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Now’s ‘digital natives’ are among the first productions to have grown up in a world where each element of the communication, entertainment, social action, personal and school lives are entwined with technology.
Originally conceived in 2011, the Amaze Generation Project — the first of its type — set out to track how ever-changing technology has influenced the lives of a group of 10 — 15 years olds and watch how five years’ immersion in an electronic landscape has shaped their own behaviours and attitudes as they go into further education, work and relationships.
The past five years show a definite progression from the Amaze Generation’s attitudes and behaviours. They have developed strategies and processes to deal with the world since the participants have matured. These affect every part of their lives, from relationships to shopping and hobbies to education, careers and self-esteem.
The theory concentrated that the rapid development of technology can make first creation to find its behavior.
The Amaze Generation are the ones shaping digital something that has significant implications for entrepreneurs, in their own picture.
They aren’t a group of electronic conformists. Digital is not currently shaping their own world. They’re forming it. Theymanage it and mould it, creating strategies to get the most from each platform while minimising the danger of negative feedback. They are the ones in the digital seat.
As such, they have become proficient at fragmenting their identities, cultivating digital selves depending on the platforms used.
This is also a generation of content editors and strategists if they don’t understand it. While they could be seeking real experiences online, in how they present their brand, creating plans around how, where and when they’re 38, they’ve learned to become calculated.
Aware of this tension between their current social media presence (a reflection of the present) and their digital footprint (a manifestation of their past) they edit timelines and delete online histories to create better, up-to-date opinions.
Additionally, there has been a shift in relationships are viewed. After, the goal was to collect followers. While followers and likes matter there is a higher understanding that media friendships do not automatically equate to actual friendships. This generation are, therefore, placing an emphasis on locating positive experiences on intimate networks of pals that are real.
This balancing act between romantic and open is they appear comfortable with, since they accommodate content as opposed to safety preferences to stay online, yet there stays a dichotomy between a desire for privacy and greater control and the need for empowerment.
Of this world, study groups to social interaction, the perspective this creation has from accessibility to information to mobile shopping is upbeat and positive. The participants seek favorable experiences out on and offline, and use strategies that are personalised to avoid negative encounters. There is a feeling of being in their lives in the start of phase or an exciting travel and they maintain the view that the world that is digital does, and will continue to, enable them to progress.
They look equipped with strategies to make the world work for them since they recognise that if not managed appropriately, there are negative aspects to being ‘always on’.
The results have shown this Amaze Generation are an intriguing mixture of contradictions, developing approaches to form the digital world to meet their growing needs, producing personae, editing their brands and fracturing identities.
More to the point, they refuse to be ‘sold to’. They know what they need, because they understand how to customise and adapt the electronic platforms around them to deliver what others don’t, and woe betide the brands which fail to deliver.
The message for brands is clear: maintain or face the consequences.
