Communicating with Different Generations

Derek DeWitt, Communications Specialist for Visix, Inc.

Older people have always looked with befuddlement and frustration at those who come after them, and younger people have always had a combination of amusement and suspicion for those who came before. Same as it ever was.

Yet today we see the differences between the generations increasing even more than in the past, and most of that is driven by technological changes that directly affect the day-to-day social fabric. The differences between Gen Xers and Boomers are not nearly as large as those between Xers and millennials. And then, of course, there are the Zoomers, who are a whole cohort unto themselves, and the up-and-coming Alphas.

What each of these groups want and expect can greatly affect how you communicate with and engage them, so it’s worth taking a look at what’s going on in each generational category. Obviously, these are generalizations, and not applicable to every single individual. Consider this large-scale map to the generational landscape a broad guide for understanding and engaging each group.

Mind the Gap

The term “generation gap” started being used by sociologists in the 60s, mainly because the baby boomers seemed to be so opposed to the things that their parents held dear, in every area – cultural norms, what constitutes fairness, musical tastes, attitudes towards race and gender and sex and so on. The phrase has since been replaced with “institutional age segregation” (which sounds sort of ominous), but the generation gap is what stuck in popular discourse. A generation was quantified to roughly every 20 years or so.

Back then, this divide was expressed through different use of language (including slang, which is often used to delineate an “in” group and an “out” group, and language brokering, which is when two or more languages are spoken in an immigrant household), lifestyle choices, attitudes at work and on college campuses, attitudes towards authority, and adoption of new technology. Many of these still play a part today, but technology has leapt to the forefront as a major, perhaps even the primary, factor in differentiating the generations.

You have to think about when people were born, but only so you can think about what the world was like when they were growing up. Someone born in 1950, for example, grew up in the 50s and 60s, and entered the workforce in the 70s. Someone else, born in 1970, grew up in the 70s and 80s, and built their career in the 90s. Each generation has different experiences that shaped them, unique priorities and distinct approaches to technology.

Veterans

The Veterans, or the Silent Generation as they are sometimes called, were born before 1945. Many of them fought in WWII, like their grandparents had fought in WWI. They are currently in their mid-70s or older, and people over 75 account for less than 2% of the workforce in the US. However, many of the systems we still use were created and implemented during their time, including clear top-down hierarchical structures, a respect for authority, a focus on duty and a preference for task-oriented hard work with clear personal benefits to themselves and their families. They saw work as a form of security for the future. In America, their key events were the Cold War, the Space Race and JKF’s assassination.

In many respects, this was not terribly different from their parents’ generation, though these people grew up with radios and saw televisions become commonplace, as well as the widespread adoption of automobiles and the attendant infrastructure to support them. It was their children who would have a very different set of priorities and who would give rise to the concept of a generation gap.

Communicating with Veterans

People from this generation didn’t grow up with technology everywhere, and they may be less accustomed to getting information from digital mediums. Don’t throw too much at once at veterans. They prefer more in-depth communications and still images over video. Also, keep in mind that some folks may have diminished vision or hearing.

Because they highly value work and family, craft your messaging around those themes. Highlighting things like anniversaries and benefits are likely to appeal to this group. Singling out someone for years of dedicated work also makes them feel noticed and appreciated.

Boomers

This is people born after WWII, as the Cold War settled in, between 1945 and 1964. They are currently in their mid-50s to mid-70s. They currently make up about a quarter of the American workforce, often in managerial roles, or as instructors.

Despite growing up in a time of relative prosperity, many of them became the radicals of the late 60s, with slogans like “question authority” and some very different ideas on how things should be run. They were very team-oriented, preferring a flat hierarchy over a vertical one, with a deep sense of equality and social justice. They wanted to right some of the wrongs they saw in the social and political world, were very actively involved in promoting those changes, and were generally optimistic.

As time went on, however, they tended to choose personal gratification over long-term goals. Writer Tom Wolfe, born in 1930, dubbed them the “Me Generation”, seeing them as narcissistic and selfish. They would argue that the systems they disagreed with were too entrenched to change, so you should get what you can (and, maybe, change them once you were the person in charge). As a result, they became the first “workaholics” and championed the 50-hour work week. Their key events were the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and the lasting Cold War.

Boomers value experience: the more you have, the greater value you bring to the table. For them, technology is something to be adopted if useful, but more a means to an end or as a convenience that makes achieving their goals easier.

Communicating with Boomers

Boomers are okay with many aspects of modern, digital communications, though they still like face-t-face conversations better than methods like email. 78% of people over 56 years old prefer Facebook and 67% use YouTube regularly. When it comes to newer social media, like Instagram and Twitter, usage drops of to 30% and under.

So, they’re happy with videos, and animations can be effective as hooks to get their attention. They like to know what the overall picture looks like, so sharing mission statements, goals and progress towards those goals will appeal to them. Since they like flat, team-oriented organizational structures, recognize groups and teams for hitting or exceeding targets. Just make sure everyone who was involved gets credit. Stats on productivity are good, as well as safety and health, especially benefits packages. And since they really mix work and personal life, sharing community announcements, fundraisers and the like will let them continue to do what they think is important while also connecting with friends, family and their communities.

Generation X

This is the first generation that has been greatly impacted by technology, a trend that continues to this day. As a result, most researchers have reduced the amount of time for this generation from 20 to 15 years. This means these folks were born between 1965 and 1980, and are in their early 40s to mid-50s today.

Technology changed quite a bit in that span of time, and greatly affected the culture. Because their parents worked so much, they are sometimes referred to as the “latchkey kids”, meaning they had little adult supervision, letting themselves into their homes after school with their own keys, often preparing their own meals. They watched a lot of TV, sometime known as the MTV Generation.

Canadian writer Douglas Coupland wrote a novel in 1991, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, coining the name for this generation from a chapter in a sociology book called Class by Paul Fussell which describes people who reject the pursuit of money and status, who want to opt out of the “rat race”. Accordingly, they are also sometimes known as the Slacker Generation since they seem not to care about the things their parents and grandparents thought were important. They are also unfortunately notable for being the first American generation to have an overall lower standard of living than the previous one.

Key events for Xers were Watergate, the energy crisis, AIDS, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. They often come from dual-income households, and also had a high percentage of single parent upbringings (since divorce was rife within the boomers).

In many ways, Xers became the first real digital consumers, with a steady stream of technological innovations that sometimes helped productivity, but were more often than not geared towards recreation: video arcade games, large TVs, music videos, the Walkman, the compact disc and the personal computer. They make up about a third of all US workers today.

Communicating with Xers

Rejecting the workaholism of their parents, Xers seek more of a life-work balance. They have very high expectations for jobs and tend towards entrepreneurial thinking. They are often quite informal and skeptical of authority structures, often creating a rather casual work atmosphere. They are self-reliant and value workflows that cut out nonsense. They want information and agency and thrive best in a flexible orgaznational structure. For them, work is about gaining sets of skills, and they tend to change jobs more frequently than their parents. They crave variety and are quite technologically literate, valuing the time saved by more efficiency.

This generation is comfortable with texting, though they use email more often. They overwhelmingly prefer Facebook and YouTube, though they tend to prefer to keep their social media personal and not tied to business.

Transparency is a key issue for Xers, so share communications that let them know where the organization stands of things. Signposting how the company or separate departments are progressing against objectives is also valuable to them. They want to know more than just what’s happening, they want to know why and the reasoning behind key decisions. Soliciting feedback would gain their trust, as this adds to a sense of openness and honesty. Just make sure the systems you put in place are good ones – they will mock poorly planned initiatives and simply not participate.

Since work-life balance is important to these folks, any communications that help foster that would be useful. Even lifestyle tips and tricks would be seen as valuable. And since this is the first generation to grow up watching Sesame Street, you can throw quite a lot of information at them at once. They also respond well to information presented as some sort of narrative – linked messages that tell a multi-part story, real testimonials from their colleagues or clients, etc. But since authenticity is so important to Xers, make sure they are verifiably real stories.

Xer humor tends to be irreverent, so feel free to be funny in an offbeat way. After all, they grew up on The Simpsons, the longest running prime time scripted series in America, brainchild of the man who made the popular cartoon strips Life in Hell, Work Is Hell, Love Is Hell and School Is Hell.

Millennials

This generation (sometimes called Generation Y) has probably had more written about them than any other. Their parents, the Gen Xers don’t really understand them, and the boomers certainly don’t. Much of this, at its core, is about technology.

It’s a bit of a debate as to where exactly this generation starts and ends. The general rule of thumb seems to be those born from 1981 to 1996, another 15-year span, so they are 25-40 right now.

Millennials have been surrounded by technology their whole lives. They grew up with large TVs showing lots of cable channels, push button phones (as opposed to rotary), game consoles and personal computers. They saw the rise of the World Wide Web and social media, high-capacity digital storage media, laptops, WiFi and the introduction of mobile phones.

They make up around 35% of the current US workforce – that’s the largest single group currently working (though, taken together, boomers and Xers make up 58%). This is because most of them have finished college (with maybe a few younger ones still pursing post-grad degrees).

This set is well educated (39% have a BA or higher, compared to 29% of Xers and 25% of boomers) and used to multi-tasking. They were the first generation to have schedules as children, and thrive on achievement-oriented tasks and recognition. They maintain a sense of fun in everything they do and demand a good work-life balance. Otherwise, they’ll simply find somewhere else to spend their times and energy. Millennials are very social and quite moral, though they think of themselves as realists. Training and gaining more skills, and more connections, is also very important to them. They cannot understand anyone ever wanting to do things “the old-fashioned way”.

Communicating with Millennials

Millennials dislike push communications like email, preferring things to be interactive in some way. Accustomed to having literally thousands of sources for news, information and entertainment, millennials bore easily, so variety is key when trying to engage them. They prefer more individualized interactions with peers (and also brands and larger organizations), and very quickly adopt new trends and platforms.

They use email but not as much as chat apps and texting. They really don’t like talking on the phone; written communication mediums that let them take time to choose their words are much more popular. Currently, they are the largest group in the US using Facebook, though their preference for short, concise communications means they are also exploring things like Snapchat and TikTok.

Videos will almost always do better with millennials than other communication formats. But to keep things fresh, mix up how and what you communicate. It’s just about impossible to overload them with too much information – they will simply choose what interests them anyway, so this is a case of more is better. In fact, shorter, more frequent communications are more effective than occasional, long ones. 

They’re comfortable with multi-window and split screens from watching 24-hour news, and have been using smartphones for years. Be sure to extend your messaging to smartphones and tablets. Incorporate social media feeds, YouTube videos and other online sources. These folks grew up with digital signage and interactive kiosks, so they are comfortable with short bursts of information and self-service communications.

Sometimes derided as the “participation trophy” generation, they really do respond well to recognition of a job well done, but also personal things, like birthdays. Start using micro-recognitions to get them interested. Millennials like to play and like to compete, so fun competitions will always go over well. And gamify anything you can – this will get them not just participating but talking about it to their peers as well. Encourage them to create, or even just suggest, content for your communications. And absolutely solicit feedback at every opportunity.

Generation Z

Also known as zoomers (and sometimes boomlets), this group includes people born between 1997 and 2012, so currently anywhere from 9-24 years old. Web 2.0, social media, streaming media, smartphones, smart speakers and smart homes – these are all simply part of the fabric of the world as far as they are concerned.

Their proficiency with technology, and ability to learn a new system quickly, is unparalleled. Their lives are so steeped in it, that some sociologists say this is the first generation of true “digital natives”. They are as different from their millennial parents as millennials are from the veterans.

Zoomers are generally quite polite, not very self-indulgent and quite risk averse. This generation is careful and very thoughtful. Connection is key for them, as is a sense of fairness and equity. Multiculturalism and inclusion are also important to them. Everyone should have a voice, and that voice should be heard and respected.

This is the generation with the highest percentage of allergies in history, and they are very aware of both physical and mental health concerns. They’re also extremely aware that climate change poses a serious threat to their future wellbeing. Some sociologists say the entire generation is showing signs of being in a constant state of mid-level stress.

Like the millennials before them, zoomers like taking media and communications they come across and playing with the content, remixing and reshaping it to express some part of themselves. They like options, the more the better. Facilities with flexible opening hours tend to get more zoomer business than others. Interactive exhibitions get rated higher than static ones. Locations with more options for food or entertainment (they’ve grown up with multiplex cinemas, for example) will do better with this generation.

Communicating with Zoomers

The oldest zoomers are just entering the workforce while the rest are in school, either higher ed or K-12. However, they are set to enter the workforce this year in droves, and will soon become the second largest group of working people.

Innovations in education have greatly shaped how they address problem solving, social interaction, and how they apply themselves to tasks. Basically, anything that holds true for millennials probably holds true for zoomers as well, with even shorter attention spans (they have grown up consuming a steady diet of what’s sometimes known as “snack media”). Their sense of humor, so far, seems to be less sardonic and more “in-joke” oriented than earlier generations.

It’s not just the availability of information they respond to, but also the immediacy of it. Zoomers are used to getting what interests them with just a few movements of their thumb, and anything that takes longer than that will probably get ignored. And almost none of them use email or like talking on the phone. In fact, a recent study showed that zoomers would rather text with someone than walk into the next room and talk in person. The exception is if it’s a conversation with someone in authority, like a manager at work or a university professor. In that case, they prefer having a face-to-face conversation. They seem to believe that, by using their appearance, voice and body, they can influence matters to come out more to their liking. And they will need some sort of constructive feedback before that conversation is over.

Crowdsourcing and reviews are important to this group. When shopping online, 80% will use a social media platform like Instagram or YouTube when deciding on what to buy. Snapchat and TikTok are a big part of zoomer culture.

There are two main driving factors they respond to – authenticity and influencers. Which is funny, since influencers often come from platforms like Instagram, where the use of filters to “improve” photos is standard. So, call it attractively-packaged authenticity. Giving zoomers a chance to become influencers in their own right is sure to be successful.

Some universities are using technology to extend their communications, such as livestreaming interviews and sport matches. They’re also getting zoomers involved by letting students take over the Instagram account for a day, and encouraging students to create short videos to be uploaded, shared and discussed with peers the next time everyone meets in the classroom.

This generation has also grown up in fairly uncertain times – climate change, 9/11 and the Great Recession, just to name a few events. Those who are starting to work seem to value security and stability, and financial rewards are more important to them than to millennials or Xers. So, in some ways, they are bringing back some of the priorities of the veterans, who lived through two world wars and the Great Depression.

However, this generation is really just getting started. Who knows what they will be like in 10 years? Few would have predicted back in 1995 that millennials would revive retro things like full beards and homemade butter, and actually start successful businesses around those things. Gen Z is sure to surprise us all and change the world in fundamental ways. And a lot of that will be driven by technological innovations, both in the way they use technology and the innovations they develop.

Generation Alpha

Don’t think of them as Gen Z 2.0. They are totally different. Though they are still quite young, 8 years old or younger, this generation is shaping up to be as different from millennials as Gen Z is, maybe even more so.

They are called Gen Alpha for the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and they’re the first generation born wholly within the 21^st century. Most alphas today are children of millennials, but soon zoomers will contribute to the pool. By 2025, there will be 2 billion alphas in the world, most in developing nations, and they will reach adulthood in the early 2030s.

This generation is sure to have a massive impact on the world and its systems, and how people communicate. With technologies like quantum computing, artificial intelligence, decentralized blockchains, carbon sequestering, renewable energy generation, autonomous vehicles, realtime telepresence, advanced robotics and brain-computer interfaces already being developed, this generation is certain to be the most divergent, and the most digital yet.

Each generation brings another set of preferences and priorities, as well as new technologies and mediums for you to reach them. As a communicator, you need to stay abreast of generational advancements and evolve your communications to meet those new opportunities.