[The Millennial Voice] Social Media Through the Eyes of Generation Z

By Cary Chernega

Living in a modern day world filled with smartphones and immediate access to the internet is all I have ever really been used to. Now, this coming from a sixteen year old girl also applies to the rest of my generation, who have grown up like me, with the power of the internet at their fingertips. This ability to access information at any given moment has really impacted the way that kids, teens, and young adults think, act, and communicate in our present day. Social media has also played a huge role on the way that kids grew up and learned to communicate. Putting this in perspective, it is now a great deal more common to see kids texting than calling than let's say, 20 years ago. Why’s that? This is happening for the reason of social media and the ability to say anything at anytime, without needing to confront the other person face to face. It may sound abnormal, but to the new generation it has only become the norm.

Why is the new generation codependent on Social Media?

When something is with you since birth, you become used to it. You learn to grow and live with it and eventually it becomes a casual part of your everyday life. This is what social media has become for my generation, making it strange to think about living without it. For older generations, this isn’t a problem, being the fact that they have had a period of their life where no social media was the norm. But on the other hand for us, communicating without it seems extremely hard, and in a world where a few seconds and a few taps on a screen could accomplish as much as a lengthy phone call, it could also seem near impossible.

Snapchat VS Facebook?

When I was ten years old, Facebook was all the craze. If you had an account (for which at that age you would have to lie and say you were older than 13 to sign up), you were considered a cool kid. By the time I was actually 13, no word was spoken about Facebook ever again. At that time, Snapchat had started making its rounds, and was the only thing the kids were using. Not only were you able to talk to your friends without being face to face, but each message you sent would only last for ten seconds, making it temporary, easy, and fun. I am now sixteen years old, and to this day snapchat is one of the most used social media, while making the young generation consider Facebook as “outdated” and “old”.

The future for Social Media?

With this generation growing up so fast, we are also in need of new, fresh, and unique social media to keep up with. From experience, I have noticed that the simpler, the better. Simplicity is key when creating a social media that teens and young adults will enjoy and use. When there are too many options, it tends to get messy and complicated, and that is definitely not something that is wanted. We want fast, quick, and easy access to all aspects of the app, because living on the go requires social media that can keep up with that.

Social media is a large part of the new generation, and will surely impact the way that we live and prosper in the near future. New apps will come and go, each leaving their mark, and each being thoroughly critiqued and inspected by the worlds biggest social media critic and consumer, generation Z.