Want to know how iGen sees the future? Ask iGen
Posted On June 5, 2023
My guest on the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” needs no introduction – not to me, anyway. He’s my son, Spencer Marston, and I invited him on the show to share his perspective on his generation’s views on work and leadership. It has been a tradition of mine to interview my children after they graduate from high school and prepare to head off to college. While this is great fun for me, it’s also an opportunity to find out what iGen thinks about current trends and their feelings toward the future. As Spencer heads off to the… Read More
Categories: Blog, iGen, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Looking to advertise? Know your audience and know your search engines
Posted On October 9, 2022
If you follow social media trends, you probably already know that Facebook is not the place to reach millennials and Generation Z. But did you know that Google is not the primary search engine for many of them, as well? Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” was Tim Dozier, CEO of Hummingbird Ideas, a full-service advertising agency in Mobile. Part of his job is getting his clients’ messages in front of the audiences they’re trying to reach. If those audiences are in the younger generations, that’s increasingly in places like TikTok and YouTube. Dozier… Read More
Categories: Advertising, Blog, Generation Y / Millennials, Generations, iGen, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Social media and screen time: How will it affect the next generation in the workplace?
Posted On September 17, 2022
For today’s generation of young people, their smartphones are extensions of themselves. That’s how they communicate, how they entertain themselves, how they connect with others. One might even call it an addiction. Screen time predictably climbed noticeably during and after the pandemic, as recent studies show that young people spend an average of almost seven hours daily looking at a screen. How will that reliance manifest itself as this generation of young people enters the workplace? For answers, we turned to Kristi Bush, a licensed social worker, national education consultant and social media safety advocate, who joined us in the… Read More
Categories: Blog, iGen, Parenting, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Workplace
Forget what you think you know about managing Generation Z in the workplace
Posted On September 10, 2022
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The young people of today’s generation are only concerned about themselves. They have no loyalty. They are self-entitled and have no work ethic. It was said about Generation Xers. It was said about millennials. Now it’s being said about the latest generation to enter the workforce – Generation Z. And it’s not particularly true of any of them. According to Bruce Tulgan, one of the leading voices in generational workplace research, Gen Z is neither lazy nor self-entitled. They are simply reacting to the times in which they’ve grown up. Tulgan, our guest… Read More
Categories: Blog, Generations, iGen, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Work, Workplace
Is iGen the Impatient Generation?
Posted On January 9, 2020
“Take it slow and things will be just fine. All we need is just a little patience.” Axl Rose sang that back in 1989 on Guns N’ Roses’ second album. Some millennials weren’t even born back then, and iGen wasn’t thought of yet. Maybe if they had been, they’d be a little more open to his advice. The leading edge of iGen is entering the workforce, and they expect to move up quickly. The Wall Street Journal recently cited a survey by workplace-coaching firm InsideOut Development, which found that over 75 percent of iGen respondents believed they should be promoted… Read More
Categories: iGen, Workplace
OK, Boomer: iGen strikes back
Posted On December 2, 2019
If you are of a certain age and like to share your opinions on open social media platforms like Twitter, you may have come across a cryptic response: “OK, Boomer.” It should not be mistaken as acquiescence. You have just been given a two-word slap-down by the younger generation, a phrase that has taken on a life of its own. As noted in a recent New York Times article, what started as a cynical reaction to the same old, tired generalizations about millennials and iGen has become a rallying cry of sorts, complete with memes, merchandising opportunities and the inevitable… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y / Millennials, Generations, iGen
Think you know iGen? You might need to think again
Posted On September 9, 2019
What do you think of when you think of iGen? A bunch of teens glued to their devices, posting selfies to SnapChat and following the latest trendsetters on YouTube? Maybe you don’t know them as well as you think. A report from the British Institute for Practitioners in Advertising referenced at PRWeek.com recently found that today’s teens are more interested in spending time with loved ones than keeping up with the latest trends and racking up likes on social media. Or maybe they’re just saying that because they know that’s what their parents would want to hear. The study found… Read More
Categories: Generations, iGen
Why an 8-way championship isn’t a “participation trophy”
Posted On June 10, 2019
You knew it was coming. You hoped it wouldn’t, but you knew better. When the Scripps National Spelling Bee ended in an eight-way tie for first place last week, it was only a matter of time before the cries of “participation trophies” rang out over the internet. And we’re talking minutes, not days. While the vast majority of commenters on the Bee’s Facebook page were congratulatory, there was one who denounced the result as some sort of politically-inspired plot: “They did not want to hurt the feeling of these little snow flakes and have losers.” Yes, someone who thinks “snowflakes”… Read More
Categories: iGen
Fearing Social Security insolvency? iGen could be coming to the rescue
Posted On May 24, 2019
We all know about the danger that the sheer size of the retiring Baby Boomer generation poses to many social programs set up to ease their golden years. Forecasting the date of the ultimate demise of Social Security and Medicare is almost a cottage industry. But there may be good news on the horizon. And its name is iGen. According to a recent report from Morgan Stanley Research, the ushering of iGen, or Generation Z as some call it, into the workforce bodes for a brighter economic outlook in the coming decades than previously thought. The iGen generation, born roughly… Read More
Categories: Blog, iGen
‘A passion project:’ Varsity Brands not only sells sports gear, but works to create school spirit
Posted On February 19, 2019
With iGen following in the digital footsteps of the millennial generation, having grown up with technology at their fingertips as a primary source of communication, many of us Generation X parents find ourselves desperately seeking outlets that will force them into face-to-face social interaction. And many of us are turning to team sports. Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is working to fuel – and equip – this phenomenon. Adam Blumenfeld is CEO of Dallas-based Varsity Brands, a major youth sports equipment distributor that does much more than sell bats and gloves. Varsity Brands… Read More
Categories: Entrepreneurship, iGen, Podcast, Product Design, What's Working with Cam Marston