What is Generation Zii?
Generation Zii is meant to be a site where anyone with an interest in our youngest children today get a glimpse into what issues they are facing, what events and cultural realities are at the forefront in their formative years, what distinguishes them from their predecessors and obviously highlights the impact of technology in their lives.
In some ways it is like a filter of the bigger world news and events relevant to this generation, their parents, educators, youth workers, product developers and the like. As a parent I have a keen interest in the world my children are growing up in and in some ways want to chronicle their journey and understand the world not necessarily just from their perspective but from their broader experiences and western cultural influences. As kids today they are not yet aware of many things and most of the news are irrelevant at this time if they don’t have anything to do with their direct experience especially since I am referring to children as young as infants and possibly yet to be born. This would make issues about assisted reproductive technology or families relevant. Early on more and more kids are facing a myriad of health issues, products, parenting styles/trends, and much broader socioeconomic and political landscapes that somehow still manage to reach their little lives. Soon enough they become evermore aware the world of toys and entertainment, then education becomes central and of course the fingerprint of technology is present throughout. Technology being the very thing that immediately distinguishes from the rest being that they are “digital natives”, the internet generation, iGeneration, or Generation Z as some researchers prefer to refer them.
Here I hope to capture not only the inherent impact of technology but also the uniqueness I see in the connectedness beyond themselves expressed in gadgets such as the Wii which has linked multiple generations in a central technologically driven activity. This connectedness is much broader—both our kids have been homeschooled in previous years, both have the reality of overseas travel, a broad diversity of friends socially, ethnically, economically, religiously and even the kinds of families they come from—as in gay male parents, gay female parents, adopted cross culturally parents and of course intentional single and divorced parents. That’s is not just life in New York City, we kept this kind of company in Los Angeles as well before moving here. Special needs kids are also very much a part of our lives though in a more limited fashion. We have close friends with some of the more common learning and behavioral needs around today but also personal interaction with more severe and rare disorders. All that to say that their world includes and encompasses all of this, they are connected, they find ways to include and interact with whomever they’re presented with as opposed to the self absorption that has been so descriptive of their forbearers. Somehow in their minds they truly believe “we’re all in this together.” This is a clear distinction from GenerationMe and thus my inclination to go with “Z” as it inherently connects them to their predecessors Generation X and Gen Y.
“Valuable contemporary traits and perspectives” of Generation X which along with Generation Y make up the bulk Generation Z parents here.
