There was a time, not too long ago, when Millennials were clambering over each other to land jobs at some of the world’s biggest tech firms. Rewind the clock 10 or 15 years, and companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google were fielding applications from thousands of college hopefuls looking to carve out a career in the new digital golden age that was opening up in front of us back in the noughties.
It was a genuinely prosperous era for the industry. Although all these companies are still complete juggernauts, Gen Z does not seem to have the same appetite for landing a job with some of these prestigious tech institutions, with plenty showing indifference to the idea of forging a career in tech.
This appetite has expanded into the broader culture, with many Gen Z-ers nonplussed at the idea of being too immersed in tech or the opportunities it could present. They prefer to focus on pursuits that address other areas of their lives, rather than a sole, laser focus on their career.
A Shift in the Tech
The growth of the online casino industry has coincided with the growth of some of the world’s most prominent tech giants. As they have moved and correlated closer in their development, there have been inevitable overlaps, and online casinos have implemented plenty of tech innovations and designs to ensure they maximize their audience reach.
Now that there are countless avenues to play casino games online, the emergence of alternate payment casinos, like sweepstakes, has proven to be a bit of a sleeper hit in the entertainment world.
While sweepstakes do not have the same sort of financial muscle or presence to present themselves as competitors that could knock traditional platforms off their perch, the list compiled by TalkSport US shows how much the market is growing and how sweepstakes casinos are aiming to appeal to gamers who want to play casino games but not have to deal with the monetary loss that comes with traditional platforms.
Many in the industry would’ve laughed at this idea over a decade ago. However, a shift in tech and playing casino games using in-game currencies rather than actual money is becoming more popular each year. The shift in tech and attitude has highlighted that these industries do not stand still. Change is often enacted by new generations looking to do things differently than the generations preceding them.
A Shift in Attitude & Culture
In a world that is becoming more confusing and difficult to navigate, some aspects of human behavior are almost guaranteed to persist—one of them is the intergenerational friction that occurs, particularly with generations entering middle age besmirching the generation that came after them.
Gen Z is the latest to bear the brunt of Gen X and Millennial frustration, and the reason? Apparently, they value time off and work-life balance over putting in 90-hour work weeks for minimal pay. Who could’ve possibly guessed? A recent survey shows they’re gravitating toward different careers, such as healthcare, rather than tech.
While this doesn’t mean Gen Z is entirely against the industry, the fact they were the first generation to grow up with smartphones has showcased that maybe the hyper-convenience our phones provide is not the golden solution some people claimed it was back in the early 2010s.
Entertainment has now become a DIY avenue, with those Gen Z-ers looking to elbow their way into an industry doing so using their smartphones and social media platforms. Influencers partner with micro-influencers and use other strategies to grow their brand. Still, instead of using an intensive, workaholic approach to tech, as Millennials did, there’s a greater focus on well-being and emotional health rather than simply aiming for success at any cost.
Changing Priorities
Gen Z has shifted the window of discourse in other areas, too, not just in the workplace or attitudes towards tech. One of the most prominent examples of this is the sober curious lifestyle that Gen Z now leads—which is in stark contrast to the three generations that preceded them, especially in Western cultures.
Despite growing up with technology, Gen Z still has some elements of the tech world that are foreign to it, including devices that have been around for 30+ years, such as office scanners and printers. So, although they have grown up with tech and are very tech-savvy for the most part, it’s not all a walk in the park.
Final Thoughts
To say Gen Z users are elbowing their way into the tech scene implies they’re aggressively trying to change the market’s direction. Which they aren’t. Millennials benefitted from the bulk of the tech boom.
While AI is the next big frontier that could prove to be a profitable avenue for Gen Z to get stuck in, it doesn’t appear that there’s an equally aggressive generational push to enact a forceable change in the technology world.
Although they have built their knowledge of the tech world from an early age and have a better grasp of modern smartphone technology than any other generation, Gen Z is still inexperienced minnows when it comes to the broader industry of how tech corporations can generate such astonishing profits.