Generation Z Social Changes

Since 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell conducted the first full coherent sentence over telephone, communication devices have continued to rapidly evolve and in turn, have changed the way Generations X and Z behave. These changes are evident when we look at the similarities and differences of perspectives and behaviours within both Generation X, born between 1965 and 1984 and Generation Z, born from 1990 to the early 2000’s. This essay uncovers the social changes occuring between Generations X and Z at the age of seventeen and their uses of telephone technology, in particular the changes in communication, behavioural standards, peer relationships and socialisation, and attitudes towards elders. As part of the research, an interview conducted

With telephone technology continually changing, teenagers have changed to suit the type of technology each Generation grows up around. Household phones, as of Generation X were communal in a family as they were fixed to a wall and the phone piece was attached to the machine by a cable. Whereas, the mobile telephones available around the time of Generation X’s at the age of 17, put on the market by Martin Cooper in 1973 (Nybergh, 2016), were devices ‘Weighing in at almost a kilogram, costing several thousand pounds and, in some cases’ (Wray, 2010). In contrast to Generation Z teenager’s, who now have access to modern mobile Smart phone technology, placing multiple communication applications and access to all the information on the World Wide Web at their fingertips. Generation X saw the first of these futuristic devises in the hands of businessmen in media and were ‘Synonymous with the yuppie’ (Wray, 2010). It was not a normal belonging as a teenager in the 80’s whereas now they are for Generation Z. The technology available to each Generation determine the way they can be used, are seen and in turn, effect the way each Generation

The mobile phone, the main communication device for Generation Z, were associated with wealth and only used for business to Generation X. Telephones were not a normal personal belonging like shoes that they have now become for Generation Z’s. This view on mobile phones has changed and has in turn changed behavioural standards around them and how they’re used. A major issue regarding Generation Z teenagers with mobiles is cyber bullying. As stated in the findings from a British anti-bullying organisation survey of thirteen to twenty-five year olds, ‘62 per cent of young people had been abused through a Smartphone app’ (SBS, 2014). Further, with the ability for anyone to go anonymous, Generation Z’s behavioural standards on how they treat one another has dropped. Leading to bullies stooping so low as to bully another facelessly, let alone their name, behind their words, taking away the guilt or repercussions of bullying. With cyber bullying being a result of the popularisation of mobile phones, this was never a problem faced by Generation X’s. Mobiles have caused a social change in the behavioural standards of Generation Z and is changing what is deemed ‘normal’ behaviour as a