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I've had so many calls from frantic HR managers and executives about millennials, that it's become routine. "Over-entitled, lazy, tech-obsessed, lacking dedication, impatient" these are some of the typical complaints I get about the largest generation in U.S. history, who also happen to be "the most educated generation." With the impact millennials are having on the rising costs of recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and attrition due to turnover, it's no wonder that businesses are starting to worry. Many of us have been warning of the shift in values that millennials bring to the workforce for over 10 years. If you're just starting to panic now, you're behind the times! What's more, millennials are about to become old-school. Yep, brace yourselves, because the next generation, Gen Z, is about to enter the workforce with a value system all their own. That means, you're going to have to adapt again -- and quickly. Let's explore the burgeoning data on Gen Z and get a heads up on how businesses can adjust to meet the needs of the newest members of our workforce, and thrive in a brand new business world.
Related: 5 Ways Millennials Are Like No Generation Before Them
Every generation has a unique impact on the workforce, both positive and negative. In order to get a handle on how the latest generation of workers will be different, Essentials LLC, in one of the largest studies of its kind, surveyed nearly 70,000 high school students. In the study, all students took an identical 200-item assessment that described key behaviors such as proactivity, endurance, self-control and follow-through. The study's Gen Z subjects were compared to Baby Boomers surveyed at the same age using a similar methodology. Findings show that there are some striking differences in proactivity and exhibition scores that will have an impact on your business culture.

Shift in proactivity.

Proactivity is associated with the drive for individual achievement, which predicts how much your workforce will focus on meeting goals and achieving promotions. For the past several generations, this score has been high, but according to the study, it's substantially lower for Gen Z, which means these individuals are less driven and not as goal-oriented. While it may seem odd, that the most educated generation in history would score low in the proactivity category, there are logical reasons for this. Our educational system has shifted from focus on individual achievement to emphasizing and rewarding teamwork and cooperation. In addition to this our internet culture makes instant sharing and connectivity the norm. In the study, the Gen Z students who do the best in school are those with a balance of achievement-oriented behaviors (measured by proactivity, order, self-control, follow-through) and socially-oriented behaviors (measured by networking, change and exhibition).

In order to address this shift,your company will need to recognize that for Gen Z workers, the balance between social and achievement-oriented traits is highly regarded. Adapting your culture to take this fact into consideration, and use it to your advantage, will go a long way toward your continued success. I'm already hearing from many companies that shared decision-making and group-oriented achievement have emerged as traits for millennials. Expect this trend to gain even more momentum as Gen Z hits the workforce. Plan for your strategies- from incentives to performance-reviews to promotions to decision-making methods to leadership training to accommodate this shift in values.
Related: How to Motivate Millennials, By Millennials
Shift in exhibition.

For Gen Z, the need for attention and to be seen, has grown substantially, compared to Baby Boomers surveyed at the same age. While this makes sense, given the selfie craze and the ability to always be virtually connected to friends and family, the impact on work culture will be significant. Imagine all of your employees needing the spotlight, constantly craving attention from their managers and peers. What's even more interesting about this behavioral scale is that according to the study, when the need for exhibition is high among students, it negatively affects their GPA, indicating that this group will place less emphasis on achievement.

What this means is that we'll likely have to return to the managerial methods of 20 years ago. The managers of today, since they're managing mostly high-performers, have been given significant individual contributor responsibilities on top of their management responsibilities. With the advent of Gen Z, who are demonstrably less achievement-oriented, we'll need real "managers" who spend most of their jobs actually managing employees.
Related: Why 'Gen Z' May Be More Entrepreneurial Than 'Gen Y'
The silver lining.

With the continual improvement in productivity over the past few decades, we have come to expect high output from nearly every employee, but is this necessarily a good thing? With individual achievement as the core competitive advantage within organizations, we do see negative fallout. Employees are stretched thin. Stress and stress-related illness is rampant. The shifting values from millennials and Gen Z, can actually be a balm to what is likely an unsustainable trajectory for our businesses. We will no longer be able to rely on individual achievement as the core factor for getting things done. Leaders will need to learn how to be more collaborative, share decision-making, give attention to their employees and coach them to become more productive. We will likely see a shift to a more supportive work environment, with full-time coaches within organizations and more managers who spend most of their time managing, rather than contributing individual work. Are you ready for Gen Z? How will you need to adapt?

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I've had so many calls from frantic HR managers and executives about millennials, that it's become routine. "Over-entitled, lazy, tech-obsessed, lacking dedication, impatient" these are some of the typical complaints I get about the largest generation in U.S. history, who also happen to be "the most educated generation."

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Millennial vs. Generation Z - How Do They Compare?

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Millennial vs. Generation Z - How Do They Compare?

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This video portray to Generation Z because it thoroughly explains how us teens can be so drive apart from the world. We use technology which can rot our brain if its used to much in the wrong way. It shows how an adult worries about his job and future n how he takes his work seriously; but the teen was not taking his career seriously and said "oh well, jobless forever" with a smile on her face.

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Millennials vs Generation Z - How Do They Compare & What's the Difference?

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Wekeep thinking that teens arent loking in he outside world today. " they use to muvh technology now a days but

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We Owe Generation Z an Apology Today | Nathaniel Turner | TEDxHobartHighSchool

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Monthly collections of Times articles featuring young people in the news.

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Thinking about the lives of young people today and what they need most.

By Kathleen O'Brien

Ms. O'Brien is a staff editor for the Opinion section.

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Elsie Fisher as Kayla in the film "Eighth Grade." Credit Credit Josh Ethan Johnson/A24

I watched the superb movie "Eighth Grade" this week, a film about the awkward inner life of a girl about to finish middle school. Her agonies made me squirm and recall my own emotional roller coaster at that age. The mom in me wanted to let her know that everything would be O.K.

So this weekend I wanted to share some favorite recent pieces on the fraught teen years. Several I found revolved around the anxiety many teens feel. What can adults do to understand what they are going through? What should we remember as we try to guide them through rough times? These might be a starting point for answers.

Other writers were grappling with issues like racial bias and the cultural forces that contribute to school shootings. All I could think was that our young people deserve a better world than the one we're leaving them - and I hope we can create it. One of my favorites in this collection argues for lowering the voting age to 16. A little power at the ballot box could go a long way.

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Credit Anna Parini

Teenagers are struggling with anxiety more than any other problem, perhaps more than ever before, the psychologist Tracy Dennis-Tiwary writes. There's a good chance that it is anxiety that is driving teenagers (and the rest of us) to escape into screens as a way to flee fears.

There is a darker side to adolescence that, until recently, was poorly understood: a surge during teenage years in anxiety and fearfulness, the psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman writes. Largely because of a quirk of brain development, adolescents, on average, have a harder time learning how not to be afraid than either children or adults.

Also from Laurence Steinberg: We lament the delayed entry of young people into adulthood. But prolonged adolescence, in the right circumstances, is actually a good thing. It fosters novelty-seeking and the acquisition of new skills.

Josephine Sittenfeld, a photographer, was sorting through her high school bedroom and created this poignant photo essay about what she discovered. "My takeaways from a weekend visiting my former self? I was boy-crazy. I worked really hard in school. I yearned for a bigger, more exciting life."

After the March for Our Lives rally, the historian Jon Grinspan wrote about times that young Americans changed the country's politics, even in periods of bleak partisan divide. Will they do it again?

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Opinion | Weekend Reads: Those Terrible Teenage Years

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Thinking about the lives of young people today and what they need most. By Kathleen O'Brien Ms. O'Brien is a staff editor for the Opinion section. I watched the superb movie "Eighth Grade" this week, a film about the awkward inner life of a girl about to finish middle school.

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Juul is under federal investigation for marketing its discreet, flash-drive-resembling e-cigarette product to youth. Credit Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times

The e-cigarette company says it never sought teenage users, but the F.D.A. is investigating whether Juul intentionally marketed its devices to youth.

Juul is under federal investigation for marketing its discreet, flash-drive-resembling e-cigarette product to youth. Credit Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO - The leaders of a small start-up, PAX Labs, gathered at a board meeting in early 2015 to review the marketing strategy for its sleek new electronic cigarette, called Juul. They watched video clips of hip young people, posed flirtatiously holding Juuls. And they talked about the name of the gadget, meant to suggest an object of beauty and to catch on as a verb - as in "to Juul."

While the campaign wasn't targeted specifically at teenagers, a former senior manager said that he and others in the company were well aware it could appeal to them. After Juuls went on sale in June 2015, he said, the company quickly realized that teenagers were, in fact, using them because they posted images of themselves vaping Juuls on social media.

The former manager said the company was careful to make sure the models in its original campaign were at least 21, but it wasn't until late 2016 or January 2017 that the company said it decided the models in all Juul ads should be over age 35 - to be "better aligned" with a mission of focusing on adult smokers. Only in June of this year did the company again change its policy, this time to using only real people who had switched from cigarettes to Juul.

The company recently modified the names of its flavors - using creme instead of crème brûlée and cucumber instead of cool cucumber. Juul said it "heard the criticism" that teenagers might be attracted to the flavors and "responded by simplifying the names and losing the descriptors."

The sales campaigns for Juuls - now hugely popular with teenagers across the nation - are at the heart of a federal investigation into whether the company intentionally marketed its devices to youth. The attorney general of Massachusetts, also investigating the company, contends that Juul has been luring teenagers to try the product and has introduced many to nicotine. Her investigation will examine Juul's efforts to audit its own website and other online retailers that sell its products to see how effective they are at preventing minors from accessing Juul or Juul-compatible products. (Federal law prohibits sales of e-cigarettes to anyone under 18.)

"From our perspective, this is not about getting adults to stop smoking," the Massachusetts attorney general, Maura Healey, said in an interview. "This is about getting kids to start vaping, and make money and have them as customers for life."

And Cult Collective, the marketing company that created the 2015 campaign, "Vaporized," claims on its website that the work "created ridiculous enthusiasm" for the campaign hashtag, part of a larger advertising effort that included music event sponsorships and retail marketing. A spokesman for Cult Collective declined to comment.

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Examples of Juul's advertising from 2015. The company's current marketing is far more sober-looking, with a less colorful, more adult design.

The company, now called Juul Labs, denies that it ever sought to attract teenagers. James Monsees, one of the company's co-founders, said selling Juuls to youth was "antithetical to the company's mission."

The original sales campaign was aimed at persuading adult smokers in their 20s and 30s to try an alternative to cigarettes, but it "failed to gain traction on social media and failed to gain sales" and was abandoned after five months, in the fall of 2015, said a company spokesman, Matt David.

Mr. David said sales didn't take off until 2017, after Juul had improved its sales and distribution expertise, and, by then, had a more sober online marketing campaign.

The former Juul manager, who spoke to The New York Times on the condition that his name not be used, saying he worried about facing the ire of the company, said that within months of Juul's 2015 introduction, it became evident that teenagers were either buying Juuls online or finding others who made the purchases for them. Some people bought more Juul kits on the company's website than they could individually use - sometimes 10 or more devices.

"First, they just knew it was being bought for resale," said the former senior manager, who was briefed on the company's business strategy. "Then, when they saw the social media, in fall and winter of 2015, they suspected it was teens."

The Food and Drug Administration announced it was investigating Juul's marketing efforts in April. Juuls and other e-cigarettes are regulated by the F.D.A. as tobacco products because nicotine derives from tobacco leaves. E-cigarette users inhale far fewer toxins than do smokers of traditional cigarettes. The nicotine inhaled while vaping is less a concern for adults than these toxins, but it remains a serious health issue for teenagers, whose brains are still developing.

The Juul story highlights a central dilemma in public health. Cigarettes remain the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing more than 480,000 people a year. But will it be possible to get people who are addicted to cigarettes to switch to e-cigarettes, which are less harmful, without enticing a new generation or non-smokers to try them?

Juul, in a letter responding to the F.D.A.'s demand for documents, said it had converted one million smokers to Juul, but the company data is drawn from self-reported surveys on its website and is unverifiable.
[Here's how schools are dealing with the rise in popularity of e-cigarettes.]
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who heads the F.D.A., declined to comment on the agency's investigation of Juul. But he has long been hopeful that e-cigarettes or other similar devices, properly regulated, will prove a safer alternative to smoking and help people quit the deadly habit. Before becoming F.D.A. commissioner, he served on the board of directors of Kure, a retailer that sells e-cigarette products.

"Two-thirds of adult smokers have stated they want to quit," he said. "They know it's hard, and they've probably tried many times to quit. We must recognize the potential for innovation to lead to less harmful products."
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But Eric Lindblom, a former F.D.A. tobacco official who heads the tobacco control program at Georgetown Law, said Juul's internal concerns about teenage use demonstrate they are in some ways "no different than the cigarette industry."

"They are going to maximize their sales and profits any way they can," he said. "They are going to do that within the law, but they are going to press the gray areas as much as they can."

Over the last three years, Juul has had a meteoric rise. It has become the dominant seller of e-cigarettes, now controlling a remarkable 72 percent of the market, according to Nielsen data. In July, the company completed a round of fund-raising for $1.2 billion, putting it in rarefied air. From a virtual standing-start in 2015, it is now valued by investors at $16 billion.

Across the country, Juuls have become so popular that "Juuling" has indeed become a verb, and officials from several state governments have sent alerts to schools warning them about the problem.

A survey of adolescent drug use last year found that 11 percent of 12th graders, 8.2 percent of 10th graders and 3.5 percent of eighth graders had vaped nicotine in the previous 30 days.

Juul's other co-founder, Adam Bowen, said that he was aware early on of the risks e-cigarettes posed to teenagers, and that the company had tried to make the gadgets "as adult-oriented as possible," purposely choosing not to use cartoon characters or candy names for its flavors.

The F.D.A. has ordered Juul to turn over the company's research and marketing documents, including focus group data and toxicology reports, to determine whether it intentionally courted the youth market.

The day after receiving the F.D.A. letter, Juul announced it would spend $30 million to combat underage vaping and recruited Tom Miller, the attorney general of Iowa, who helped lead the multistate 1998 master settlement with tobacco companies, to run an advisory board to counsel Juul on its efforts. Mr. Miller said recommendations might include more controls on social media marketing and better surveillance of retail outlets, but the ultimate decision on how to spend the money remains with Juul.

Mr. Miller says he sees huge potential in e-cigarettes. He believes Juul and other e-cigarette companies have already helped lower the adult smoking rate to 13.9 percent in 2017 from 16.8 percent in 2014. "The only plausible explanation is e-cigarettes," he said.

A report from Citigroup, citing Nielsen data, said that sales of traditional cigarettes dropped 6 percent in the first quarter of this year and "it's impossible to say what has caused the change for sure but the most obvious case is Juul."

Juul recently deleted months of social media posts, including ones with images of cool-looking young people vaping Juuls. This spring it made major changes to its website, which had prominently displayed a Juul surrounded by luscious-looking images of fruit and the words "Mango, it's back." The site is now a more sober-looking affair, featuring video of adults vaping with a tagline "For smokers. By design." Across the top of the page, visitors are invited to "learn about our youth prevention efforts."

Mr. Bowen, 42, and Mr. Monsees, 38, the company's founders, met in 2003 in a graduate product-design program at Stanford University, bonding over brainstorming sessions and cigarettes. Both had been smokers since their teens, and both have since quit; Mr. Monsees regularly uses a Juul.

The culmination of the program was a masters thesis, and both had struggled to find a worthy subject. In 2004, about six months before the thesis was due, they got to talking about their smoking habits and, within days, were excitedly sending emails back and forth about developing an alternative to cigarettes.

Big tobacco companies were experimenting with e-cigarettes, but there was no real market for them until around 2010, when NJoy, an Arizona company, became the industry's first darling. By 2013, e-cigarettes were a $1.7-billion-a-year business, still only a small fraction of the $90 billion cigarette business.

But then NJoy gambled on an e-cigarette that looked virtually identical to a cigarette. It was a mistake, said Craig Weiss, the chief executive who pushed the so-called cigalike strategy and now consults for Juul. As NJoy's fortuned flagged, he said he realized that people didn't want a product that looked so much like a cigarette that it still left them with the stigma of being a smoker. NJoy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016, later re-emerging.

Juul initially developed a product in 2010 that looked like a fountain pen and distributed it in specialty vape shops. Its sales grew to a modest $30 million by 2015.

Then the company found its current design, a sleek stick that looks like a flash drive, and largely stumbled onto a new way of delivering nicotine: it mixes nicotine with a chemical called benzoic acid. The result is that when Juul users inhale, they get a very quick and powerful burst of nicotine. This gives smokers a more cigarette-like experience, but medical researchers say it also makes the product more addictive for youth.

The company launched its new product in June 2015, with starter kits costing $35, and packs of four nicotine refill cartridges selling for $16 - each roughly the equivalent of the cost of a pack of cigarettes. According to Nielsen, sales in the first month were roughly $1,500 and reached over $1 million that December. It began a steady climb, and then experienced explosive growth in the beginning of 2017, with sales rising 627 percent in the four weeks ending June 17, 2017, according to Nielsen and Wells Fargo Securities.

The company said that toward the end of 2016 and around the beginning of 2017, it changed its social marketing campaign and guidelines to require all models to be over the age of 35.

In the last two months, Juul has removed the flavor focus and now uses only "real people" who have used Juul to switch from smoking cigarettes, the company said.

Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that he was prepared to be a fan of a product like Juul if it is responsibly marketed and shown to help adults quit smoking. But he cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that in 2017 2.1 million high schoolers and middle schoolers used e-cigarettes - "and the reports about high school students using Juul are rampant," he said.

Mr. Myers observed that Juul "delivers nicotine so much better than any comparable product on the market," and so its popularity means that "both the hopes of the e-cig fans, and fears of those concerned about e-cigs and kids, rise exponentially."

On Jan. 23, The Boulder Daily Camera published a front-page story about the growing concerns of local educators in Colorado about student use of Juuls.

Five days later, Carrie Yantzer, the principal at Nederland Middle-Senior High School, received an email that immediately struck her as suspicious. The writer introduced himself as Bruce Harter, a former educator working with Juul to develop an anti-vaping curriculum for schools.

[Here's why public health experts believe vaping may lure teenagers into smoking.]
"I read about the challenges you're having with Juul," Mr. Harter wrote. He offered a free, three-hour curriculum provided by Juul to discourage teens from using e-cigarettes by teaching them about their brains and giving them mindfulness exercises.

"What we've found from focus groups with teenage Juul users is that young people don't understand the dangers of nicotine addiction," the letter read. "They sometimes feel 'pushed' by friends to use e-cigarettes. We also found that they don't have operative ways to deal with stress and the emotional ups and downs of their lives right now."

Ms. Yantzer was angry. "It sounded preposterous," she said, and the company "deceptive."

She wasn't the only school administrator to get such a letter. The Boulder school district and, ultimately, the state of Colorado condemned the offer as a brand-building exercise that was tone-deaf at the very least.

"The way we see this is a fox guarding the henhouse," said Alison Reidmohr, tobacco communications specialist for the Colorado Department of Public Health. "A company that stands to profit from, and currently profit off, youth using a product can't be trusted to prevent use of this product."

Ashley Gould, Juul's chief administrative officer, said the company, because it has not built management around former tobacco-industry employees, was unaware the tactic had been used by cigarette companies. However, Juul's board of directors includes experienced investors, including Nicholas Pritzker, a billionaire whose family controlled one of the country's largest chewing tobacco companies, Conwood, which was acquired in 2006 by Reynolds American for $3.5 billion.

For its part, Juul said it was still deciding what to do with that school program. Ms. Gould said the company did not realize the curriculum would offend or that the idea harked to a tactic big tobacco companies used decades ago. "We didn't know," she said. "We should've known."

Juul has a new innovation in the works, a Bluetooth-enabled version of its e-cigarette that it hopes could push more smokers to switch without risking youth uptake. Mr. Monsees called it a "smart" e-cigarette.

The Bluetooth-equipped Juul might provide a way for adult vapers to measure their nicotine use. It also might discourage teen use by disabling the device unless it's in the presence of its adult buyer, perhaps by linking it to the buyer's cellphone. The solution would still require effective controls on sales to minors at brick-and-mortar stores and online retail outlets.

Juul officials contend their ability to offer such innovations is hamstrung by regulatory policies. The company is building a high-powered operation in Washington to help it navigate such issues. It's run by Tevi Troy, a political strategist who worked with Dr. Gottlieb, the F.D.A. commissioner, at the Department of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush and who wrote an opinion article with him for The Wall Street Journal.

The company has also hired Jim Esquea, who was an assistant secretary at the health department during the Obama administration, and Gerald Masoudi, a former F.D.A. chief counsel.

The company is also ratcheting up its lobbying efforts. It has reported spending $450,000 on lobbying so far in 2018 - substantially more than the $120,000 reported spent for all of 2017. It also recently started a political action committee, although no donations have yet been reported. In June, Kevin Burns, Juul's chief executive, gave $50,000 to the Republican congressional leadership fund.

The centerpiece of Dr. Gottlieb's tobacco control strategy is a plan that would potentially greatly benefit e-cigarette companies, including Juul. It would require tobacco companies to reduce nicotine levels in traditional cigarettes so much that they were no longer addictive. The proposal is still in the early discussion phase, with the tobacco industry strongly opposed. But it would potentially make Juul, a potent nicotine delivery device, far more appealing to smokers.

Mr. Monsees, a Juul co-founder, says he believes that e-cigarettes are a key to reducing smoking, and can be profitable without sales to teenagers.

"Yes, I want to make money," he said. "I'm on the board with a fiduciary duty that obligates me to make money."

But he added, "The best investor return in the long term comes from more adults turning away from combustible cigarettes."

Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks contributed reporting from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Investigators Ask if Vaping Ads Tried to Hook Teenagers for Life. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Did Juul Lure Teenagers and Get 'Customers for Life'?

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The e-cigarette company says it never sought teenage users, but the F.D.A. is investigating whether Juul intentionally marketed its devices to youth. Juul is under federal investigation for marketing its discreet, flash-drive-resembling e-cigarette product to youth.

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Generation Z Predicts The Future Of Love And Marriage.

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Generation Z Predicts The Future Of Love And Marriage.

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Some kids are predicting they can do anything they want in their future. They want to have a big family and have lots of money. But they don't know how its possible because they don't know how hard they have to work in school and at their future jobs.

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Boys kissing boys. Girls saying #MeToo. Political debates over bathrooms.

Imagine being a kid. Decades of slow cultural change in gay rights and women's rights and a burgeoning internet age seem to be culminating in front of you, just as you're starting to get your first crush - and trying to pass English. The post-Millennial Gen Z-ers, people born between 1997 and 2016, in grade schools are forming their views on love now, and we wanted to know what they are thinking. So, the USA TODAY Network sat down with students across America to talk about dating, marriage and family. Watch what they had to say.

"When I'm in love with somebody, my heart just can't stop throbbing because they just mean everything to me." - James Cunningham, 14

Expect the next generation to deepen the cultural shifts prominent among Millennials. Take this: Children today are more open to dating people who don't look or think like them. Gen Z is the most racially diverse generation, research firm 747 Insights found, and interracial marriage is on the rise. About four in five children say they'd date outside their race, notes youth marketing firm YPulse, and a majority of 13-to-17-year-olds said they'd date someone with different religious or political views. Yet, despite all this openness, our interviews found dating isn't any less awkward.

"Gen Z will likely follow suit with Millennials, who have postponed many of the traditional milestones such as buying a home, getting married, and even having children." - Michael Wood, president of generational research firm 747 Insights.

The man proposes. Or, the woman pops the question. Wait - maybe they don't even marry. About 80 percent of teens are open to getting married one day, YPulse found. This despite the fact about half of U.S. adults are married, notes Pew Research Center. And yes, they overwhelmingly (66 percent) back marriage equality, research firm 747 Insights confirms. But as for that proposal, the kids we chatted with had thoughts.

A stay-at-home dad, a breadwinning mom. YPulse data show a majority of teen boys disagree with long-held assumptions about them: that they don't want to settle down, have families, do housework or cook. In fact, Pew Research found dads in 2016 spent roughly three times as much time on child care than fathers 50 years ago.

Yet this doesn't signal a soon-coming Gen Z baby boom. Future mothers are expected to continue the decades-long trend of having children later in life. Gen Z moms and dads might also flip traditional timelines, welcoming babies before marriage, Wood said. It's a shift that's already more accepted as about a third of U.S. children live in homes with unmarried parents, Pew notes.
Contributing: Matt Sobocinski, Ramon Padilla, Jim Sergent, Alex Gonzalez and Josh Hafner of USA TODAY; Kaila White and Thomas Hawthorne of The Arizona Republic; Rachel Denny Clow and Beatriz Alvarado of the Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times; Siobhan McAndrew and Jason Bean of the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal; and Bryon Houlgrave and Zach Boyden-Holmes of The Des Moines Register.

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Generation Z predicts the future of love, marriage and gender roles

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Boys kissing boys. Girls saying #MeToo. Political debates over bathrooms. Imagine being a kid. Decades of slow cultural change in gay rights and women's rights and a burgeoning internet age seem to be culminating in front of you, just as you're starting to get your first crush - and trying to pass English.

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“Nearly half of Americans report sometimes or always feeling one or left out” according to a new survey from health company Cigna. One out of five Americans has no person they can talk to. Families are also becoming smaller, and the percentage of children raised by a single parent or no parent has doubled, from 15% to 31%.

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CLOSE

The loneliness of Generation Z reflects not just rising social media use but a broader decline in interactions with neighbors, co-workers and church friends.

At a time when we're supposedly more connected than ever, there are an awful lot of lonely people.

"Nearly half of Americans report sometimes or always feeling alone or left out," according to a new survey from health company Cigna. One out of five Americans has no person they can talk to.

And the loneliest generation? That would be Generation Z, defined in this survey as those 18 to 22. Their average loneliness score is nearly 10 points higher than the least lonely generation - the Greatest Generation, those 72 and older.

While it's tempting to blame Gen Z's reliance on smartphones and social media, the data don't bear that out: The survey didn't find a significant difference in loneliness levels between those who used social media often or infrequently.

More: Aziz Ansari lesson: Women should feel free to hurt the guy's feelings

More: Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg is right that Millennials are key to #MeToo

Given the worrying consequences, the loneliness of Gen Z - and other generations - should be taken seriously. In fact, Cigna, citing a 2010 Brigham Young University study, says "loneliness has the same impact on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, making it even more dangerous than obesity."

One initiative to encourage Gen Z should be #WalkUpNotOut, a movement that urged high school students to reach out to students perceived as socially isolated after the tragic high school shooting in Parkland, Fla. Regardless of your position on gun control, it can only help to have students focus on being kind and welcoming to each other, particularly when the pervasiveness of social media has made it increasingly easy to bully both on and off campuses.

Plus, this encourages face-to-face interaction - and the Cigna survey found a huge difference in average loneliness scores between those who had daily meaningful in-person encounters and those who didn't. (Astonishingly, one of five Americans surveyed reported having such encounters less frequently than once a week.)

It's also important for Gen Z - and other Americans - to take "social capital" seriously. Thanks to the erosion of neighborhood communities, the fracturing of many families and the decline in church attendance, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for finding new friends or developing meaningful relationships. And that puts even more pressure on students. Imagine being unhappy at school and having no other community to turn to.

According to a 2017 report prepared for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, several factors show the decline in our interaction with each other:

► Monthly church attendance fell from the early 1970s to the present, with 50% to 57% attending in the past compared with 42% to 44% now.

► In 1974, a third of Americans spent time socially with their neighbors several times a week. Now, only 19% do.

► We're also spending less time schmoozing with our co-workers, going from an average of 2.5 hours a week in the mid 1970s to just under an hour in 2012.

► Families are also becoming smaller, and the percentage of children raised by a single parent or no parent has doubled, from 15% to 31%.

More: Liberals need to close the Millennials funding gap
POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media
Given these declining numbers, it makes sense that more Americans are falling through the cracks, losing ways to get to know other people.

And if Gen Z is using phones instead of in-person interactions, that could be contributing to these young adults' loneliness. In an Atlantic article last year, psychology professor Jean Twenge highlighted how teens were less interested in driving and getting out of the house than past generations.

Describing one unnamed 13-year-old, Twenge wrote: "She spent much of her summer keeping up with friends, but nearly all of it was over text or Snapchat. 'I've been on my phone more than I've been with actual people,' she said. 'My bed has, like, an imprint of my body.' "

That's not healthy - and if these are the habits Gen Z is developing in these crucial years, it doesn't bode well for this generation becoming less lonely in the future.

The American writer Flannery O'Connor, a Catholic, was fond of a prayer that included these lines, "Raphael, lead us toward those we are waiting for, those who are waiting for us: Raphael, Angel of happy meeting, lead us by the hand toward those we are looking for."

You don't need to be religious to realize that we both need - and are needed by - others, and that our own lives grow in meaning through many of our interactions with others.

It's easy to toss out opinions on Facebook or on bumper stickers, but at the end of the day, one of the most powerful things many of us may do to change the world could be our "hello" to someone, our reaching out to that person who seems in danger of being on the fringe, making eye contact and sharing a smile with a homeless person even if we don't have change. Let's look up from our phones a little more often - and start acknowledging the people right in front of us.

Katrina Trinko, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is managing editor for The Daily Signal. Her views do not necessarily represent The Heritage Foundation, her employer. Follow her on Twitter: @KatrinaTrinko

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Gen Z is the loneliest generation, and it's not just because of social media

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CLOSE The loneliness of Generation Z reflects not just rising social media use but a broader decline in interactions with neighbors, co-workers and church friends. At a time when we're supposedly more connected than ever, there are an awful lot of lonely people.

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Generation Z Is Bored With The Internet.

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Generation Z Is Bored With The Internet.

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We spend so much time online that we've already seen everything. Kids and teens say that the internet is boring now but if its really boring hey would be playing outside like a normal kid.

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According to teens, even though they're swiping and clicking away, often times they aren't REALLY doing anything on their phones. Tony Spitz has the details.

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For 24 years, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has released an annual "Digital Terrorism and Hate" report providing stakeholders, law enforcement and the media a snapshot that illustrates how extremists leverage online platforms to promote their insidious agendas.

Over the course of this time, we've witnessed a frightening evolution in the sophistication of the tools they use and professionalism by which they go about their work. Today, we're on the verge of a tipping point.

The post-millennial Generation Z has grown up with a smartphone in its hands and is reaching adulthood with an unprecedented ability to organize, fundraise, and, if so inclined, to create hateful content and distribute it through fragmented, but interconnected media channels.

Here are the principal 2018 takeaways, all tying back to the common theme that we are dealing with more agile and increasingly capable adversaries:

Here is the good news: While far from perfect, most major social media providers, led by Facebook, are removing hate and terror postings.

Here is the bad news: With 3 billion people online, committed bigots and terrorists still have little trouble mounting sophisticated marketing campaigns and propaganda onslaughts against their enemies.

Online hate is increasingly targeting African Americans and Jews, mirroring real-world FBI hate crime statistics that confirm blacks and American Jews as the top victims of hate crimes in America.

Here are only a few examples:

--The caliphate's zip code may be shrinking in the Middle East but ISIS' online presence and impact continues to surge. Evocative imagery rallies the faithful and gullible - especially lone wolves - to target innocents in Europe and North America with stabbings, car rammings and other acts of violence. While some counter-measures have become more commonly deployed, social media remains terrorists' most potent and effective weapon.

--Extremists are deploying off-the-shelf encryption apps to effectively mask communications and evade authorities' efforts to track their whereabouts.

--The Alt Tech phenomenon is gaining traction. Extremists in the Alt-Right movement reject the rules laid out by social media companies and others to curb online hate. As a result, they increasingly use platforms where there are few if any rules and, when necessary, start their own online funding efforts. Taking their inspiration from far-right gains in Europe, the U.S.-based extremists are recasting neo-Nazism, xenophobia, Anti-Semitism and white supremacism with a new vocabulary (e.g. "It's OK to Be White," "Stop White Genocide"). An entire subculture of hate is taking shape online ranging from Pepe the Frog's icon to gaming apps to t-shirts-all using insiders' vocabulary.

--Online hate is increasingly targeting African Americans and Jews, mirroring real-world FBI hate crime statistics that confirm blacks and American Jews as the top victims of hate crimes in America. There has been an explosion of anti-black imagery and discussion groups validating base racism. The Jewish community finds itself targeted by multiple enemies. These include: imams at mosques on both sides of the Atlantic delivering theological and genocidal dictates; alt-right fanatics recycling classic anti-Semitic screeds that blame Jews for society's problems; extreme anti-Israel and anti-Semitic campaigns led by groups like BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions); as well as state-sanctioned anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial led by Iran.

--A culture of online conspiracy theories is flourishing on social media. These range from attacking the legitimacy of the narratives of victims of the Parkland shootings, blaming the 9/11 catastrophes on CIA or Mossad and resurrecting the 'Big Lies' of the long-debunked "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in order to infect new generations of young people with history's oldest hate-anti-Semitism.

Here is the challenge ahead: America needs a consortium to tackle and degrade online hate. The players must include social media companies-both large and small - and our communities, including kids, their parents and teachers, and our elected officials.

This isn't a Pollyannaish suggestion but an urgent call to action. We must use every tool in our own powerful arsenal to reach digital-savvy teens and young adults with compelling messages of inclusion, compassion and love. The recent mass murder in South Florida is but one brutal reminder of the price we all pay for lessons unlearned in the social media age. The only way to fight a smart, organized, effective enemy is to be smarter, more effective and better organized.

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Digital terrorism in 2018 - Generation Z has arrived

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The post-millennial Generation Z has grown up with a smartphone in its hands and is reaching adulthood with an unprecedented ability to organize, fundraise, and, if so inclined, to create hateful content and distribute it through fragmented, but interconnected media channels.

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Generation Z is the youngest American generation.

In many ways, it reflects and amplifies the millennial generation that came before it.

It's the most diverse and inclusive generation yet.

Millennials are old news.

Generation Z is up next.

Gen Z was born between 1998 and 2016, meaning the oldest members are just 19.

That means they're the teenagers entering college, soon to join the workforce and spark their own round of why-young-people-are-the-worst think pieces on the internet.

But who are they, really? What can we expect from them? A new report from boutique research firm 747 insights, in partnership with consumer research platform Collaborata, sheds some light on the up-and-coming generation.

The study, called " Generation Nation," surveyed over 4,000 Americans from their late teens to their early 70s to find out how they feel about everything from work to friendships to brands, and analyzed their responses.

Michael Wood, a principal at 747 Insights, told Business Insider he's heard Gen Z called "millennials on steroids" because the generation tends to exhibit similar opinions and beliefs to the one before it - just more.

"In many ways, generational change is like the seasons," he said. "The changes are very gradual, and if we're looking at society as a whole, it's this millennial mindset that has influenced Gen X and the older generations, but also definitely has had a strong influence on Gen Z."

One of the standout findings of this report, he said, was the lack of patriotism among Gen Z. "I think it has strong implications for how supportive they're going to be with government moving forward," he said. "They may be even interested in going a different route altogether, one that does a better job of embracing their acceptance and their belief in being inclusive."

Wood also thinks the findings have strong implications for marketing. Gen Z "may not be as willing to accept those pro-America brands as perhaps previous generations did," he said. "Or think about something like the military - maybe they won't necessarily respond to the same messages in terms of recruiting. I think this is a generation we're going to see really demand things being done differently."

Scroll down to learn more about what we can expect from tomorrow's generation:

According to the research, there are three primary factors that influence a generation: age, societal norms, and technology.

Gen Z doesn't know a time without the internet, and it shows. They favor streaming content in snack-sized bites, like that offered through Youtube, and consume it mostly on their phones and computers. They largely eschew TV shows and movies, and are unused to live programming with advertising.

747 Insights also points out that because Gen Z has little experience consuming traditional broadcast news, it may be more susceptible to "fake news" than the generations that precede it.

When presented with the statement "I have one or more friends who are of a different race than me," here are the percentages of respondents who agreed, by generation:

* 81% Gen Z
* 69% Millennials
* 67% Gen X
* 71% Baby Boomers

As far as dating people of a different race, 35% of Gen Zers (who are age 19 at most) said they have; that's more than any other generation than millennials, 43% of whom said they have.

This may be because Gen Z is the most racially diverse generation in America. The Census Bureau found that 48% of Gen Z is non-Caucasian. The next most-diverse generation is the millennials, 44% of whom are non-Caucasian.

Members of Gen Z are also the most likely to say they have friends of a different sexual orientation (59%, versus 53% of millennials and smaller percentages of the older generations).

When asked which issues they support, Gen Z respondents stood out in two areas: marrying someone of a different race, and marriage equality.

On the issues of Social Security, healthcare for all, and protecting the environment, the percentage of Gen Zers in favor was roughly in line with those of other generations (although Boomers are especially concerned about Social Security).

But for marrying someone of a different race, 77% of Gen Zers were in favor - the next-highest generation was millennials, at 66%. For marriage equality, 66% favored - again, the next-highest generation was millennials, trailing them at 58%.

Less than half (48%) of Gen Z respondents agreed with the statement "My parents followed through with discipline if I broke the rules," and only 26% said they got parental help with homework.

Compare that to the 59% of millennials and 67% of Gen Xers who could trust their parents would follow through with discipline. More than 40% of older generations said they got homework help from their parents.

There's a key way in which Gen Z differs from millennials: optimism.

More Gen Zers than anyone else (68%) feel the US is headed in the wrong direction, and fewer Gen Zers than anyone else (32%) feel the country is headed in the right direction.

When asked how "things are going in the US," 44% said they were "worried" - similar to every generation but millennials, who were the least-worried at 39% - and 21% said they were "scared" - more than any other generation.

Only 12% said they were "optimistic." At least 23% of other generations felt that way.

Plus, 71% said they see their lives getting more challenging in the future, 10 more percentage points than the next group trailing them.

Executive Editor, Personal Finance Insider

Libby Kane, CFEI, is the Executive Editor for * * * * * Personal Finance Insider also rates, explains, and recommends financial products and services, whether that's the Outside of personal finance, she's written about everything from Personal Finance Insider, Insider's personal finance section that incorporates affiliate and commerce partnerships into the news, insights, and advice about money Insider readers already know and love. She holds the Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI) certification issued by the National Financial Educators Council. For 2021 and 2022, she is a member of the Insider Committe, a cross-team focus group working on making Insider an even better place to work. Previously at Insider, she oversaw teams including Strategy, Careers, and Executive Life. Her team at Insider has tackled projects including: Women of Means, a series about women taking control of their finances Inside the Racial Wealth Gap, an exploration of the causes, effects, and potential solutions of the racial wealth gap in the US (finalist, Drum Award, "Editorial Campaign of the Year," 2021) Strings Attached, a series of essays from people who have left insulated communities and how that journey affected their relationship with money Master Your Money, a year-long guide for millennials on how to take control of their finances (first runner up, Drum Award, "Best Use of Social Media," 2022) The Road to Home, a comprehensive guide to buying your first house (silver award winner, National Association of Real Estate Editors, "Best Multi-Platform Package or Series - Real Estate," 2022) In September 2016, she helped launch Insider Netherlands in Amsterdam. best travel credit card, the best investment apps, or the why Chinese children are so good at math to the business of dogs to hard truths about adulthood. best homeowners insurance companies. She's always interested in research, charts, and people: new and interesting research, compelling charts and other visuals, and people who are willing to share the details of their impressive financial accomplishments and strategies. Before joining the company in March 2014, she was the associate editor at LearnVest, covering personal and behavioral finance. If you have something to share, please reach out to lkane@insider.com. Learn more about how Personal Finance Insider chooses, rates, and covers financial products and services "Sign up to get Personal Finance Insider's free email newsletter in your inbox "

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Meet Generation Z, the 'millennials on steroids' who could lead the charge for change in the US

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Generation Z is the youngest American generation. In many ways, it reflects and amplifies the millennial generation that came before it. It's the most diverse and inclusive generation yet. Millennials are old news. Generation Z is up next. Gen Z was born between 1998 and 2016, meaning the oldest members are just 19.