KIDS THESE DAYS: IT’S TIME TO STEREOTYPE GENERATION Z

MILLENNIALS ARE, LIKE, so 2000-and-late. Marketers now hope to sell stuff to kids born after 1995—so-called Generation Z. And this latest demographic designation is just as removed and reductive as any other. This is how marketing firm FutureCast puts it: “They view their identity as a curated composition.” (So ... selfies are a thing!) “All it takes to change their outward identity is a simple swipe and an upload to Instagram.” (Swipe to upload?!) But fine, we’ll play along.

After rigorous review of marketing reports and press coverage, here’s a portrait of your new sales target: the screen-swapping, painstakingly curated, social-good-performing Gen Zer (as imagined by Gen Xers).

• Considers Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games a role model

• Ranks Lorde as a favorite artist

• Uses Facebook as an “information hub” rather than an “engagement platform”

• Knows someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns

• Employs five screens

• Prefers YouTube influencers to Hollywood celebs

• Loves Snapchat and can’t live without YouTube

• Deletes Instagram photos to optimize likes-per-photo ratio

• Checks social media 100 times per day

#MILLENNIALS #GENERATIONZ #Lorde