No generation the size of 2-3 billion can be fully described with a simple bullet point list. And yet there are some generational commonalities we should be aware of. Generational research is a sifting process, and the biggest job is to weed out the noise between the true signals. After discarding myths and spurious effects,…
Research Chefs Association is the leading professional community for food research and development. Its members are the pioneers of the discipline of Culinology – the blending of culinary arts and the science of food. I recently attended their conference on the Future of Food, where I held a speech about Generation Z and their attitudes…
I have been busy with SXSW lately and taken a pretty long break from writing. Unlike so many in the professional and personal blogosphere I’m too overwhelmed with sessions, pitches and expos at SXSW that I can’t really find “the thing” that broke out or defined the mood of the conference. If I had to mention particular…
The only other generational topic receiving as much attention as the young Generation Z or Homeland generation is the Millennial parenting cohort raising them. Still held back in life by economic setbacks and lengthy educations, Millennials are nonetheless a family-loving generation and will eventually go for the parenting life phase with full steam. In fact, they like…
In America there is a sweeping shift in values towards more family diversity and we are starting to see this reflected in commercials for consumer goods. The shift reflects cohort changes (effects isolated to single generations) as well as period effects (change over time in an entire population). This means that variables that indicate tolerance of diversity is…
Haul videos is the latest craze in You Tube videos. It’s pretty much the internet equivalent of girls chatting about their latest shopping loot. I decided to write a post on haul videos for three reasons. For one thing they signal the confluence of various trends that interest me as a futurist, which I will…
Do you have a tween at home? A kid grown tired with your pre-packaged, PG rated stuff, yet who’s still too young to be allowed to choose products and entertainment for themselves? Well, guess what – they’re making their own choices and you’re not the only one who are influencing them. It’s not like holding up…
Generational experts Strauss and Howe argue that the kids from the Silent generation (born 1924 -1942) were the most gender-polarized in the 20th century until they became radicalized in the early 1960s. From Shirley Temple’s sausage curls to eerie robotic wives in their squeaky clean Stepford homes, girls and women fit neatly into the gender stereotypes until they…
