ohh goody anther quiz Genz slang

[Gibbon]

Depends on many things, and you can't generalise from specific cases. But it seems odd that my generation have a fairly wide ranging general knowledge that seems to escape many younger people - watch any of the more moronic quiz shows and see how limited that of a lot of their contestants is.

It may be more fundamental. Read a lot of books and other sources and you are bound to pick up odd facts you can often use to derive answers to questions. Spend you life in the limited self-reinforcing world of social media and you simply don't get that exposure. And schools are only teaching a limited curriculum of facts, not a desire for learning as far as I can tell.

As for technical competence, using a well designed app or even writing one in a coding language does not mean you understand technology. How many really know the chain of events that go to making Alexa turn on the kitchen light, much less the underlying infrastructures?

Or, to put it in GenZ terms, "How sad are you. Who cares"

And how are books better than social media? They both suffer from the same weaknesses i.e. who wrote them, at least social media can be corrected in a timely manner.
And as for books, which I presume Gareth Jenkins (69) read at Cambridge, well just look at what that produced and the associated ethics.

The current cohort of Gen Z at my current gig and previous are much more competent with tech than mine ever was, its not new to them. They are used to consuming and filtering large amounts of data.

[malvolio]

And how are books better than social media? They both suffer from the same weaknesses i.e. who wrote them, at least social media can be corrected in a timely manner.
And as for books, which I presume Gareth Jenkins (69) read at Cambridge, well just look at what that produced and the associated ethics.

Jeez, more limited understanding.

Read widely - novels, biographies, histories, the Gruffalo. The source doesn't matter, retaining just a percentage of what you read does. It's amazing how much peripheral knowledge you pick along the way.

The current cohort of Gen Z at my current gig and previous are much more competent with tech than mine ever was, its not new to them. They are used to consuming and filtering large amounts of data.

On average, perhaps they are. Doesn't mean they understand how it works or why. Perhaps I'm biased - I started with computer technology in 1970. It's never held any fears. All that the latest iteration has done is force me to use my thumbs instead of a keyboard. But filtering data? Not a chance without a wider general education, you will have little context on which to do that.

[Snooky]

Do you speak to many Gen Z people?

Plenty, including my children and their acquaintances.

And your reference to "a typical old DM reader" marks you as someone with a typical lack of perspective who can only talk in hackneyed stereotypes

I speak as I find. If the subject of my criticism comes out with nonsense which perfectly fits a hackneyed stereotype, I guess the label applies.

[Gibbon]

Jeez, more limited understanding.

Read widely - novels, biographies, histories, the Gruffalo. The source doesn't matter, retaining just a percentage of what you read does. It's amazing how much peripheral knowledge you pick along the way.


On average, perhaps they are. Doesn't mean they understand how it works or why. Perhaps I'm biased - I started with computer technology in 1970. It's never held any fears. All that the latest iteration has done is force me to use my thumbs instead of a keyboard. But filtering data? Not a chance without a wider general education, you will have little context on which to do that.

^^^^^^^^^^
dogma (a positive, arrogant assertion of opinion, Collins).

[malvolio]

^^^^^^^^^^
dogma (a positive, arrogant assertion of opinion, Collins).

I know what dogma means. Perhaps you should look up "narrow minded".

[edison]

All these generation theory labels like Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Boomer are just lazy. A Millennial is now aged between 28 and 43 which is such a wide and diverse cohort as to be very limited in anything other than defaulting to vague generalisations and stereotyping.

Researchers and marketeers are slowly starting to move away from his kind of segmentation but in the meantime it's great for media headlines.

[vetran]

All these generation theory labels like Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Boomer are just lazy. A Millennial is now aged between 28 and 43 which is such a wide and diverse cohort as to be very limited in anything other than defaulting to vague generalisations and stereotyping.

Researchers and marketeers are slowly starting to move away from his kind of segmentation but in the meantime it's great for media headlines.

what are they moving to? The Noughties, tens-ies?

[edison]

what are they moving to? The Noughties, tens-ies?

Not quite. This is what Pew Research announced last year - they are one of the most well known social research bodies.

"We’ll only do generational analysis when we have historical data that allows us to compare generations at similar stages of life. When comparing generations, it’s crucial to control for age. In other words, researchers need to look at each generation or age cohort at a similar point in the life cycle. (“Age cohort” is a fancy way of referring to a group of people who were born around the same time.)

When doing this kind of research, the question isn’t whether young adults today are different from middle-aged or older adults today. The question is whether young adults today are different from young adults at some specific point in the past."

I think the last sentence is the key one.

[malvolio]

I think the last sentence is the key one.

It's also the point I was trying to make earlier...

[WTFH]

All these generation theory labels like Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Boomer are just lazy. A Millennial is now aged between 28 and 43 which is such a wide and diverse cohort as to be very limited in anything other than defaulting to vague generalisations and stereotyping.

Researchers and marketeers are slowly starting to move away from his kind of segmentation but in the meantime it's great for media headlines.

Media headlines are great by pulling on the nostalgia strings of their demographics.

9/11 was 22 years ago. For a teenager it is history.
Falklands war was 42 years ago. For a 30 year old it is history.
WWII finished 79 years ago. For a 70 year old, it is history.

But headlines like to imply that things are very recent.

The film Back to the Future had Marty go back 30 years (1985 - 1955), when rock and roll was just starting, and it was a laugh at how old fashioned it was back then when they played "Earth Angel". If the film was released now, then 30 years ago this week the UK number one was Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream.