He grows a size in a month; he is moody, aloof and sarcastic; he wears strange clothes; he hangs out with an annoying gang... so you may ask: "where is the kid I used to know?" - Well, the answer is just one word: adolescence... This is a very important stage in our lives​, still​, ​ people usually do not have enough information on it. I am often asked by parents "what should I do with my teenage kid?", and it usually turns out that these parents have no clue about the physical and mental changes and challenges their children are facing during these years. Having two adolescent sons, I wish to give an insight into​ this transitional period with this series.

In the previous post of this series​, ​ I was defining adolescence in general. Now we make a further step and see the characteristics of adolescents of these years, the so-called Generation Z ​because they have a few characteristics that can be strange for us parents. They "operate" in a different setting than we did, so let's see the most important features in a nutshell.

They are computer geeks

Computer technology and internet are​ as natural for them as taking a ​ breath. Using smartphones, tablets and computers are​ more of a lifestyle for them than pure equipment usage. They know a lot about the digital world (much more than their parents). Based on a recent Hungarian research almost 44% of 12-15-year-old kids actively download music or films from the internet. 30% of the 8-12-year-olds have their own Facebook or MySpace page - despite the age limits of these service providers.

They use electronic communication as naturally as we speak

Technology became an important part of their lives. It is the adolescents who use electronic communication (SMS, chat, communication-oriented sites like blogs, social media, video, ​and image-sharing sites) most often. They use these communication forms mostly to maintain their existing relationships, but they also automatically "check out" their new acquaintances. For example, ​my sons checked their student exchange pals before they have arrived and started to chat with them before even meeting them in person. For them, ​electronic and personal communication are quite the same.

Due to electronic communication, it became much easier for them to communicate with their peers, however, ​communication with their parents is more problematic ​because parents usually do not know much about the online activities of their children.

For them having a few lines in a chat application equals to talking (they even call this "netspeak" a talk!). In this new communication style, ​they use a lot of signs (eg. emojis), but these make messages childish and unclear in many cases. Net-speak entails confusion, as there is no context and no meta-communication to clarify meaning. It is hard to learn for a Gen-Z teenager to express his thoughts precisely with nicely phrased sentences​. This is the age of short texts, microblogs and other simplified ways of communication which make novels and long letters rather archaic.

They are fast in processing complex information

They can easily access all sorts of information from the world. We, parents, cannot hope anymore that they are not getting information that they cannot process. On one​ hand, ​they are too curious to avoid something that is interesting for them, on the other hand, ​the internet bombards them with easy-to-consume and superficial news. They are more informed than the previous generations, which means that on a cognitive level they are well ahead of their age. They seem mature as you talk to them, they have their own opinion and they have a good level of general knowledge about a lot of things. Many even say that this generation will be the smartest of all.

This generation has a different relationship to authority than we had: a Gen-Z kid has his own opinion and is ready to express it. He criticizes, judges and complains​ and are well aware of his rights. So we are facing a teenage kid with an adult communication and thinking, but he still lives as a child and his neurological development is still "under process". Ergo he is able to see things as they are, as we perceive them with our adult​ mind, but he is unable to process his experiences. He is ready to communicate clearly and in a surprisingly mature way, but in his emotions, ​he is still a child, so they need the understanding and protection of their parents.

Generation Z will be well ahead of ​other generations in their pace of information processing. And actually, ​at the workplaces of the future, ​probably rapid information processing will be one of the most valuable skills. The quantity​ of information and variables they have to deal with grows exponentially, and these teenagers will have to adapt to these new circumstances. Our brain is programmed to adapt, this is the essence of neuroplasticity. Neuroscientists say that human brain develops more quickly nowadays than at the time of inventing the prehistoric working tools. We, parents - growing up at a different age - are often suspicious about it. In our preschool years, ​we were taught to remember, we had to process information and store it in our long-term memories. But nowadays the key is finding the information and not keeping it (we have unlimited electronic capacities for storing data), long-term memory as it is, slowly becomes 'out-of-fashioned'.

They are multi-taskers

They are very good at multitasking: they are able to run 5-6 things paralelly on the computer or on their smartphone. For example, ​they​ listen to music, have a few parallel chats going on, answer an SMS, play a game - all at the same time! Multitasking as a lifestyle is part of their everyday routine. It's quite a​ paradox nowadays that despite the fact that we have quite many time-saving inventions, we seem to have less and less time. People from Gen-Z want everything NOW, they are not able to wait patiently for years or months (even a few minutes can be problematic), therefore they engage in many activities at the same time to have that progress now. (Multitasking requires very rapid shifts in their attention. Research shows that due to the accelerated pace of our lives they cannot concentrate on one thing for longer than a few seconds. If nothing happens within that time, they start to get bored... They have to be on the move constantly.)

The fast pace of this society created a so-called "conveyor-belt effect". This means that this generation is addicted to fastness. Two-minutes news in the media, shorter and faster scenes in movies, instant coffee in the morning and semi-cooked food for dinner... give it to me NOW.

They are materialistic and individualistic

They are children of the consumer society, so success, ​career, ​and money are of primary importance for them. They have learned that these are the things that count nowadays, all the advertisements, all the TV shows suggest that you are what you have or what you achieved. When I am teaching I always ask my graduating students what they would like to do after graduation. It is quite common that they do not have anything clear in their minds, but they usually mention gaining a lot of money and having a nice career​.

At the workplace, ​they are not an obeying​ and diligent workforce, but rather individualistic personalities. Previous generations put a lot of energy into their career​s, they stayed in their workplace for long hours, they undertook a lot of extra duties - all at the expense of their free time. Gen-Z employees do not show much loyalty towards their employer and they are not ready to work long hours. A job for them is just one of the various opportunities, so they are ready for a change as soon as their expectations are not met. This individualistic attitude makes them rather selfish, so obviously they are not very good teamplayers.

They have two identities: an online and an offline one

They have completely different ideas about private life: they are ready to expose and share their experiences on the various​ social media platforms. This is the generation that prefers to share their life to live it. For them being part of the internet society is totally evident. However, ​the facelessness of the internet encourages unscrupulousness. People feel less vulnerable when they can keep their "off-line" identity in the dark. They do not have to reveal their true self in the online​ space like in a face-to-face relationship. This can lead to exhibitionism and acting​ out.

According to American researchers (Laura Buffardi and Keith Campbell) the internet causes a dramatic shift in people's identity and behavior​. You have probably noticed that social media pages are full of retouched or fake photographs, suggesting an ideal self and a perfect lifestyle. This is the era of narcissism which is most harmful to​ adolescents who "construct" their online identity before establishing the "off-line" one. Research confirms that online characteristics subconsciously melt into their offline lives, for example they imagine a community similarly to imagining a chat room. In this process, ​their offline personality becomes more and more similar to their avatar. In a world where computers control our illusions, ​no one​ wants to seem ugly. Gen-Z is characterized​ by an increased anxiety concerning their body image. The internet only supports the perfect, the beautiful, the rich. These expectations will then influence the choice of the​ desired partner: externalities will play a major role in partner selection instead of internal values.

Their attitude towards risk-taking is different, too. They are programmed to take risks at this age, they enjoy risky and dangerous situations more than any other generation. (Partly this is the reason why they engage in activities like drinking, taking drogs or unsafe sex.) Research shows that they are perfectly assessing​ the pros and cons as well as the possible consequences of their decisions, however they take higher risks, because they enjoy these situations.

Stay tuned! I plan to continue... :-)

Literature used

• Parrot, L.(2012): Parenting Your Teenager, Right Now Media

• Pickhardt, Carl (2013): Surviving Your Child's Adolescence, Wiley

• Dr. Elias Aboujaoude (2011): Virtually You, The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality, W.W. Norton & Company

• Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia Greenfield (2008): Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships. The Future of Children, Volume 18 (pp. 119-146)

• Susan Greenfield: ID (2008): The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century, Sceptre

• Penelope Trunk (2009): What Generation Z will be like at work (from: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/07/27/what-work-will-be-like-for-generation-z/)

• Laura Buffardi and Keith Campbell (2008). Narcissism and Social Networking Web Sites, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 19, 4- 5.

Sources of pictures

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