Zellennials, this has sometimes backfired as cyber bullying emerged with this generation.  For companies that want to hire Zellennials, they will likely need to be very clear about workplace protocols, behaviors, and social media policies.

4.  Focus / Perspective

It is here where Millennials and Zellennials may just differ the most.  Millennials are much more “now” focused.  They are thinking about how to make the most of today.  With more than half of Millennials entering the work world just before or around the time of the Great Recession, they know what it’s like to have no job.  Their perspective is on the present… finding new ways of earning income and being able to pivot professionally.  This is the generation that developed the concept of the “gig economy”, with most Millennials having some kind of side hustle in addition to a regular, full-time job.  Most Millennials talk about amassing enough wealth to be able to retire young and then be able to enjoy life and do what they want.  Their focus is on the here and now.

Zellennials, on the other hand, were born after 9-11, as the U.S. experienced political, economic and environmental upheaval.  Inheriting a planet that is threatened by the climate crisis has forced Gen Zs to be “future” focused.  They worry about what the world will be like by the time they are old enough to own homes, have kids and develop careers.  They are more socially active than any generation since Boomers in the 60s, but their causes are much more pressing.  Zellennials know that there is power in their collective voice, and they will spend both time and money on the companies, causes and concerns that matter to them.  So companies that want to speak to this generation will need to embrace not just the talk but also the walk of businesses that care about the environment, social justice, and diversity / inclusion.

Next week, we’ll look at four more ways that Millennials and Zellennials differ and how best to reach that up-and-coming generation.  Stay tuned.

Quote of the Week

“Brands targeting Gen Z need to look beyond the confines of traditional segmentation, the ultimate priority always has to be on alignment that helps cultivate relationships with youth culture – not just organize it.” Gregg L. Witt

 

© 2021, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.

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