The Mind Shift Needed to Reach Generation Z at HBCUs

Introduction

Once upon a time, American society appeared to be obsessed with the Millennial Generation (i.e., individuals born between 1981 – 1996). Researchers wanted to know how these individuals learned best in the classroom and how they would adapt to the workplace. Consulting firms informed the masses on recruiting and retaining Millennials as employees. Marketing researchers and analysts invested money in determining what would appeal to this target population from a consumer perspective. The consensus was that technology had to be involved in some shape, form, or fashion. Famous (or infamous, depending on your personal views) Millennials Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Systrom, and Evan Spiegel would introduce the world to the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat respectively. The phrase “there’s an app for that” became the common language. Millennials demonstrated that nearly every aspect of life from replying to work emails, paying bills, and purchasing tickets to one’s favorite sporting event could be done from their cellphones.

As Millennials entered the workforce, negative characteristics began to be associated with this once admired generation. So much so that on May 20, 2013, Millennials appeared on the cover of Time Magazine with the title “The Me Me Me Generation” written by Joel Stein. As a 32-year-old Millennial in graduate school at the time, this switch in attitude was intriguing. Stein (2013) reported that narcissistic personality disorder was three times as high for people in their 20s. Stein (2013) also reported that Millennials believed that they should receive a promotion every two years regardless of performance as a result of growing up in the “everyone gets a participation trophy” era. Millennials also did not appear to be in a rush to marry or have children as more were living with their parents. However, positive attributes of this generation were also highlighted in which the author pointed out that Millennials were more accepting of the differences in others and were empowered by the access they had to information via advancements in technology which allowed them to challenge the status quo (Stein, 2013).

Now in their 30s and 40s, this tech-savvy generation of Millennials has been coined as being cynical, not accumulating enough wealth as generations before them, being saddled with student debt, and not having the desire to have children or marry. Blogs and online stories appeared about how Millennials were at fault for killing everything from the housing market to razors (Taylor, 2020). With so many negative connotations associated with Millennials, it is no wonder that the focus has now shifted to the next generation……Generation Z.

As with the generation before them, Generation Z has taken the spotlight and has become American society’s newest obsession. Given the current climate, it is not unheard of to hear Generation Z mentioned on various news platforms daily. For this chapter, The Pew Research Center defined Generation Z as individuals born between 1997 – 2012 (Dimock, 2019). This places the youngest Gen Zer at 10 years old and the oldest at 25 years old. For those who work at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), this means that Gen Zers are already on our campuses and are just now starting to graduate from our institutions. In addition, we must also prepare for the remaining nine cohorts who will come to HBCUs beginning the Fall 2022 semester.

Whereas Millennials initially used social media platforms to connect with friends and family, promote their brands, and network, Gen Zers are taking it further. Currently, Generation Z is using their preferred social media platforms Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram to organize and mobilize issues to promote change that is of concern to them. The issues of grave concern to Gen Zers at this time are topics such as climate change, police brutality, and gun violence. In addition to being very vocal for causes that they believe in, they are also mastering how to turn their social media platforms into lucrative businesses.