Putting it All Together

After discussing all of the characteristics of each generation and reasoning for possible influences of these traits, now it will be discussed how they compare with each other.

To begin, Baby Boomers act like the control group here. They did not have any social media when they were young and developing their values. They received their news from limited sources that did not show many perspectives. Without social media, they did not have news constantly coming at them, and lived more in the bubble of their lives, instead of the lives of others, as other generations do through social media, which may explain their optimism and entitlement.

Generation X also did not have social media as children, but as they were young adults, the Internet rose and they had more information at their hands, so they had more access to different perspectives from the media than Boomers did, and thus may have had a growing concern of the world, seeing the increase in all of the new information they were receiving, which may result in their more cynical view compared to Boomers.

Baby Boomers and Generation X both did not grow up with media, so the most similar groups really influenced by social media are the Millennials and Generation Z. Since they both grew up in a similar digital era, this is really where we see social media's effects, but what makes the generations different?

Millennials and Generation Z both share traits of having a need for instant feedback and instant gratification, constantly wanting new information and searching for answers, all while being multi-taskers. These similarities are not seen as much in the previous generations, so social media must have had some play in this. Since both generations were young when they had social media, they have become used to always having the ability to have access to information quickly, and being able to search for many answers at the same time, allowing them to become good at multi-tasking and trying to be effective. They have been able to open the Internet and instantly see what is going on in the world, and this ability has expanded rapidly over the past decade, which may explain the things that differentiate the two groups.

With time and the advancement of technology, social media has become a place for more than just fun posting and sharing with friends. Each social website developed its own identity and formed its own structure. Twitter is a place to share thoughts and opinions, Instagram is a place to have perfected pretty photos, and Snapchat has streaks that must be upheld. Each website has a structure that has formed with time that has these unwritten rules that people feel they must go following. It is not just about sharing with friends, now it is about getting the most likes and followers, even though most of these followers may be complete strangers, somehow there is a success in this. This is where time has changed media and differentiates Millennials from Gen Z. Millennials were young at the beginnings of these social networks, where people were only learning about the possibilities of these medias, and were going about them freely, having fun with their friends. Now, Gen Z has grown up with a more structured media, where people are more likely to judge how you are posting, and kids may feel pressure to follow these set standards to not embarrass themselves. These are some things that may be causing more anxiety in Gen Z, compared to Millennials, who did not have this structure when they were young.

Besides social expectations, social media has evolved in the business and news world. People used to get the news from the newspaper, radio, or nightly TV broadcast. Now, a lot of news has shifted to social media, and it has a good outreach there, as about 61% of Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z use social media or news websites as their primary source of news, compared to 64% of Boomers that still rely on the TV. Entering Twitter, one sees the trending tab, which is constantly being updated with the relevant events happening in the world. People can see what events just occurred and what different users have to say about this, opening them up to a wide variety of different perspectives. On Facebook and Instagram, people will post political statements in support of a certain group, giving their perspective and view of a subject. News is not just coming from news stations anymore, but is something that people constantly have at their fingertips. This constant flow of information may be another cause of anxiety in Gen Z, as they are young and being shown so much of what is going on, and this may also be why they want to be so politically involved and make change in the world. Millennials saw this change in news media as they grew up, but they experienced a lot of social media without this, and were older when it began to play such a role in the news, so while they are similarly active like Gen Z, they have not been affected from such a young age, so they may be less sensitive to this compared to young children that are constantly learning about the world and soaking their impressions in. This also explains why these two generations are so open-minded to diversity, as seeing all of these perspectives on various topics has allowed them to understand various people and be less biased about varying situations. Millennials and Gen Z share many common traits that can be connected to growing up in a digital world, but as the digital world advances, some traits may be more prominent and show this difference between the two generations.

Final Conclusion

Social Media is a recent development that has become popularized in the last two decades. This has allowed the generations of Millennials and Gen Z to be especially exposed to it as young, developing children, so there is a high chance that it has affected the development of their identities. Looking at data from studies, Millennials and Gen Z have shared characteristics that are not seen in previous generations, that can be well explained by the effects of always having the Internet and social media at their fingertips. Although Boomers and Gen X are able to use social media, they have already developed their values when they were younger and watching the world change. The social medias may have effects on them as well, however, adults already will have formed their identities so they will not be as affected by this, compared to children who soak in the world when they are young and navigating how it works. Boomers did not grow up in a world that contained social media, so they focused on their own lives, and had limited perspectives of the world based on the few news sources they had. Gen X also did not grow up with social media, however, having more advanced technology and being young adults when it was released, it may have still had a slightly greater effect on them, since they were younger than Boomers. Millennials saw the beginnings of social media in their youth, so they were able to absorb it but also have fun with it, before media was flowing with news and information. Generation Z has been born into a world of social media, so they have always seen that constant flow of new information, possibly making them more anxious than previous generations, being overwhelmed with all of it. Both Millennials and Gen Z are more open-minded to diversity, which can be connected to their access to a wide variety of sources for information and being able to see various perspectives, from such a young age. As it became more prominent, social media seems to have had an effect on generational identity, creating values in children navigating the world, that were not as prominent in previous generations.