My kids, ages 26, 29 and 31 (Gen Y’s) remember talking on the phone only in our presence because the cord wouldn’t stretch long enough to secure privacy (unless they hid in the pantry). They remember a home without a computer. They remember our first two computer monitors took up an entire desk. They remember getting their first cell phone… drum roll please…in High School!

Developmentally, that still put them way ahead of the curve in their ability to adapt to technology faster than their elders.  Their lives became more naturally entrenched in the means, methods and culture driven by technology. They know their way around a mobile device and computer like I knew my way around a record store (remember those)?

In a real sense, the older generations have had to some degree adapt to the accelerated pace Gen Y’s have created in using technology in everything we do. But, if you think that is fast, wait until we begin to see Gen Z enter the work force.

Generation Z’s are those who were born between (approximately) the year 2000 through today. The oldest of this generation will be entering college soon and the workforce soon after.  Have you begun to consider how this generation will prefer to buy, sell, interact and work?  What will set them apart? What is key to the way they function?

The obvious difference is that Gen Z’s will be the first generation who hold and operate a powerful computer in their hand as soon as they can hold an object.  (See my Grandson’s picture to the right).

Imagine the kind of changes that will occur with this type of early connectivity?

The study of consumer media habits was commissioned by Time Warner ‘s Time Inc. and conducted by Boston’s Innerscope Research. Though it had only 30 participants, the study offers at least directional insight into a generation that always has a smartphone at arm’s length and flips from a big TV set to a smaller tablet screen and back again at a moment’s notice.

The study’s subjects were split evenly between natives and “digital immigrants” (consumers who grew up with old-school technologies, such as TV, radio and print, and adapted to newer ones). Immigrants switched media venues just 17 times per nonworking hour. Put another way, natives switch about 35% more than immigrants.

The sponsors of Innerscope’s study believe that the new devices and the media-hopping they provoke render consumers less available to promotions and entreaties, as well as less inclined to adhere to the traditional beginning-middle-end mode of consuming content.

Generation Z’s are even more “Native” than that, and in fact there are a great deal of negative predictions about this newer generation. One popular book has named them the Zombie Generation. There is an abundance of studies that have actually found attention spans, vocabulary skills and deep REM sleep suffering in this latest generation.

While I am very interested in those negative effects, finding negative effects has always been rooted in the fears of the older generations.  And while moral, interactive and neurological decay are important for us to try to prevent, what are the possible positive changes to come with the Z generation?

What can you do to prepare a way for them in your industry?

What does all this mean for how, if at all, your industry will evolve?

What does it mean for recruiting?

What I have learned may not only surprise you, but excite you. In many ways, their proclivities for living couldn’t fit more perfectly into your industry, if you understand how to pave the way.

In the next edition on this subject I’ll share with you how to prepare for the fruitful coming of the “demographic tsunami” of 26 million of the biggest change makers perhaps we have ever seen.

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.