Generation Z (often shortened to
Gen Z), also known as
Zoomers, is the
demographic cohort succeeding
Millennials and preceding
Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years, with the generation generally being defined as people born from 1997 to 2012. Most members of Generation Z are the children of
younger Baby Boomers or
Generation X.
As the first
social generation to have grown up with access to the
Internet and portable digital technology from a young age, members of Generation Z, even if not necessarily
digitally literate, have been dubbed "
digital natives". Moreover, the negative effects of
screen time are most pronounced in adolescents, as compared to younger children. Compared to previous generations, members of Generation Z tend to
live more slowly than their predecessors when they were their age, have lower rates of
teenage pregnancies, and
consume alcohol (but not necessarily other
psychoactive drugs) less often. Generation Z teenagers are more concerned than older generations with academic performance and job prospects, and are better at
delaying gratification than their counterparts from the 1960s, despite concerns to the contrary.
Sexting among adolescents has grown in
prevalence; the consequences of this remain poorly understood.
Youth subcultures have not disappeared, but they have been quieter.
Nostalgia is a major theme of youth culture in the 2010s and 2020s.
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Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21st century and is a
portmanteau of
sex and
texting, where the latter is meant in the wide sense of sending a text possibly with images. Sexting is not an isolated phenomenon but one of many different types of sexual interaction in digital contexts that is related to sexual arousal.
