Here they come, the networked whiz kids ready to dictate new trends and disrupt industries; the generation that found their way with touchscreens even before taking their first steps. Their language is coding, grammar is Instagram, and Google their go-to. They are the Generation Z, game-changing digital natives about to hit the workforce in a continent boasting one of the youngest populations in the world. Could they be the new class of billionaires in Africa?
Africa’s first fully tech-savvy generation, known as Generation Z, is coming of age, bringing to business more innovation and disruption than the millennials (also known as Generation Y) before them.
They are the “i-everything generation”, because they are hyper-connected, always plugged-in to devices and daring dreams.
These professionals, now entering the workforce, have never known a world without smartphones. As national development plans and Sustainable Development Goals set 2030 as their target for change, the first generation of real ‘digital natives’ that could make that possible, are here.
In South Africa, Generation Z is also the ‘Born Free’ generation, born after the end of apartheid.
These are today’s young adults, born in the mid-90s, who have seen the impact on their parents of the ravages of the global recession and the threats of terrorism.
“It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to be born between 1996 and 2000 and have a strong, emotional connection to 9/11. Your brain is simply too young to put the event in a cultural, geographic, or other context. From our research-based vantage point, if you were born in the US and 9/11 has always been history to you — something you literally cannot remember — then you are not a millennial but a member of Generation Z.”
These are the well-articulated words of Jason Dorsey, president, co-founder and a millennials and Gen Z researcher at The Center for Generational Kinetics, on the phone with us from Austin, Texas, in the United States (US).
His research has led him to become a specialist in studying millennials and Gen Zers. He has also delivered many TED Talks on the topic.
This story is from the March/May 2018 edition of Forbes Woman Africa.
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This story is from the March/May 2018 edition of Forbes Woman Africa.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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