After years of headlines about the so-called Millennials, a new group of young people is poised to make their mark on the world.
This post-Millennial generation still has several moniker, but has been most commonly called Generation Z or the iGeneration. They are widely considered to be young people born in the mid-1990s, and by 2020 they will account for one-third of the U.S. population. Gen-Z is also the most diverse in American history, and the first made up people who don’t know a world without the Internet or smartphones. And in the wake of the March for Our Lives demonstrations that followed the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, the world is starting to pay closer attention to this generation of Americans who are next in line as the country’s cultural and political leaders.
To learn what drives these teenagers how they will shape the way we shop, work, play and vote, TIME spoke with psychologist Jean Twenge, the author of iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood, as well as consultants David and Jonah Stillman — a father-son, Gen-X and Gen-Z speaking team, and coauthors of Gen Z @ Work.
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