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Gen Z Cohort Culture & Peer Personality
307 Plays3 years ago
How do generations develop a shared set of behaviors, values, and perspectives? Dr. Corey Seemiller helps kick off Season 4 and explore generational cohort culture and peer personality. We also share more about our latest global study on Generation Z.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Evolution
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to hashtag Gen Z. I'm your host, Megan Grace.
00:00:18
Speaker
Hello and welcome back. This is episode 37 of hashtag Gen Z and the official start of season four. It is wild to me to think about that we're in season four of this podcast. I really started the podcast as a way to continue to explore Generation Z and share the stories of Gen Z. What has unfolded over the last four years has truly been a gift and an experience I never take for granted. For every guest who has joined me, I feel so lucky to be able to learn from and with them.
00:00:43
Speaker
whether they're a member of Generation Z or work closely with Gen Z, the people who show up to tell a story make this podcast what
Global Study on Gen Z
00:00:50
Speaker
it is. As I wrapped up the last season, I was in the midst of a big and exciting professional journey. Last fall, Corey and I conducted our first global study on Gen Z and one that is poised to be the largest of its kind. It involved 31 countries and over 70 researchers around the world. To date, it has generated over 30,000 responses, which has made recording, producing, and releasing episodes a bit harder than I anticipated.
00:01:13
Speaker
And with full transparency, the study is still in the analysis phase, which is still really time intensive. However, I'm hoping to share about the findings when they become available, and I'll be doing my best to release episodes in a timely manner. I just always want to be fully transparent with you as you're the listeners and you make this podcast the special place that it is. Throughout the study, though, the concept of culture kept emerging. The culture that exists within different countries and regions, as well as culture that develops within a generational cohort.
00:01:42
Speaker
And while I don't intend to give each season a theme, it has naturally happened that way over the last few years as I follow my curiosities. Kicking off this season, I plan to explore culture and generation Z, what culture is, how it impacts a generation, and the many different aspects of culture that play a role in how each generation is
Introducing Dr. Corey Similler
00:02:01
Speaker
unique.
00:02:01
Speaker
For this episode, I'm joined by my research partner, collaborator, Dr. Corey Similler. As you know from previous seasons and episodes, Corey and I have been studying Generation Z since 2014. To date, we've conducted four original studies, written two books and two guidebooks about Generation Z. We've also launched a series of courses about Generation Z so learners can engage with content about Gen Z and tailor their learning experience.
00:02:24
Speaker
When Corey's not working on generational research, she's a professor of leadership studies at Wright State University. Please welcome back Dr. Corey C. Miller to the podcast.
00:02:37
Speaker
So I'm so excited to kick off season four, which is weird to think that we're in season four. But then when I think about like the journey with Gen Z, it's been many more moons than that. And of course I would be bringing back because it's just tradition at this point. My good friend and collaborator couldn't do Generation Z anything without her, Corey Similler.
Generational Theory and Cohort Culture
00:02:54
Speaker
Well, welcome back, Corey. Thanks so much, Megan. Always a pleasure to be here. And I've loved watching this podcast develop over all these seasons that you've done it. It's been such a journey and I've loved being a part of it. So thanks for having me.
00:03:06
Speaker
Yes, it's always great to have you back. I always feel like it's just us recording a meeting because sometimes that's what it feels like. But really, as I was thinking about where do I take this next season, it's just really prime for a good conversation to kind of give people more of some of the theoretical component of it. Because I think sometimes people don't realize that there's actually generational theory out there. There's actually
00:03:28
Speaker
We use foundations and other things to know this. We don't just make up surveys and put them out there. I mean, we kind of do that, but there's some other elements to how we understand a cohort and how we understand a peer personality. And that's where I really want to take our conversation today. So I'll give you the first question because I always feel weird when I interview you and most of the time our
00:03:50
Speaker
interactions are kind of just free-flowing thought. But from a research and theoretical perspective, can you give listeners more of a background on how we have studied cohort culture and peer personality and really how we've gone about understanding generations? Because I know we got into on an accident, but we learned very quickly that generations are not an accident. So walk people through our process and how we've learned about this generation or all generations really.
00:04:18
Speaker
Well, I think what's been interesting for us in our journey was really the context in which we started this, right? Looking at college students. And that cohort right there of those kind of emerging adults, whether they're 17, 18, 19, coming to college and what they were experiencing in terms of the world around
Impact of Global Events on Gen Z
00:04:34
Speaker
them, right? I mean, all of us are experiencing different events, different cultural shifts.
00:04:38
Speaker
but doing so at different ages makes a real difference you know so you know in higher education i learned very quickly that the older i get the less relevant i am and the less i can connect to students so i had to start watching movies and things to just make meaning so i could connect with them and it's um you know certainly harder and harder as i get older but that's particularly reflective of this cohort effect is this idea that there's a group of young people that are coming into the world
00:05:03
Speaker
in a time and place with things that are very different than my experience. Internet, smartphones, you know, not just technology, but the world around them is very different. And so that was really our initial fascination with Generation Z, was studying this particular age group of people. Now, what's happened is we've been studying them for so many years now that the oldest of them are, you know, mid 20s. I mean, you round it up, they're going to be close to 30 here soon.
Micro-Generation: Little Z's
00:05:24
Speaker
And so now we're looking at this this micro generation the little Z's which is the second half of this generation Which is in its what in its own way its own cohort So I think it's really interesting as we continue to watch kind of this emerging adult population in this generation as they come of age Absolutely, and I think that it's not Again, I always say we got into it by accident, but nothing we've done since then has been accidental I think that we've done
Complexities of Studying Generations
00:05:52
Speaker
what both you and I are trained as like I'm probably the most rogue academic on this call but like as academics and like you can't just random study things like there is intentionality of understanding like there's so much more I think than I anticipated when we started all of this like understanding of psychology understanding of developmental stages understanding of
00:06:14
Speaker
how humans progress, and then also how society plays a role in all of this. And we've talked about that before, you know, really the things that we can look at that shape a generation, we look at government politics, economy, social context, we look at technological context, we can look at all of that.
00:06:33
Speaker
but it's not just a singular snapshot in time. And I think that's been something like a reflection I've had is that our work is not just put out a study and do demography because that sounds like that underserves really what it is that sometimes when you're trying to study generation actually takes place because we have to be historians. We have to understand developmental stages. We have to understand psychology. I have to understand the economy more than I ever anticipated in doing this kind of work of like how
00:07:01
Speaker
the economy plays a role in understanding young people and their decision making. And so I think it's just been a really interesting perspective that in some cases we are, I think we're a little bit like anthropological studiers as well. Like we are looking at a distinct group, a distinct culture of people. And I use the term culture because I think that it's important that like every generation has the distinct elements of a culture, which is
00:07:27
Speaker
values, behaviors, norms, things that are shared understanding, shared experiences. I don't want to say traditions because I don't think that they're like, we all celebrate in this one way, but there are things that they hold to be valuable. And I think that's been something I didn't anticipate in all of our journey was that we would develop in many of these different ologies of understanding generations, which kind of a beautiful thing when I think about it.
Addressing Diversity in Generational Studies
00:07:53
Speaker
Well, yeah, and I think one of the things that's fascinating to me is a lot of people ask me how do we account for diversity within these cohorts themselves, right? How can we make sweeping generalizations about a group of people? And I say, you know, we don't really make generalizations about a group of people, but we do understand a culture of people that have something in common.
00:08:10
Speaker
And I know that both you and I have backgrounds in student development and student development theory, and that's really kind of part and parcel of the psychological underpinnings of how we got to study why a group of people does what they do. I mean, that's the whole foundation of the profession, which both of us were in when we started this, which was student development, student affairs, was understanding why students do what they do and helping them move into adulthood. So that's really helped us be able to see
00:08:34
Speaker
How does that intersect with these external events that are happening, right? The responses. So students have a moral development or they might have a psychological development about something, but put on top of that COVID, put on top of that, you know, globalization or put on top of that, you know, global unrest, whatever that may be.
Research Methods and Approaches
00:08:51
Speaker
And we have a very complex system that is impacting the way that young people are
00:08:55
Speaker
are interpreting the world around them and then in turn behaving and so for you and I it's been a really interesting study where we've been able to take what we were already doing and really just sort of blend the sociological the anthropological and in my case ethnographic because I live with a Gen Z or myself so I am embedded right there in the culture of Gen Z but I think it's just been a fascinating journey where we've been able to just
00:09:18
Speaker
constantly be looking around us at all of the amazing things that are happening in the world and how they're influencing young people today. Yeah it's been interesting because I feel like we I personally sometimes like I've grown up twice like I grew up in my academic and like professional career but at the same time I'm growing up with Gen Z from like a I don't want to say that I'm like that meme of Kim Kardashian poking out of the bushes but that's how I feel sometimes it's like I'm just like hey what are you doing over there? Thinking about like what's going on with Gen Z and like understanding
00:09:46
Speaker
what's happening with them. And I think that the very cool thing is that we've been able to develop this framework. And again, we didn't develop fully this framework. We've pulled it in from a few different places. Again, our background in student development. I know that I did some youth development stuff in my undergraduate degree and understanding Erickson and how like people navigate life and just regardless of education or space, but then looking at there's other generations to study. And I think that that's what's really great is like, I think we're always going to love Gen Z.
00:10:16
Speaker
but what we've developed is a way that we can continue to understand generations.
00:10:22
Speaker
in the new generations that come, doing reflective work on other generations. That's a really cool thing that I, again, kind of just by accident, but I think that there's never been something we didn't do with some element of intentionality, which I appreciate.
Cohort Effect Theory
00:10:34
Speaker
You know, you touched on the way that world events impact people or not even world events, they can be within our own society or own country. I think we've, we talk about this often of what is influencing a cohort and is it kids just being kids?
00:10:52
Speaker
Or is this something that is truly focused on a cohort? And I want to just clarify that for all of our friends out there as we're kind of in that more theoretical space right now as Corey and I do some of our work. We tend to try to look at how trends progress.
00:11:08
Speaker
and how cohorts kind of respond. And we've been able to pull some stuff both from Strauss and Hausen, the original kind of generational theory type of people. Pew Research does some great stuff in capturing this as well of life cycle period and then cohort effect. And for life cycle effect, that's where we're looking at is something just truly based on developmental stages.
00:11:32
Speaker
of young people, so it doesn't matter if a teenager is a teenager in 1920, if they're a teenager in 2020, there's just some element of the human brain that's going to be present there. We're looking at the period effect, which period is where we might say, what is a large monumental event that's going to impact people regardless of age?
00:11:51
Speaker
It's going to impact people in different ways, positive, negative, you name it, but it is going to impact people. One that is previously been utilized a lot is 9-11. I think we could also include the COVID-19 pandemic in there as well as that it will impact people regardless of their age stage, you name it. And then there's this cohort effect. Cohort effect, though, is where I think we really draw a lot of meaning, Corey, from our work is
00:12:15
Speaker
If a world event is happening or a societal event or trend or something is happening, who is the cohort in question in terms of the formative years? And Corey and I always look at the formative years because that is when people are developing their worldview and how they navigate the world.
00:12:31
Speaker
Yes, we're all experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, but if you're in those formative ages of youth, teen, tweens, young adults, that is where they are developing that worldview, understanding of safety, understanding of public health, understanding of how the government plays a role in that. That this is a, yes, we're going through a period related to COVID-19.
00:12:53
Speaker
but the pandemic is shaping those young people moving forward. They are just the cohort in the formative years. And so I want to clear that up for our listeners that sometimes when there are things that happen, like young people being rebellious in whatever capacity, that might just be young people being rebellious because they've had a history of doing that since, I don't know, the beginning of time.
Understanding Generational Cohorts
00:13:15
Speaker
And so we try to look more at the cohort effect to this idea that what is going on with a given cohort at a given time
00:13:22
Speaker
Or how is an event or a trend going to impact their potential future or their perspective on the world. So there it is. That's our kind of part of our theoretical underpinning of some of the stuff that we do in really looking at the effects that different components of society can have on young people.
00:13:41
Speaker
It's a lot more, I think, than people give it credit for, of getting to understand a generation. There's a little bit, there's a lot more depth there than I think that a lot of people would imagine. And I always, I don't know, Corey, if you're shocked by that, but when I start to present on some of the theoretical stuff with clients, they're like, wow, there's a lot more going on than just like someone did a workplace study on Gen Xers and said they're cynical. Like there's just more going on there, I think.
00:14:08
Speaker
There's just a ton more. Corey, we've talked a bit about cohort culture, peer personality. What are some of the ways that we've studied that? Because I think that we've looked at that from a few different angles. And I think that we've developed a really robust understanding of this peer personality among Gen Z. But what are some of the ways that we've done that?
00:14:26
Speaker
Well, I know that through the studies we've done, and now we've done four studies, and we've been able to look at two main angles. We've looked at things around perspectives, and we've looked at things around behaviors. And I think that that's a really important delineation. So things around perspectives, we look at how do Generation Z young people identify themselves in terms of their characteristics? What motivates them? What are the things that they're concerned about?
00:14:53
Speaker
These are perspectives about just kind of how they perceive their own culture of their own generation and perhaps even themselves within it. But the second is behaviors. How do you communicate? What social media platforms do you use? And what we're finding, of course, as those external factors develop, we're seeing behaviors potentially change. So our very first study, TikTok, wasn't even invented yet. That wasn't even an option. So we don't know how students or young people would use TikTok.
00:15:22
Speaker
at that point. But our most recent study, we've added TikTok. And so as the world sort of changes and new ideas come about, we're able to ask newer questions about behaviors. I know on this most recent survey, we asked questions about pandemic behavior. Now, of course, again, in 2014, our initial study, we weren't able to ask that. But we did re-ask many of the same perspective questions. How do you characterize yourself? What motivates you? We use the same scales, optimism,
00:15:46
Speaker
how you work in groups. And so we're able to have some comparative data over time about their perspectives of themselves, which is really interesting to see. And then the behaviors, of course, we can compare that, but that is ever-changing because as new social concerns arise, or as new communication platforms come about, we're able to see that this generation is evolving along with the external factors that are evolving with them.
Gen Z's Evolving Behaviors
00:16:10
Speaker
I think it's been really kind of an interesting journey as there have been a couple of questions we've asked multiple times to see if there are changes based on two things. One is based on just simply time passing and new events and things occurring, right? So what was happening in 2014 is very different than what is now happening
00:16:27
Speaker
um in 2022 and so clearly there's there's differences there but the second thing is we're also looking at a different age group of people we have we're now looking at little z's which is that second half of the generation are they different i mean are we at a point where generations are just frankly too big the world is moving so fast that you know 15 20
00:16:48
Speaker
years of a generation is just simply too long of a span. So looking at the second half, is there differences in perspectives about how they see themselves and maybe the older half did when they were the same age, right? Looking at that kind of cohort, the formative years. So I think it's been an interesting twofold take on what we've been doing in terms of looking at how this generation sees themselves.
00:17:07
Speaker
I agree and I think that I commend us for not just thinking like we're the only people that can generate this information and like we're the only people that can design a study because it's absolutely impossible and we see other people that be like we're the definitive voice on a blank and I'm like how how can you be definitive voice on a generation's political perspective and their motivation and their behavior like
Research Approach and Collaboration
00:17:29
Speaker
I love that we take a very robust attempt at triangulating this generation and all generations that if they're going to say I like to fill in the blank about media stuff we then go look at the Nielsen group and all the stuff about media consumption and say where's something in our study translating in another study and
00:17:47
Speaker
That to me gives us a fuller perspective on it that's another thing that is just. I've learned in our time and understanding generations is that a lot of people want to be the definitive voice and i don't think that we've ever been like we are the voice we know this generation like we know a lot about them but we're always continually learning.
00:18:05
Speaker
and realizing there's a level of humility that we can't know everything all the time. Because we just, we can't. That's an impossible feat. So I've loved that component of what we do is that we don't think that it's just our study is going to be the only one that is going to answer every question. It's this developing of really, I would say, wide and robust understanding.
00:18:27
Speaker
I think one of my favorite things that we've studied is their characteristics, their self-reported characteristics, and then their motivations. Because that's where I see we can go look at another study and say, oh, that is
00:18:40
Speaker
Gen Z's motivation at play or that is Gen Z's characteristics of being incredibly loyal. They've self-described like that for almost the last 10 years. And so we're seeing that in real life. And that's what I really enjoy about the way that we approach our research. But I don't want to brag on us too much.
00:19:00
Speaker
One of the things I think that's important too is that even in our books, we reference hundreds of other studies. We're constantly looking for other people who are doing this work because this is a collaborative effort for us all to tell a shared story about this generation. It isn't any one group of people that's going to just say, here's who Generation Z is. And so we're always learning new things. But one of the greatest parts about this as a researcher is that a lot of us that are studying Gen Z are finding the same things.
00:19:29
Speaker
which, you know, continues to validate what we're finding. We don't have a lot of outliers in the kind of research that's happening. Every time I see a new study come up, I mean, I download report after report after report and I read and I'm like, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. And it's just, it's not that we should stop doing the studies because we're all finding the same thing in many ways. It's the fact that we're validating this, that all of us are getting a really good handle on what is the peer personality of this generation.
00:19:53
Speaker
in ways that are much more confirming than if we were all over the place. And so I love the idea that we can pull this shared knowledge together and come up with probably a much more robust answer for who is Generation Z than anyone, including us, could do alone.
Global Collaboration and Study Inception
00:20:10
Speaker
Yeah. And I love that we don't really think of our work as competitive.
00:20:15
Speaker
And I love looking at other people's research. One, we didn't have to do it. And two, it allows us to have a much better understanding. And so I really enjoy, obviously, the work that we do. I was counting today. We've been doing it for eight years. We're almost to the 10 year mark, which is, I mean, technically, I think we're on year nine because 2013 is when we started to think about it.
00:20:39
Speaker
We really didn't launch the study until 2014. And so I use 2014 as like that marker in my mind of, you know, that was the, that was when we got real about it. And for the last eight years, like eight years of a knowledge quest, which I didn't think I would ever be doing that, but here we are. Here we are. Um, and in year seven, I'm really proud of, and I want to pivot a little bit because I think that this just shows the
00:21:04
Speaker
The quest of knowledge that we've been on for seven to eight years now is our most recent study. I think that you and I always have about a two-year plan that we're always thinking about, you know, what's the next study? What's the next book? What's the next resource we put out for people? What's the next iteration of the work that we do together? Which I always have appreciated that we do that. But a few years ago, we said, I think we need to replicate our 2014 study.
00:21:28
Speaker
kind of refresh it. Little Z's are coming along. We've kind of teased at that. And then if you've been following along on my social media or Corey's social media, you know that we did launch that study last year, but it was arguably our most unique study in the way that it turned into something probably
00:21:45
Speaker
Again, it's that we didn't do it on accident. There was intention behind it, but we just kind of followed the energy. Do you want to tell the listeners about our newest study? What is it about? Where did it come from? And kind of just what has made it really unique and amazing.
00:22:00
Speaker
Yes. Well, and I love this story because this just goes to show that sometimes the research finds you instead of you finding the research. And so, you know, Megan and I did put, you know, kind of put together an outline of how we wanted to do this study. We were going to launch it in fall of 21 and we were going to survey the little Z's and we were going to compare them to the students, you know, the young people who took our survey in 2014. And it was very great. It was a replicated methodological, methodologically sound study.
00:22:28
Speaker
And I remember that it was in the springtime of 2021 and we were seven months, eight months out. And I remember getting a LinkedIn message from a graduate student in Spain and said, hey, I'm just interested about your studies that you've been doing. Is there any help you need or any way I can work with you?
00:22:49
Speaker
Honestly, I had gotten several of those over the course of the many years we've been doing this and try to respond to them and think, is there a way to plug them in or are we kind of at a lull time? I remember saying, this is one I need to respond to. I remember taking this meeting. We took this meeting and we met with her. Her name is Marta. Shout out to Marta. Exactly. Totally connected with Marta.
00:23:13
Speaker
All of a sudden just kind of this epiphany came to all of us is what if we did this study also in Spain where Marta was from and translated the survey into Spanish and then did a comparative study. And we had done some work with comparative studies with Brazil a couple years before where they replicated our 2014 and 2017 studies, launched it and then we did some, we wrote some articles. But this would be all in real time. We would actually be launching these at the exact same time with Spain and we thought this is just awesome.
00:23:43
Speaker
Well, I mean, within a week, we had contacts from Australia and we reached out to our Brazil team and we reached out to the UK and all of a sudden we had five or six people who said, I want to launch this survey in my country, I'll translate it and we'll launch it and we'll change the questions to be culturally appropriate for the environment.
00:24:05
Speaker
And then we thought, wait a minute, this is really neat. We have five or six partners with just people that we had contacts with. We thought, what if we tried to make this a global study? So I mean, I remember Megan, you and I getting on to, we found a couple books that people had produced. They were global books on Generation Z and they all had different authors that had chapters with different authors.
00:24:27
Speaker
And we're like, well, let's just reach out. We're literally going to cold call email these people and say, hey, look at what we're doing. We all of a sudden had so much interest. It was unbelievably ridiculous. And then all of a sudden we would scour the journals who was writing about Gen Z in different countries. We'd reach out to them. And we ended up with more than 70 researchers from around the world from 32 countries who signed on and said, yes,
00:24:52
Speaker
we are in this with you. And we were able to put together this incredible global study, which we basically launched the entire fall of 2021 and pretty much finished data collection right at the end of the year.
00:25:09
Speaker
So, it was one of those things where, again, the research found us. Yeah, we put it out there, we reached out to some people, but I could not get over how much collaboration people wanted to do. We have partners around the world that we have become friends with, that we are collaborating on projects with, that we are just inspired by the work that they're doing, and we have people from
00:25:30
Speaker
marketing, nutrition, we've got doctors, we've got people in education, we've got people that are consultants, we've got people that work in K-12 and youth organizations. It is unbelievable this research team and there isn't a day that goes by that I am not so grateful for the work that they're doing.
00:25:50
Speaker
And the fact that I'm so honored to be able to collaborate with all of them is that they said yes. And so I just think that this journey has been great. I mean, we're still in the middle of it. We just finished collecting the data. So I mean, I'll turn it back to you, Megan, to talk a little bit more about that. But I think the journey to get here was such a remarkable force of just kind of doors opening right and left as we just turned and allowed the process to unfold. And here we are today.
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah. I don't want to say that we were always kind of people that are like, this is the step that goes after this step that goes after this step. But like you and I are similar in the sense of like, we like to have a plan. We like to have steps how to get that plan done. And this was probably besides obviously going by the book for IRB and making sure that like we were properly dotting our I's crossing our T's doing good ethical research. The one time that we've really followed the energy and followed where it was taking us.
00:26:43
Speaker
I'm proud of us for that because it's way more abstract than we normally are so like it was moments of personal and professional growth For both of us, but I'm just like I am a big
00:26:54
Speaker
traveler if anyone knows that if they know me they know i'm a big traveler and it came into my life in a time when i was feeling uh very sad about not being able to experience the world and in a weird way it was my way of seeing the world like i got to see the world from connecting with these incredible researchers like truly some of the most amazing people that we've been only able to meet via zoom i hope we one day are able to spend time with them in real life but
00:27:19
Speaker
you know, there would be times when I'd wake up at like 6 30 my time and I'd have to be on a zoom at 7 30. And at the time my fiance now has been like, girl, you never get up that early. What are you doing? I was like, I got to zoom with somebody across the globe because it's just the time zone. And like we would be hopping on zoom at all weird hours of the day, but it was so worth it to be able to build those relationships, connect with those people. But ultimately,
00:27:42
Speaker
learn so much about Generation Z. And I'm so excited to see where the findings go and what we're able to do with the findings. I think it's going to be something that contributes to just a greater knowledge of Generation Z around the world. And where is the similarity, but also where's the difference? What are the things that make each society and culture within a country unique? But also, I'm really excited to see what is that shared understanding about Generation Z? Where do we see the similarity?
00:28:09
Speaker
And it's just, it's been really just an incredible experience. A lot of hard work went into it. I'm not gonna lie. There are many days when I was sitting translating on Qualtrics that I was like, I hope this, I hope we find what we're hoping to find. And we did, we did, but it's just been,
00:28:27
Speaker
really a big blessing, I think, in our
Preliminary Findings and Cultural Relevance
00:28:30
Speaker
lives. Throughout the rest of the season, I hope to be able to pull in some of our collaborators into podcast episodes. Corey and I will certainly be sharing more and more about the study as we're finishing up analysis, starting to think about a distribution plan, about findings, and just many things that we're going to try to get done around this study.
00:28:48
Speaker
I at least wanted to tease it today, Corey. I know that we tend to look at our studies from different perspectives, but without giving away all the good stuff, what are some of your favorite preliminary findings from, I would say preliminary because we're not done, but preliminary findings from the study so far? Well, one of the overarching ones is that
00:29:10
Speaker
I love that there's a lot of similarities from 2014. It's wild. It is wild. Yes, I'm shocked. And the similarities even cut across globally. When you look at US data compared to US data from 2022 or 2021 to 2014, there's some similarities, a lot of them.
00:29:28
Speaker
And then when you look at the global data from 2022 compared to US data in 2014, a lot of similarities. We're seeing a lot of very, very static or at least consistent views of themselves and how they're motivated and how they navigate the world that is just sort of shocking to me. And so we'll get into the more nuances. There are some differences, which are obviously important for us to designate. But for me, the biggest finding was that there's a lot of consistency.
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah, I guess I was expecting to go into the data. I really tried not to dig too much into it before we were like nearing end of collection because I don't like it. It's like watching the last five minutes of a movie. Like you don't want to do that. And so, uh, we, I really held off and not looking at it. And just from like a quick aggregate perspective, I said, is this, is this our 2014 study? Like these are almost exactly like some of these were just almost exactly the same. Like I'm just to this day,
00:30:22
Speaker
absolutely floored by the fact that we give them an option to tell us, like, what are the characteristics that describe you? And the top seven did not change. They might have switched around in order, but the top seven characteristics did not change in terms of what we would use our cutoff as, like, these are the primary descriptors of generation C. And I'm like, a seven-year glance. And as you mentioned, when we break it down, the US is identical.
00:30:48
Speaker
I'd have to go in and look at what are maybe some of the other like maybe regional or country specific differences.
00:30:55
Speaker
almost exactly the same, which I just was, that was just very wild to me. Um, I just, yeah. And the, the cool, I think another really amazing thing is like the cultural relevance of some of this content that, uh, you pointed out that there's lots of different researchers from different fields and disciplines supporting this study, but the desire to understand this group, I think has been incredible. So, you know, we've got environmentalists from Australia. We've that's correct, right?
00:31:24
Speaker
environmentalist. Yeah, our environmental team. Yeah, food science, all of these different things where you're like, what does marketing matter to like, why does understanding marketing matter to, you know, people about Gen Z?
00:31:37
Speaker
Well, they want to sell things to Gen Z. They want to understand their consumer mindset. That's why it matters. Why do food scientists want to know? Because, well, they want to know that the food is relevant to this consumer group or this cohort of people. And so there is this more collective desire to understand this generation, which I think was not necessarily an analytic finding, but the relevance of the content has been something that has really been
00:32:03
Speaker
really important and I've been really proud of to see that we've got all these researchers from different fields and different disciplines that care and find relevance and importance in the content and a utility in the content. So it's great. I can't wait to share more about it when we've got more that we can like get into people's inboxes and have them download and read and dive into. So Corey, that is all the questions I had really. I mean, just some stuff I wanted to chat about anything else you want to share about or chat about before we go.
00:32:33
Speaker
No, just that one of the greatest parts about this research is that it's always taking us in new directions. And so you couldn't have predicted eight years ago that we would have done these studies or designed courses or written reports and books. And I think it's just fun to be able to explore and amplify and help provide space for this generation to have a voice. And they do a great
Conclusion and Future Plans
00:32:58
Speaker
job themselves. But I'm sure everybody likes to have allies with some older folks like us.
00:33:03
Speaker
Out there really, you know helping share, you know what this generation is like and how to best work with them So I look forward to many more exciting adventures as we continue to study Generation Z and beyond Yeah, I mean Jen off is on their way and every time I talk with a group They're like, well, what do you know about Jen alpha? I say they're too young to take study on their own. So we'll get there when we get there That's what I know. That's what I know
00:33:28
Speaker
Well, Corey, thank you for stopping by, and again, always a wonderful conversation. You and I could sit and talk about this for literal hours, and we have. But I'm always thankful that you're willing to come, stop by, share some insights, and just share with the listeners. So thank you for being here.
00:33:46
Speaker
Oh, thanks for having me. I want to thank Dr. Corey C. Miller for joining me this episode and helping me kick off season four. The work that I do with Corey and this podcast have had such a reciprocal relationship as both are informing one another. Over the years, Corey and I have worked not only to learn about Generation Z but truly understand how generations are shaped and how a cohort culture or peer personality is developed. It is certainly not by accident.
00:34:10
Speaker
And as I say often, it's hard to try to change the values, perspectives, and behaviors of millions of people in a generational cohort. So our best path forward is to identify the differences and further explore what is motivating the differences. Understanding generations through the concept of peer personality or cohort culture allows us to get a fuller and richer grasp on generations to move beyond the surface. Throughout this season, we'll continue to explore how culture and Generation Z work together.
00:34:39
Speaker
And thank you for tuning into this episode. As always, if you enjoyed the episode, please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. This not only helps me improve the podcast, but it helps other listeners find the show. Throughout the season, we'll continue to explore culture and Generation Z to uncover different elements of culture that contribute to understanding generations. As we continue to dive into the global study, I'm hoping to be able to share more findings and insights, as well as feature some of our research collaborators from around the world.
00:35:09
Speaker
However, if you have a member of Generation Z with a story to tell or a guest that I should be featuring this season, please feel free to reach out. This podcast is an extension of the research that I do and it's meant to be a helpful conversation. If there's something you want to learn about, I'll happily be the one to help make that happen. If you have something you want to share or a topic that you'd like me to explore, please reach out via my website, meganmgrace.com or on social media.
00:35:34
Speaker
Thank you again for stopping by for this episode and welcome to season four of hashtag Gen Z. Let's continue this conversation and we'll chat soon.