The realtime generation
They have been called ‘Generation Y’, ‘the Millennials’ and now, the ‘realtime generation’. Chris Gabriel, director of solutions & marketing at Logicalis assesses the impact of their personal technology habits, their aspirations for technology in education, and their thoughts about their IT future. For them real-time is the only time that matters.
Over the past three years, Logicalis surveyed a representative group of 13-17 year old UK citizens, polling their views on a range of issues, from their personal technology habits, their aspirations for technology in education, to their thoughts about their future work-life balance.
After the initial survey in 2007, and from analysis of the responses we received, we named this group the UK ‘Realtime Generation’. In June 2009, we questioned 1049 13-17 year olds from four primary UK regions; Northern England, Midlands, Southern England and South Wales.
Those historically most interested in the survey results have been the executive and IT leadership within UK further and higher education institutions. Since 2007, the general mood of the responses has been one of positivity, we have all, our children included, been living through boom times until recently.
We focused on digital habits and the use of social technologies in social and education settings, to give those making significant investments in both education and business technologies a glimpse into how those investments could transpire into better education outcomes or a more productive workforce.
However this year, and in the light of the current economic gloom, we felt it incumbent on us to enquire if this generation’s aspirations and plans for education and careers had changed direction. When asking a 15-year-old if social networking would be a useful tool to make friends when joining university we must take into account whether that person now feels they can afford to attend university at all.
We have asked specific questions about education, course and career decisions in light of the recession, and in an attempt to try to capture a consolidated view of the combined worries of this current crop of the Realtime Generation we asked a final open question. “What are your main worries about your future?”
You will not be surprised to hear that the recession has not escaped the attention of your average 13-17 year old. We were not expecting the impact the economic downturn was having on the immediate and future education and career plans of our children.
Is it surprising that ‘jobs’, ‘money’, ‘afford’, ‘want’, ‘future’ are the terms most readily used? Probably not, what surprised us most is that with only a few exceptions we have an entire generation of teenagers worrying about the same things as their parents.
Responses to our other questions reflect concerns over further and higher education ambitions and career choices. Which course to study, which career holds the best prospects, and which university to study at, are all under review due to this generation feeling the impact of the recession.
Only 20 percent of our teenagers have no concerns as to the recession’s impact on their higher education decisions. The recession will affect the choices of our children and the lives of their parents, who can now expect their offspring to be staying at home longer and choosing a college or university within commuting distance.
Vice chancellors hoping to increase fees, or whose prospective student base is outside of the local area beware. The economic downturn is forcing your future student consumer to make tough decisions about taking on debt, funding an education in the first place, or choosing a place of study within commuting distance of their home. You may well find it tough in the coming years.
The survey positively highlights that we can expect a solid number of science, IT and engineering graduates, and it appears the vast majority of these are likely to be boys, with 37 percent stating they will study one of these courses, compared with only 17 percent of girls.
Unsurprisingly, the offer of a free laptop as an influencer in the choice of college or university has risen to 52 percent in 2009, from only 35 percent in 2008. Those who would not take account of free technology in their choice is down from 20 percent in 2008 to only 12 percent in 2009. The recession and tightening of belts at home is clearly a factor in this change, and while it would be clearly advantageous for Vice Chancellors to be able to offer this incentive, the money to fund it may simply not be there.
The UK should be encouraged that our 13-17 year olds are planning to work in the sciences, IT and engineering fields, or at least that’s where they believe the jobs or money lie. While girls believe sciences (30 percent) or media (24 percent) provides the best career prospects, boys agree on science (39 percent) but think that skilled trades (26 percent) offer best employment chances. This is not a bad thing for an economy looking to rebuild itself by improving the balance of payments and increasing exports. The current recession will be over by the time this generation hits the workforce, but one positive thing that may come out of it is the re-focussing of our children on professions and course choices that will support an economy based on building things, and not simply buying and selling them.
All respondents agreed that the degree course with best future job prospects were science, IT and engineering, so maybe teenagers do all dream of being footballers and pop stars, but our survey indicates that the country’s economic downturn may result in an upsurge in our children wanting to become doctors, academics, engineers, inventors and innovators. What is most evident from our survey is that the mindset of our children today is fixated, like the rest of us, on the economy.
The picture this survey paints is not one that our country overall should be proud of. We have 13 year olds worrying about taking on debt in return for education and their ability to provide for their prospective families. However, it should be a crumb of comfort that we may now have a generation who believe attainment of a financially rewarding career is achieved through inventing and making things.
It is worth noting that through all this doom and gloom, the realtime generation are still just that; using social networking more, collaborating on their homework more, and using the Internet as a resource to complete course work or homework.
If it means cheating to get ahead, then realtime girls are more willing and more open to admit to bending the rules. While girls are more willing to admit to cheating, the boys are more forthright in their protestations that they would never stoop to using the Internet to lift work and submit it as their own.
We are unsure whether to feel horrified or quite proud of the girls, but schools, colleges and universities must grasp the collaborative nettle and exploit our children’s ingenuity and collaborative skills.
Social network is not on the wane for the realtime generation. While 30 percent said that social networking was used less or was less important overall in their lives this is down from 46 percent in 2008. When asked which was their social networking site of choice 65 percent chose Facebook, with Bebo its nearest rival at just 23 percent.
Last year when we asked which social networking site this generation would like to see at university, Bebo polled 45 percent, the clear winner, so while the question has changed ever so slightly the preference from Bebo to Facebook seems to have switched massively in just 12 months. What is apparent from the survey is that the IT experience of our children in current and further education continues to grow in importance.
In 2009, the fear of personal information security is driving only two percent of the realtime generation to take a proactive decision in not joining social networking sites compared with 24 percent in 2008. This unwillingness to divorce their lives from social networking is tempered by an increase in awareness and concern about posting their personal information online.
Some 55 percent of girls are now more concerned about posting personal information on social networking sites compared with only 41 percent of boys. 20 percent of girls are not posting any personal information on social networking sites compared with just 14 percent of boys. 72 percent of our 13-17 year olds now access social networking sites everyday of the week.
Has the power of the information portal truly come of age? Logging into different systems with different passwords is something this generation is not going to tolerate. With 77 percent of the realtime generation wanting all of their personal information at university available through a single system with a single login, this result should indicate to any organisation that stores more than one piece of information about an individual that simple access is now king.
Local Government and health sectors in the UK should benefit from this generation’s willingness and desire to use information portals to interact with all of their digital lives.
This generation will applaud investment in e-government services, as they want the complexity of accessing their personal government information footprint hidden and handled by those holding their data.
The education system, education executives and the IT industry must continue to work together to ensure that appropriate technologies are available to students and academics. The economic downturn will challenge immediate and future investments, and ensuring investments deliver the maximum return is even more important in 2010 and 2011.
If students feel more comfortable using email from a consumer provider such as Google or Microsoft (46 percent) then adopting this model for the millions of student email accounts within further and higher education could meet the expectation of the student body while reducing the burden of cost on the institution.
Next year we hope to be able to return to our normal survey. Will the 37.5GB of personal storage each 13-17 year old had in 2008 have increased, and by how much? Has the 11 percent of 13 year olds who in 2007 said they would leave an employer who asked them to choose between their family and their work increased with the prospect of an upturn in the economy?
What we truly hope is that in 2010 we will see a tag cloud that does not reflect the economic crisis, and that our teenagers will feel more confident about money, paying for education, careers, and jobs.
The white paper Realtime Generation Survey 2009 is available here
