By Alix Korn, Cultural Analyst, TruthCo.
There was a day in 2015 when Millennials were relegated to the cultural half-off bin in lieu of the newer, shinier, and supposedly contrastive Generation Z. But before a new era of generational inquiry goes into full swing, it's worth examining what Millennials and Gen-Z have in common: most of them are digital natives.
So, what is a digital native? Well, the demographics are still ill-defined, with demographers, marketers, and cultural commentators all claiming different parameters, starting anywhere from those born in the early 1980s with the advent of microcomputers to 2007 with the launch of the iPhone. But if the common consensus is that digital natives have only known a digital culture, and first memories generally start to stick between ages two and four we can reasonably define them as those only born after the early 1990s, the moment World Wide Web, AOL, and the term "surfing the internet" entered the cultural consciousness. So whether via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, desktop or smartphone, these natives have never experienced a world that wasn't digitally connected. But because they exist in a generational cross-section it is more fitting to consider them a psychographic than a demographic.
As a psychographic, digital natives' perspectives - on themselves and the world around them - is materially shaped by fluidity, adaptability, and sometimes even willful ambiguity. To digital natives, identity is more fluid and context-specific than ever before. Raised on ever-changing technology, they are likely to believe that change is inevitable and are therefore more adaptive to perpetual shifts in both culture and their own identities. While the digital immigrant (someone who experienced pre- and post-internet culture) might bemoan the constant battle to keep up with technological change, the digital native sees that same change as implicit, necessary, and even liberating. Updates -- to apps, news feeds, or social media profiles - are enriching instead of burdensome. As digital innovation continues to move forward with exponential speed, change has become the new norm and fluidity has become foundational to their collective sensibility.
Tolerance of change in the external world also allows for internal change, as digital natives increasingly reject identity binaries for spectrums. This was true for Millennials, and perhaps even truer for Gen-Z, whose icons include young figures like Jaden Smith and Miley Cyrus, figures defined by their freewheeling commitment to the exuberant individualism above any single identifiable style. Smith, who was recently cast as the face of Louis Vuitton womenswear collection, and Cyrus, who came out as pansexual this past year, both reflect a cultural shift toward identity as a means of fluid self-expression, instead of a way of staking a claim. Similarly, digital natives aren't merely picking a fixed point on the spectrum, they are surfing it, able to freely move back and forth along it. What they are today doesn't dictate what they may be tomorrow.
In digital culture, identity isn't merely multi-faceted and continually evolving, it's also context-specific, taking on different forms across multiple platforms and profiles. For a digital native, a different profile has the potential for a different facet of their personality. In addition to juggling multiple presentations of self at once, they are keenly attuned to the uses and sensibilities of each digital social space. A Facebook profile may paint a very different picture than that same person's Snapchat, because Facebook and Snapchat have unique values and cultural codes. Someone's Finstagram - a "fake" Instagram account where the user posts private photos for a smaller group of friends and followers - may reveal a more intimate portrait of their lives than their public account. To a digital immigrant, this may seem akin to a kind of multiple-personality disorder. However, to a digital native, these are not contradictory, but instead are inextricably linked components of an ecosystem of identity. In digital culture, multiple and diverse identities can and do co-exist at once.
It's true that a malleable sense of self is an adolescent occupation in any generation or psychographic, and digital natives - currently no older than mid-20s - are no exception. The period before societally designated adulthood is precisely the time to try on different styles and perspectives. But digital culture has instilled a more permanent sense of fluidity into daily life, creating new structures around which to construct identity and foster self-expression. Even diversity, that increasingly tepid term promoting tolerance and difference, takes on new meaning, as complex and changeable identities are increasingly recognized as existing within a single person. These shifts should come as no surprise, as the Digital Age extends beyond mere technological revolution - it was and continues to be a huge shift in culture and consciousness.
TruthCo. is an omnicultural branding and insights company that analyzes the current cultural landscape to deliver actionable recommendations that keep entertainment brands and their offerings relevant. TruthCo. released its study "10 Things You Need to Know About Digital Natives" this month.
Connect with TruthCo. at www.truthco.net or on Twitter @TeamTruthCo.