Technology as a tool, not a religion.

Millennials and Gen X are addicted to their devices, while zoomers simply can’t imagine their lives without them. They didn’t have a moment when the advent of smartphones and the mobile Internet dramatically improved their quality of life, so they perceive gadgets as a tool for solving problems, not as magic.

So they treat them accordingly. For example, zoomers are less willing to be online all the time than millennials — 66% versus 71% for girls and 57% versus 74% for guys.

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Technologies help but they’re not the answer to all the questions

Zoomers believe that technology is more likely to benefit society than to harm it. However, 84% say that technological advances give them confidence in the future. Also, they much less believe that technology can solve all of humanity’s problems.

Girls-zoomers are particularly skeptical when it comes to technologies. They are much more concerned about the negative impact of technology on people’s lives, especially online security and the likelihood of personal information falling into the wrong hands.

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They are aware of the problems

Zoomers have grown up with technology, so they have more experience with the digital world. This experience allows them to assess the technology development with a sober mind and to better understand all the side effects of the massive introduction of one or another innovation.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that they have already seen and faced what problems new technologies can bring. The Zoomers care like no one else about protecting information on the Internet and are wary of the culture of “constant sharing”: the posting of personal data, thoughts and photos on social networks, where everyone, including potential employers, trolls or exes, will have free access to them. They have experienced cyber-bullying and online discrimination since childhood. Perhaps that is why social media and tools are very popular among them, which leave less digital footprint and neutralize its potential negative consequences, such as Snapchat and Stories.

Confidentiality in the collection of personal data remains a major concern for the Zoomers: 8 out of 10 believe that “consumers have lost control over how their personal information is collected and used by companies,” and 7 out of 10 agree that companies lie to users about what purposes their personal data is used for.

And they try to fight it. One of the main ways is to provide false information about yourself: 78% of zoomers claim that they regularly fill in the fields with personal information intentionally incorrectly. By the way, among all other generations, this figure ranges from 60 to 67%.

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Let’s summarize:

• Zoomers treat technology as a tool, they didn’t have that moment, when new technologies radically changed their lives;

• Zoomers believe that technologies are useful to society but they don’t believe that technologies can be a solution to all global human problems;

• Since they have seen all the pros and cons of technologies since childhood, they can soundly and coolly assess both the promise of innovation and the potential harm it can bring;

• Most of all, they are concerned about the safety of personal information stored online, many prefer to leave fake information about themselves on the Internet if possible.

Bye! See ya in a new episode of UnderZtanding!