IGen

iGen, Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy - and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood*  *and What That Means for the Rest of Us, by Jean M. Twenge, Atria 2017

For boomers still in the workforce, this book is a shocker.  For retired people and Millennials, GenXers, etc, Twenge's work is filled with "aha" moments.  If you have felt that IGen (those born between 1995 and 2012 and also called GenZ) are extensions of electronic communication and entertainment devices, you're just about right.  But what else is there, and when will they "become adults?"

Twenge breaks the generational differences down into ten major trends to look at anecdotal stories and data of more than 11M individuals.  Twenge concludes that the IGens are defined by these characteristics:

*  In No Hurry - 14 year olds are acting like 12 year olds, and 17 year olds are acting like 14 year olds.  Today's  youth abstain from sex, put off getting their driver's licenses, and are less like likely to work.

*  Internet - The average iGen'er engages with the internet for six hours per day, including multiple hours a day on social media sites.

*  Isolation - iGen spends less time interacting with other people face to face than ever before, from parties to just hanging out with friends. 

 The replacement of in-person social interaction with smartphone time has had profoundly negative effects on iGen's happiness and mental health.

*  Insecure - iGen is experiencing the worst mental health crisis in decades, with skyrocketing levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness and suicide.  They are also sleeping less.

*  Irreligious - Not only is iGen less religious than any previous generation, but they're more likely to have been raised by religiously unaffiliated parents.

*  Insulated - "Teens just don't want to take chances anymore," says Twenge.

*  Income Insecurity - Workplaces will need to rethink their recruitment practices.  Tomorrow's workers are more likely than Millennials to be willing to work overtime, need fewer persk, and aren't as focused on climbing the ladder.  And yet, in 2016, one in four men in their early twenties wasn't working.

*  Indefinite - IGen puts a lower priority on getting married or having children than any generation before them.  

*  Inclusive

*  Independent - More and more iGen'ers identify as politically independents.  

Scattered through the book are graphs of demographics supporting Twenge's conclusions, several of which show extreme shifts - "Not hanging out with friends," and "More Likely to Feel Lonely."  There is of course a great distance between this generation and the Boomers, and even the Millennials who are taking over management levels.  But Twenge believes the shifts that she outlines are not simply changes in degree, but "in kind."  "The biggest difference between the Millennials and their predecessors," she observes, "was in how they viewed the world:  teens today differ from the Millennials not just in their views but in how they spend their time.  The experiences they have every day are radically different from those of the generation that came of age just a few years before them."

Twenge tells us that the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009 had a lot to do with it, although this also is the time when the percentage of Americans who owned a smartphone surpassed 50 percent.  What's the answer to the digital takeover?  Twenge recommends this for a happy adolescence:  put down the phone, turn off the laptop, and do something - anything - that does not involve a screen.  She reinforces that recommendation with research that says the more time teens spend looking at screens, the more likely they are to report symptoms of depression.  Three hours a day or more on devices represents a 35% percent increase in the risk factor for suicide, a higher risk than watching TV.  

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, pemoody@aol.com, patriciaemoody@gmail.com, tricia@patriciaemoody.com,