The rise of Generation Z

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Almost four million children in the UK do not own a book, according to a report by the National Literacy Trust. (source)

Experts estimate that nearly 40 percent of U.S. 4th graders do not achieve basic levels of reading proficiency. (source)

Today's children are reading less than seven years ago as their time is taken up with other activities, research suggests. (source)

Computers are 'wrecking children's reading skills as they abandon library books'. (source)

Myself being an Icelander, this issue is of particular interest to me, considering how maniacal Icelanders are about books. Well, let us dig a little deeper then. It is a fact that today's children are different from previous generations, in that they spend much less time reading books... while we, their parents, probably often tell ourselves that the time they are spending online with a tablet in their hands is wasted time. But are the children of the "digital" generation actually as illiterate as some of us imagine?

My 3 year old son is having no troubles selecting games from the menu on a tablet. My 5 year old daughter can create and delete files, draw pictures, update programs and change settings on her laptop. If you ask an IT expert, they might say that the kids demonstrate about a 80% computer proficiency. If you ask a sociologist, they would conclude that these are the kids of the so called Generation-Z.

They are the children who were born roughly between 1995 and 2010. They live entirely immersed in the digital technologies. (I am speaking of the developed world of course). And though many of them may not seem to be too friendly to grammar and spelling, we could not say outright that they are illiterate. Definitely not even in what we understand to be the conventional interpretation of the term.

In fact if we investigate a little more, the first great surprise is that the Generation-Z kids are extremely educated and informed, they mature early and they often exhibit logical and mental skills that we are used to observing in kids at a much later age. The vast majority of them usually continue their education in secondary school and beyond. It is this generation that is with the highest rate of use of digital readers. If we look closer, we might realise that many of them actually possess and regularly use personal libraries that dwarf anything any previous generation has ever had.

It is essentially a transition from the Britannica era to the Wikipedia era. In the 21st century, the information gap between the old "paper" generations and the new "digital" generations is seemingly deeper than ever. And Wikipedia is one of the most eloquent pieces of evidence for that. The younger generations perceive the web encyclopedia as more reliable and useful than the conventional encyclopedias that are compiled by academicians.

The reason is that the so called Generation-Z gives a priority to visual information. The forecasts point to a tendency that by the time these Z-kids have become adults, the video images will have achieved a complete domination over printed word as a main conveyor of information. Which by the way brings us back to our monthly topic. =)

But how should the gap be closed between the "old" culture and "the new"? And should it be? Well, it certainly cannot be done by putting them against each other, but instead through reconciliation of their differences. And this means that the traditional, "outdated" models should not automatically be contrasted and opposed to every new fashion wave. And these waves tend to alternate through ever accelerating intervals.

The Generation-Z and those coming after it are complex social phenomena, and they should be approached through simultaneous engagement on many levels, using many channels of communication. The printed books will not die completely, but they will certainly be no longer dominant. And the next page in this development is sure to be turned very soon, and it will be written by those born after 2010. Those kids will be starting school earlier than "usual", and they will be spending more time for studying. Their knowledge will be deeper, more universal and more profound than ours. The next generation, now dubbed the Alpha-Generation, will probably be more materialistically orientated and technologically versed, and it will continue what Generation-Z has already begun. And that is a full transition away from the traditional "Gutenberg" authorities of the 20th century, and continuity in the direction that has already been taken.

Comments

[papasha-mueller.livejournal.com]

And then these motherf*ckers, who never read a book - because they can't f*cking read - are coming into the computer world...


This is the Russian Livejournal team.

I'd be very much surprised to hear they're still at their jobs in a month's time.
It all starts with the education erosion, then those people 're becoming techers, and what goes round - cums around.
Bloody unprofessionals.
They should be if not castrated right there on the spot - but actively prohibited from reproducing themslves.

I kindly ask the OP to accept my sincere apologises for a kind of strong language.

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Well, LJ has been having some serious problems in the last couple of days, so I can see where you are coming from.

...Although they do look adorkable. =)

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Is that Leo Messi on the right side?

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the new tv series over here, Revolution Z. Apparently the movie industry is very eager to pander to the youth segment, although the target group of this show are not exactly of the Z generation by any meaning of the term.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Oops, forgot the linky:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2520856/

1/2

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

There is a clear literacy problem, at least in the US, and we're in a bit of a wild west zone in the US, at least.

On one hand, more people are reading, and people are reading more. The rise of the ereader and ease of getting Kindles/Nooks and related apps into the hands of people have definitely expanded the literature footprint. While a lot of this growth is threatened to be stunted by the ongoing copyright disputes, the last few years have clearly helped this situation.

On the other, much of the issue is the Potterfication of the written word. Yes, a majority of people appear to have read at least one book this past year. Much of the reading being done is of works that are the current trend - everyone reading Harry Potter or Twilight or Fifty Shades. Even so, something like The Hunger Games, which was the it book before Fifty Shades took off, only had about 36m copies in print at its height - assuming only United States sales and each copy being read by two people (due to lending and libraries), we're still seeing 80% of the population basically having no clue outside of the title at best. Even Fifty Shades has 60m worldwide for the whole trilogy, which is a publishing marvel for sure, but is hardly balanced against the whole, especially given how much of a cultural touchstone it became.

Even with the ereader explosion, though, I wonder how normal I am - I have about 430 books on my Kindle, give or take. I won't pay full price for a book on the Kindle store with few exceptions, and at least a quarter of those, if not more, are free books either due to their being in the public domain or prerelease titles I received for work. My aunt has a Kindle, and uses it solely to take books out from the library or to read the old public domain books she never got to earlier in life. How many people with ereaders are reading significantly more than they had before? Especially if the Kindle or Nook you have are the tablet, rather than ereader version.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

You do realize that 1) previous decades had no end to shit novels and bad writing, we just forget they existed because of nostalgia filters, and 2) that the consequence of expanding the literate population is a great many people interested in reading books who aren't necessarily interested in reading The Brothers Karamazov or The Odyssey. A larger audience isn't going to emulate the reading tastes of a smaller one, and the previous smaller generations of audiences like politics more because they were written by the politically savvy class for the politically savvy class. That class then as now a minority and a decided minority at that of the overall population.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

You say that The Hunger Games had 36m in print. I wonder if that includes e-copies of the book? I'm willing to bet a sizable group of people are now not buying print copies of books. On the train, on the way to work, I see 10 e-readers to every book I see.

2/2

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, in schools in the United States, we're about to drop down the rabbit hole of Common Core. We're not talking enough about the disaster that Common Core is likely to be in terms of the educational aspects, never mind the reading aspects. The key reason we have a literacy problem with kids right now is the lack of engaging reading being done in school, and Common Core is attempting to tie the already-not-engaging books that teachers tend to use with often even more dull primary source material. Instead of focusing on literacy for the sake of literacy, the focus becomes literacy for the sake of simply reading and comprehending "more complex" texts. The best way to get people to want to read, I guess, is to force boring, irrelevant stuff on them.

This, of course, brings us to the point you're getting to, with the visual information. We're already looking at a generation behind me that has a lot of digital literacy (because they've been turned off of physical books and leisure reading by their teachers and parents) and little to no physical or recreational literacy. The internet stopped being primarily text-based in the last four years, which will not accelerate this trend - who wants to read a bunch of blog posts or a longform magazine article when there's a four minute video on YouTube that explains the same thing? And we haven't learned a damn thing about reliable data in the 10 years since Google became ubiquitous - the crowdsourcing of data has more or less been an utter failure in many regards with the rise of so-called "alternative" media (when I scroll through reddit political stories and see Alternet and truthout over and over, part of me dies inside), and videos make it even worse to check sources and reliability of the information provider. Few people seem to care, but we'll definitely throw in some 18th century diary entries to go with the Colonial era unit we're doing in school - don't you worry about whether the information in that diary is truthful or representative of the time!

It's issues like this that make me reject the standard educational system completely. Until we address the underlying issues in education and literacy themselves, we have no chance of actually engaging this Generation Z in a way that will matter. Video blogs and infographics don't mean a thing if kids don't know how to interpret them, and primary source material isn't going to make the antiquated texts of education more interesting to them. If you foster the latent creativity and wonder that kids have - and are getting from these videos and new forms of media - you end up with a better informed, better educated generation. Instead, we're focused on test scores, so we're well on track to leave them behind entirely.

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

I'm curious: how is today's situation any more different in education than it was in my time (70s)? We also were "taught to the test," though perhaps with less emphasis on specific test topics.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but she can read at five, too. Being digitally well versed doesn't necessarily make a kid less interested in reading books.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Well, given that the Gutenberg Press (and the Chinese ones that preceded it) themselves succeeded older technology.....you don't see anyone agitating bringing back scrolls or clay and styli these days. All things change, and we change with them. But on some issues I shall proudly refuse to change, and a Tablet or Kindle v. a physical book is one of those issues.

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

They have their practical advantages too, but yes I know the sentimental value of having a real book in your hands.

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

It's not just the US, Europe is just as bad. Not only am I completely unable to get my pubescent offspring to read anything worth a spit, but any attempt I've made (and I was a very avid reader from early childhood throughout my 20's) has been met with the indifference of those who believe that instant new shiny digital media is the end all of all knowledge. Even the public high school system in the Netherlands at least is oblivious of literature and art and such, making the concept of socialized education redundant.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Great post! So thanks for this.

Today's children are reading less than seven years ago as their time is taken up with other activities, research suggests. (source)

This is just a personal observation, and that's all. But I remember when the LOTR movies were starting to be released, several friends at work mentioned they tried reading the books, because the movies motivated and energized them so much; but most of them couldn't get past the first book, saying it was just monotonous, the songs / poetry sections were just too boring. That surprised me because when I was in 4th grade, the books were read to use after our lunch period by our teacher for 30 minutes a day. That was enough motivation for me to pester my parents to take me to a book store to buy the books for me (they did). My mom started reading to me when I was 3 and I was getting my own "book of the month" in the mail by 5. The odd thing, my brother (8 years older) can't stand reading (even to this day) because his generation was raised on the "see-say" method, versus what I was brought up on - phonetics.

I'm a big fan of True Blood, but saw the HBO series before I tried reading the book series, which are extremely popular and best sellers. Hell they've won a few awards. I tried the first book. The quality was pretty bad; and I couldn't believe Charlene Harris was able to get it published, the writing is that basic (sorry if I've stepped on any fans' toes. I love the concepts her books completely!).

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Many moons ago, when the stepkids were young, I tried reading them Lord of the Rings. Though I'd read them twice in earlier years, I was amazed how tedious the writing style and progress of the story was, especially when read aloud. I ended up switching to the Dragonlance series and everyone enjoyed it much more.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Tolkien's trilogy was supposed to be one book and turned into three. The narrative badly suffers for this throughout. It's a very influential series, but by modern standards really would be a difficult read. I mean I read them and I've read the Silmarillion, but I've never known even hardcore Tolkien fans who've read the latter work the first time through straight and understood the whole thing.

[harry-beast.livejournal.com]

They live entirely immersed in the digital technologies.
Knowing how to use a Smartphones doesn't impart any understanding of the technology, any more than knowing how to drive a car makes a person an automotive engineer. One observation from my recent experience supervising younger workers was that in spite of the enormous amount of time they spend texting, tweeting, Facebooking, YouTubing and generally being engrossed in the small rectangles they carry around, they were incapable of basic spreadsheeting because of a lack of simple math and programming skills.
Traditional, "outdated" models that emphasize focus, concentration, brain work, immersion in subject matter, consolidation of personal learning and general mental effort might provide substantial benefits for the younger generation and should not be casually discarded.

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

hmmm, but who exactly is going to teach this to them? should we feel encouraged to pause/give-up our careers and switch to teaching for a while? why does the current system in place seem lacking? u know

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

huh, I can't imagine trying to use computers without being able to read...?

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

D3p3nds wh@t U m3@n by "r3Ad1ng". :)

[404.livejournal.com]

One EMP bomb or a computer virus or even just the power going out for an extended period of time leaves all our fancy toys unusable. A book is immune from all those.

All today's technology overload does for our kids is to make them even more impulsive and prone to ADD and ADHD.

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

can you highlight on a Kindle I wonder?
what about, can you put note-tabs on the pages of a Kindle?
can you . . . color-code the tabs for easy reference?

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

Almost four million children in the UK do not own a book, according to a report by the National Literacy Trust.

Come on, Brits! You're never going to make a real TARIDS at this rate!

We, at least, already made a space shuttle named the Enterprise.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

There's also the curious phenomenon called digital natives and digital immigrants.

About 6-7 generations co-exist the first decade of the 21st century. Starting from the "Elders" born in the 20s/30s, up to this new Alpha generation. And the rate of generation change is indeed accelerating. It used to be 20-25 years, now it's no more than a decade. In terms of adaptation to the digital technologies, there are generally 4 groups: those who are alien to digital technology, digital immigrants, digital adaptees, and digital natives. The Y, Z and Alpha are considered part of the latter group.

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

4 groups...hmmm - a pretty decent breakdown. this is the first time i'm hearing of it.

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

This might be a natural progression. I'd have to dig to find the source, but a media watcher noted that poetry was a popular seller pre-1900 because most people were illiterate; poetry, especially the good poets who could make a poem "sing," were easy for readers to read to others. As literacy rates increased, short stories (easily printed in magazines) and novels (easily serialized in same) got more popular, enough that poets had trouble paying the bills.

Was this the end of poetry? Kinda, in that it was the end of the need for poetry. When more could read, it lost its "utility."

I'm more concerned about falling attention spans than the loss of pulp as the print media. The ability to immerse in a work might be more the long-term effect of flickering screens and unstructured play time (both of which have been shown to reduce attention spans) than of bound tree corpse availability.

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

unstructured play time

i'm convinced that is our culprit...right there!

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

Seconding the above commendations.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Count me as one of the surprised... I thought for sure the sheer exposure to the internet would require people to be able to read.

I hear a lot about the benefits of the internet and ebooks are to traditional print as far as availability and updated information is concerned. But I always have a concern for backup, as 404 mentioned, digital information is vulnerable to being lost and as the cloud computer raises the question of whatever or not we should make sure our stuff is on a hard drive, online information raises the question or whatever or not we should have at least one hard-copy available of any information we cannot afford loosing.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

in other words, backup, if you don't have at least two copies of it, it doesn't exist!