Introduction: Selfies and Self-Image: Generation Z Does Social Media
Baby boomers. Generation X. Millennials. And now, Generation Z. With each generation comes new attitudes, new ways of thinking, and of course, new technologies. The complexity of generations is complicated at best, but there are some differences among them, particularly in regards to how they approach technologies. With the wheels of social media spinning faster than ever, Millennials and Generation Z have been grown up in very different times. Millennials, generally assumed to be born from the late 70s to the mid 90s, were generally around high school and college age — a highly impressionable age — when Facebook entered the picture, and as the world had never seen social media this largely used before (find statistics??), they were forced to adapt to a technological environment that was nearly brand new. The vastness of the connectivity available in Facebook was huge; people were becoming connected at a level that was unheard of. Fast forward a couple of decades, and not only is social media a widely used phenomenon, a new generation is entering the scene. Generation Z, born post mid-90s, grew up in an era where social media was not new, and thus, the norms, expectations, and consequences in engaging in social media were a little clearer. This is not to say Generation Z does not also have to consider and reconsider their choices when it comes to social media; it simply means that they seem to be making those considerations a little more often than Millennials did, particularly in the form of using social media on more private platforms, such as Instagram and Snapchat. At the same time, however, because of the ingrained nature of social media for Generation Z, they are often forming their identities and self-images through this network of images, likes, and followers, presenting an entirely different obstacle.
