Move over millennials, here comes Generation Z, today’s youngest group.
繼千禧一代后,如今最年輕的群體便是——Z世代。
Born in 1995 or later, a lot of Gen Z-ers are entering into adulthood and will soon join the workforce. People of Generation Z have grown up with the internet. They are said to be *tech-savvy and *obsessedwith social media.
許多1995年及之后出生的Z世代逐漸成年,不久后將走上工作崗位。Z世代在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的陪伴下成長起來,被認為是沉迷于社交媒體的科技通。
They live in a progressive era where gay marriage is being legalized in more and more societies. But they’ve also witnessed the rise of global terrorism. Generation Z will shape our future. Policy makers, sociologists, as well as employers and marketers, are trying their best to understand these young people. So, how should we pin down the Gen Z-ers?
他們生活在一個進步的時代,越來越多的社會將同性婚姻合法化。但同時他們也目睹了全球恐怖主義愈演愈烈。Z時代將塑造我們的未來。政策制定者、社會學家、雇主以及營銷人員都在努力了解這些年輕人。所以,我們該如何明確定義這些Z世代的年輕人呢?
Most people will agree that the single biggest difference between Gen Z and other generations is how connected they are. This is a group of people who were hooked up to social media as soon as they were born. Social media has changed the way Gen Z-ers interact with each other and how they get and process information. A recent Guardian article says that the average teenager in the UK has at least 150 followers on Instagram and spends around half an hour a day on Snapchat, an image messaging app. “We are the first true digital natives,” Hannah Payne, an 18-year-old UCLA student and lifestyle blogger, was quoted by The New York Times as saying: “I can almost *simultaneously create a document, edit it, post a photo on Instagram and talk on the phone, all from the user-friendly *interface of my iPhone.
Z世代和其他年代的人最大的不同之處就在于他們彼此聯(lián)系緊密,大多數(shù)人都會認同這一點。這群人自打出生以來,便和社交媒體緊密相連。社交媒體改變了Z世代彼此間互動以及獲取并處理信息的方式?!缎l(wèi)報》近期的一篇文章指出,平均每個英國年輕人在Instagram 上都至少有150個粉絲,并且每天都要花大約半小時玩照片通訊應用“快拍”。“我們是第一代真正的數(shù)字原住民,”加州大學洛杉磯分校學生、18歲的漢娜•佩恩是一名生活方式博客博主,她的這番話還被《紐約時報》引用:“我可以幾乎是同時地新建并編輯一份文件、在Instagram上貼出一張照片,再打一通電話,這一切都得益于我的蘋果手機人性化的使用界面。
“Generation Z takes in information *instantaneously,” she added, “and loses interest just as fast.”
“Z世代能夠即時獲取信息“,她補充道,“也很快就失去興趣。”
Becoming more active
更為活躍
Generation Z-ers may have a shorter attention span than a goldfish, but they are conscientious and *civic-minded. Gen Z-ers are coming of age in the era of the economic *downturn and global terrorism and they have their eyes open from the very beginning, says Lucie Green, a top executive from international advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.
Z世代注意力的持續(xù)時間或許比金魚還短,但他們認真盡責,富有公德心。Z世代在經(jīng)濟低迷和全球恐怖主義的時代背景下步入成年,他們從一開始便睜大眼睛看著這個世界,國際化廣告公司智威湯遜的高管露西•格林說道。
Green told The New York Times: “If Hannah Horvath from [TV series] Girls is the typical millennial – self-involved, dependent, flailing financially in the real world as her expectations of a dream job and life *collide with reality - then Alex Dunphy from Modern Family represents the Gen Z *antidote,” Green said. “Alex is a true Gen Z: *conscientious, hard-working, somewhat anxious and mindful of the future.”
格林在接受《紐約時報》采訪時表示:“如果(電視劇)《衰姐們》里的漢娜•霍瓦特是典型的千禧一代 —— 專注于自我、依賴他人、由于她理想中的工作生活與現(xiàn)實相沖突而在現(xiàn)實世界中為錢發(fā)愁,那么《摩登家庭》里的亞歷克斯•鄧菲則代表了Z世代的解藥,”格林說道。“亞歷克斯是一名真正的Z世代:認真盡責、勤奮努力、對未來抱有幾分憂慮和關注。”
The Guardian also notes that young people in the UK are becoming more active in politics. According to a British Election Study that is cited by the newspaper, an estimated 58 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds voted in the 2015 general election in the UK, a significant jump from the 38 percent turnout among the same age group in 2005.
《衛(wèi)報》同時也指出,英國年輕人在政治上日益活躍。據(jù)該報紙引述的一項英國大選調(diào)查顯示,在18-24歲年齡段的人之中,大約有58%的人參與了2015年英國大選,比2005年同年齡段人群的參加人數(shù)遠遠高出了38%。
Voting is just one way of making one’s voice heard. The Guardian cites 2013 research carried out by the European Commission which found that “young people regard voting as one option among many, and they show their political *engagement in many different, issue-specific ways that can potentially influence policies more directly”.
投票選舉只是發(fā)聲的一種途徑。歐盟委員會于2013年發(fā)布的一項調(diào)查報告發(fā)現(xiàn)“年輕人將投票選舉視為眾多選擇之一,他們在許多不同的特定方面展現(xiàn)了政治參與度,并對政策產(chǎn)生了潛在影響”。而《衛(wèi)報》也引述了該調(diào)查結果。
Most of Generation Z are still too young to vote, says The Guardian. Instead of party politics, they focus more on single-topic issues such as *feminism or climate change. And “much of the civic engagement and organizing they do takes place on social media rather than through traditional political structures,” according to the newspaper.
《衛(wèi)報》表示,大多數(shù)Z世代還未達到投票年齡。他們更多地關注女權主義或是氣候變化等單一議題,而非政黨政治。據(jù)該報報道,“許多他們策劃的公民參與以及公民組織活動都是通過社交媒體,而非通過傳統(tǒng)的政治結構進行。”