Why gen Z’s lack of IT literacy is a serious business risk

As the big economies of the West boomed after the second world war, adolescents in those countries, especially the US, gained significant spending power for the first time. This prompted businesses to create a whole new marketing segment for them, putting the term ‘teenager’ into common usage. By the 1970s, the generation gap had come into play: it was no longer about how old you were, but when you were born. Such slicing and dicing has since evolved into a system featuring several age categories, including the silent generation, post-war baby boomers, generation X and millennials. Today’s teenagers and under-25s are known collectively as generation Z, while those born since the early 2010s are classed as gen alpha.