Communication essential: Gen Z's trust issues

As I thought about today’s communication essential, I was reminded of all the times I handed my own Gen Z children an iPad^® or iPhone^® as they were growing up. It was the perfect distraction—“Here, look at pictures!” “Here, play Bubble Witch!” “Here, check out the Snapchat filters.”

And of course, they did. Because mom or dad wouldn’t give them something that’s bad for them.

So … are we really surprised by the recent news that Gen Z trusts technology so much? Morning Consult^® conducted a survey that shows ‘who’ this generation trusts the most:

• Doctors
• U.S. Military
• Amazon (39%!)
• Google (38%!)

They trust these tech companies to ‘do what’s right’ more than they trust the actual government. Think about that for a second. And while that might seem concerning on any level, consider what it means for those of us in communications. Sell, buy, communicate and engage with them on these channels; if there’s something wrong, it’s not the algorithm or the technology—it’s you.

Just in case you forgot why this matters so much, Gen Z represents … well, a lot of the population. Specifically, 2.5B people globally, 82M here in the U.S. by 2026. They are going to be the group that determines spending, buying, staffing and, of course, the continuing evolution of technology.

So what does this mean for us and how should we prepare? Well, that’s the topic of this Forbes article titled, “Key Insights On How Gen-Z Embraces Technology To Gain Trust In A Brand”.

Gen Z is continuing to put their stamp on the future of business. And I don’t think they’re even trying yet.

Thank you for reading this month’s ‘communication essentials’ blog—I will be back with our first entry for May next Monday!