#a gen z kid responds to a millennial post

[thejudgingtrash]

Yass, time for adult!Percy!

I was wondering about life past the current Riordanverse and I really like the idea of gathering different possible jobs for Percy, for fics and for fun.

So here’s a few:

1. Teacher/Counselor

First of all, what kind of teacher? Is he an elementary teacher? Does he teach AP classes in high school? Which subjects? Public school or private school (let’s not forget, Percy spent a good chunk in his life in private schools as the token poor negro kid and was surrounded by awful arrogant rich kids like Nancy and Matt)? Montessori school?? And most importantly: no, I absolutely do not see it.

Percy’s ofc very compassionate and aware of surroundings, so he’d be on high alert with his students but with the current and former state in schools I don’t think he’s willing to get traumatized each and every single day at school.

2. Marine Biologist

Call me basic but since it’s essentially canon, Imma stick beside him (tbh I can’t remember anything past PJO lol). But marine biology is such an interesting and diverse field?? Like c’mon now!

Yes, it’s a lot more chemistry and math and physics than one might think but the possibilities? And the benefits with his powers? Let Percy get a minor in psychology and study animal behavior by actually interviewing them, IT’S A GENIUS MOVE IF YOU GET THE VISION!

3. Marketing Manager

Hehe. My field of study. Am I biased? Of course I am! Was this part of my fic Oh. It’s Them Again? Yessss, mama!

Again. Such an interesting field with many possibilities! And he’d get more than just a good check in NYC if he switches positions enough! Like… is Percy a digital marketing manager? How much does he hate Google, Meta, Amazon and co.? Is he working in strengthening brand awareness and if so, how? Is he forced to work in newsletter/email marketing? Is he a sales machine and constantly on the road? Or is he a key account manager and simply focuses on a handful of important clients?

Is he, as a disgruntled millennial, forced to work with spoiled gen z influencers he hates and has to figure out the TikTok algorithm like a grandpa on the sofa whilst unhelpful Annabeth is laughing at him (shut up Annabeth, we all know you use IG reels and occasionally YT shorts at best!!)? Does he accidentally go viral and HATES everyone calling him daddy in the comments??

Oh, the possibilities.

4. Firefighter/Paramedic

Hell yes. I saw someone else posting about this ages ago (if you can remember, feel free to @!). But this is so interesting. If you want to somewhat stick to canon and let Percy use his powers, this could be an option.

I see it, helping and saving people that way could be an option. Still, also more on the traumatizing side but I actually think this is more interesting than a teacher. And oh, the possibilities in stories are endless! Saving people and pets from burning houses. Coordinating shifts in the station, being a first responder… oof.

That said…

5. Doctor

Oof, I should really work on The Wedding Dance in the future even tho it’s hella minor plot point…

Hospital doc? Owning his own practice doc? Doing 1 first and 2 next? What type of doctor is he? Simply an internist? A gastroenterologist? Pediatrician (could be traumatizing)? A surgeon to let out his god complex? Okay, let’s note down surgeon for Annabeth… a neurologist? Endless opportunities. Where’s the PJO x Grey’s Anatomy fic we all need??

6. Hotelier

Whilst the service industry is incredibly fucked (pre- as well as post-Pandemic), this is also interesting. Let Percy and Sally own a bed and breakfast. What does it look like? How many rooms are there? How much do they hate booking.com and AirBnB for taking a good chunk of commission?

Where’s the hotel located? In Montauk? In Manhattan? In Greece?? What are the roles? Does Sally do the cooking and house keeping whilst Percy does repairs and is the receptionist/clerk?

Who are the guests?? You decide!

7. Chef/Baker

Ahhh… Chef!Percy my beloved, you will always be welcomed. So. Much. Stuff. To. Think. About. And yes, this will actually be relevant for one of my fics, IFYKY. Head chef, deputy chef, junior chef… did Percy go the Institute of Culinary Education? Did he go to Italy or France for a few years to hone his craft? Or did he purposefully say f Europe, let’s head somewhere else? What is his specialty? How much sleep does he get per week?

Also I’m never letting go of Baker!Percy and Sally who own their sweet cupcake shop and sell all kinds of sugary shit!

8. Stay at Home Dad

My fave trope, don’t get it twisted! While I think Annabeth and Percy realistically have one kid max plus two or three pets, I love the idea of Career and Business Woman!Annabeth and SAHD Percy who’s trying to make her life as easy as possible whilst tending the baby, trying to clothe the toddler and reminding their elementary school aged kid to pack their lunch.

A chaotic, yet amazing and rewarding life (which is still stressful! Just a different kind of stressful!)

Sooooo…

What do you think? Agreements, disagreements? Anyone who’s interested/in school for/already working in any of these fields? Do you think it’s unrealistic? Is it realistic?

Mayhaps, I’ll think about other demigods and what they can do in the future 🧐🫡

[philsmeatylegss]

Just remembered the Nth Rooms and it just makes me think about how me, who spent ages 10 to now with mostly unrestricted internet access and it led to a lot of my hobbies and positive traits, am so for parents monitoring their children’s internet activities until ages 13 to 15.

I was fortunate enough to encounter situations with adults as a young minor and knew how to properly handle the situation and not endanger myself (for the most part). Basics like not sharing your full name, pictures, address, etc. But it is so easy to manipulate someone of that age to do otherwise.

I’ve talked about this on my side blog, @ed-recoverry , but at age 13, I posted a “body check” (restrictive ED people know). To put it blunt, I was fully naked with just underwear and my nipples scribbled out. Once again, I had the brains to not put my face in, but there were identifying factors. About ten minutes later, an anonymous account tagged me. They had reposted that photo. I was fortunate to contact enough people where Instagram actually had to respond (reporting photos rarely did anything in 2016) and the post was taken down. But I often think about what if the account didn’t tag me, blocked me right after posting? There was a very real chance my nude 13 year old body with identifying features could have remained on Instagram till this day.

Thankfully this is the only dangerous situation I encountered on the internet, and obviously now at age 21 I see how moronically stupid it was to post myself, especially nude, but you just don’t think that.

I had multiple adults through one way or another try to talk to me with the intention, upon reflecting, of sending nudes or engaging in sexual stuff. Once again, I’m thankful to have had the awareness that I always blocked as soon as the person asked for pictures or my phone number, but that just is something to small for a child to remember to do.

On tiktok, I see so many, so many, (especially girls) post casually about being groomed and sending explicit photos of themselves at ages 10-14. Especially if you are vulnerable, if you are starting to deal with mental health issues like I was, you just don’t have the ability to think about the implications and possible outcomes.

This all happened 2013-2017 when iPhones were just a big question mark and no on really understood what was possible with it. It was a new concept of direct messaging a random kid halfway across the world on Twitter and asking for nudes. It’s a situation, at the time, no one really thought to warn kids about.

Obviously, I’m not in elementary and middle school now, but I hope so much that it’s been implemented into education internet safety, with explicit emphasis on not sharing personal information, sending photos, and not engaging in conversations with adults, no matter who they say they are.

I don’t plan on being a parent, but I just hope millennials and gen z who are having kids or had kids who are approaching ages 10-14 have multiple conversations about not only what not to do online, but also why they shouldn’t do it and if they ever encounter something, they should tell an adult. If you tell a kid just not to share their address, they don’t have the ability to infer that that is because someone could come to your house and harm you. That is something that needs to be spelled out.

And I just think, especially early on, that is something you can easily enforce with monitoring. Although, I also am a firm believer that monitoring should just be used to see if 1) they are talking to anyone 2) they are doing something illegal (usually not on purpose, stumbling upon something). I am a strong believer that teenagers deserve privacy on their phones. And if you taught internet safety, made it a habit to not engage with strangers, explaining what can happen, it just makes a child less likely to even engage with an adult. And if they do, they know what details not to share and when the discussion is dangerous.

I do think being unrestricted online very young had a lot of very positive impacts on me. I was starting to question why I didn’t have similar personalities or interests than my classmates. And going online helped me realize that I wasn’t alone. And hearing curse words and seeing kissing never caused any damage. That’s why, even though I’m a huge advocate for monitoring, I’m a huge advocate for only interfering if your child is in danger. I found porn for the first time because Tyler Oakley (?) referenced cake farts in a video and I thought haha farts are funny and I looked it up and it was a naked woman farting on a cake. It happens. As long as they don’t click on the “horny milfs near you,” it’s okay to leave it alone and never bring it up.

As I said, was just thinking about the Nth room and how many of the victims, mostly the minors, were contacted on Facebook or Twitter or other mainstream, often harmless apps. Apps where conversations can be quickly deleted. And when I see the stories of minor victims in that situation, I can easily envision 12 year old me falling for it.

I feel so lucky that the other 12 year old who was my first internet friend, shoutout to Katie, was a real twelve year old. We sent pics back and forth, bot those easily could have been faked. Or of someone else. There’s just so many situations I can think of being online as a kid that could have so easily ended awful if I made one different small choice.

The internet at an early age can be a gift and be a very positive thing if there are appropriate guidelines. I’m a huge defender that the internet and social media has more positives and negatives and a big believer in the benefits of being on social media and being exposed to the wider world. But I can’t deny the danger in it. This is so random and idk if anyone is reading this who has kids or plans to have kids, but when it comes to introducing them to phones and laptops, please heed the warning from philsmeatylegss

[hetawrite]

What about the allies having an s/o who sends them memes during a meeting? sorry if its random xD

America: Alfred F Jones

Doesn't even try to hold back his laughter, not even trying to hide the phone. It's blantantly in his hand.

No wonder why he always gets told off...

He enjoys this to no end. If one of his pals are nearby, you bet he's leaning over and showing them. Doesn't think just typing back will give it justice so he always snaps back a picture with a caption.

Honeslty adores the fact memes are sent his way. You see something funny and send it his way because; why? You're thinking of him? You know he'd find this funny? God, he now misses you.

Canada: Matthew Williams

He will type back "lol" after maybe 15 minutes of viewing it.

He's not leaving you on read on purpose! He swears! He'll forget to respond because he's trying to focus. He'll say thank you but can you tag me instead?

He thought it was important and thats why he opened the link. Thinking it was maybe some news outlet slagging him off and ruining his reputation.

"sorry ill look at it later xx" poor guy would never tell you to stop though. He doesn't want to hurt your feelings!

England: Arthur Kirkland

He is a gentalman, the one who sets the president. So he'll wait for a break to check what you've sent him.

Is it a minon meme? No? And like that, you've lost him.

If it isnt something a middle aged Karen would get it goes over his head.

If its a video of cats being stupid, punks being funny, or people hurtinf themselves, he'll have to cover up his laugh with a cough. But he really doesn't understand millennial humour. Or gen z.

France: Francis Bonnefoy

He'll wait until a break to look at it.

"my love i do not know what this is. Why is it asking for my cookies again?"

Francis isn't very good with online sites. He finally knows that if the snap icon is purple, it has sound. And he doesn't need to send things to everyone on his contacts. Just his story.

So you send him a Tumblr link or Reddit? He will be confused.

You might as well screenshot it and send it directly. He will then reply back how he'll smother you with love when he gets back because ypu were trying to make him laugh, regardless if he actually found the meme funny.

China: Yao Wang

"did you look at the other stuffy they posted? They posted sans por--" YAO NO!

Yeah, he'll totally check it out during a meeting. He's old so he's shameless. Germany knows not to try and tell him off because Yao has seen scarer countries. He's not intimidated by this buff 200 year old.

But Yao is down with the kids. He gets the humour. Whether he learnt it willingly or not. More often it's not. Thank his siblings for that.

He won't reply though about what you actually sent?? Weird, honestly. But when he sees you next he'll chat about it. Tell you it made him smile. Then if anything similar pops up in the family group chat he'll send it your way because he assumes you found the og one funny, so isn't this? Yes?

He's trying.

Russia: Ivan Braginsky

This one won't realise a message has been sent to him until he's on his way back home and leisurely checking his apps. If it's not a phone call or a text message, it can't be that important.

"do you want a dog?" please don’t send him ones of animals he'll think you're hinting at wanting a pet. Or do. But you’ll soon have a collection and have no clue how to look after a ferret.

And as memes are basically banded at his place, any recurring ones will have to be explained.

"So Lucky Luciano is like where's Wally?"

[berlynn-wohl]

Okay, I've been thinking about this post some more, and OP's question was really about Generation Discourse specifically, but if nobody minds I want to go off on a tangent a little bit and maybe give a primer on Gen X Meme Culture.

As I mentioned in the other post, really the death of Generation X as the topic of memes came about because no one knew what to do with us. We didn’t respond to marketing directed at us (OK Soda), we didn’t seem to enjoy anything, the “voice of our generation” was loud and incoherent -- what did we even want? And when we told our own stories we were depressing in a way that Boomers found banal. Our angst was boring. So we started getting ignored, as though we were a tired-out trend rather than a generation.

To be sure, we continued to make stuff, but we had to pull ourselves out of our grunge-and-shame spiral in order to be considered worthy of attention. We often skirted around this by diving into Deconstruction, anti-heroes, and Remix Culture -- it’s that thing you love, but twisted! But looking back, the most enduring cultural touchstones for Gen X content producers were the ones where we were the closest to assimilation into, or acceptance of, mainstream culture, which was still dominated by the much larger Boomer generation. 

It's important to understand that until the turn of the 21st century, even with cable television and the early World Wide Web, Americans were all still pretty much plugged into the same culture. Memes most often took the form of movie/TV catchphrases, ad slogans, and dance crazes (“Where's the beef?” “They're heeeeeeere,” the Macarena, “WAZUUUUUUUUP,” etc). The difference between then and now is, nowadays you might be more hesitant to reference a meme if you're not sure that the people you're with are From The Internet. Like three months ago, only kids across an approximately two-year age group knew what Fortnite dances were, but in the 80's and 90's, anyone could say “I'll be back” like Ahnuld to their co-worker, their aunt, or a store clerk, and they would all definitely get it. 

Mainstream media also did a lot of the work for us that our grassroots memes do now, specifically when it comes to satire and mashups. Saturday Night Live, MAD, Spy, Weird Al Yankovic, National Lampoon, and then in the 90's the Onion and MAD TV provided us with all the parodies of popular films and all the social satire that we needed. Stand-up comedians were the ones who handled things like “What would it have been like if Jack Nicholson played Captain Kirk? I think it would have gone a little something...like this [goes into hackneyed impression].” For Millennials and Gen Z, those duties have been routed to platforms like Vine and to YouTube channels like “How It Should Have Ended” and “Honest Trailers.” 

Gen X fans (and Boomers before them) communicated in a lot of the same ways we do on social media now -- just much more slowly -- in the letters section of mainstream sci-fi/fantasy/movie magazines, comic books, and fanzines. Some fanzines were just 100% letters. You can go to Fanlore.org and spend all day reading about Ye Olde Fandom Meme Culture if you like. 

Memes back in the day often took the form of rumors and urban legends, spread by (if you can believe this) just talking out loud to people you were in the same room with. Any Gen Xer can tell you about Richard Gere and the gerbil, Rod Stewart having his stomach pumped, hallucinogenic stick-on tattoos being handed out to trick-or-treaters, kids who were initiated into Satanic cults through Dungeons & Dragons, and I don't want to get into Michael Jackson stuff at this point in time but yeah, even in the 80s, Michael Jackson...whew. 

I also want to point out that there were actually internet memes in the 80's and 90's that are very close to what we consider “memes” today. On Usenet, people would share/adapt/parody ASCII art and increasingly-elaborate emoticons. In the Web 1.0 era, you also had “X Ate My Balls” sites (god I remember these and they were terrible), and endless spoofs of the “Under Construction” or “Powered by Netscape” icons. 

In addition to all this, though, I did ponder what it would have been like if, thirty years ago, Gen Xers had the same access to social media that we have now, and I can definitely see these things happening: 

A sprawling Twitter thread ranking every lead singer on (then brand-new) MTV according to their ability to lip sync properly. Bottom of the list is Sting, who I guess thinks he's too cool to make an effort??? Somewhere in the middle is Bono, who is so utterly here for it that he careens straight into ridiculous overenthusiasm (he really has always been Like That). Top of the list would be Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, who are flawless because they've already been making music videos for ten years.

The most brutal ship wars would be over absolutely everyone in the Brat Pack movies (Andie/Blaine vs. Andie/Duckie, ugh). There would also be a bonkers amount of cross-movie Brat Pack shipping – sort of akin to Johnlockers with Strange/Everett. Like, people would pair up Duckie and Allison Reynolds because omg, they would be so quirky and cute together! (People in the 80's did not understand how horrible Duckie was.)

Also, someone on Tumblr said this a long time ago, but “we poppin' the biggest bottles when Luke/Leia becomes canon tomorrow” is absolutely 100% something that someone would have tweeted on May 24th, 1983 if given the opportunity.

“if you ship ren/stimpy just admit ur a furry”

“you guys, is Pee Wee Herman too big to cancel???”

Millions of words of discourse about whether Daria is just a toxic “not like other girls” cipher that actually feeds into our misogynistic patriarchal culture.

“if you think Ralph Malph is hotter than the Fonz you are VALID” jfc why am I making myself think up this shit

Anyway, I invite fellow Gen Xers to throw in on any or all of the above.

[im-da-bronx]

As a millennial/gen z kid, it would be so hard for me if I ever got into an Outlander situation. Due to the current internet humor and my lack of impulse control, I’d get burned as a witch so fast, because I’d respond to someone asking, “how’d you do that stitch?” or smth with, “Black Magic.”

Based on this post

[jennaschererwrites]

How TV Is Putting the ‘B’ in LGBTQ — And Why It Matters – Rolling Stone

“Mom. Dad. I know you don’t want to talk about this, but I do. I might get married to a man, like you so clearly want. And I might not. Because this is not a phase, and I need you to understand that. I’m bisexual.” That’s Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz), Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s resident no-nonsense detective, pouring out her heart to her parents in the show’s landmark 100th episode. To which her dad (Danny Trejo) stoically replies, “There’s no such thing as being bisexual.”

Beatriz, who is bisexual herself, wrote in GQ: “When does it end? When do you get to stop telling people you’re bi? When do people start to grasp that this is your truth? …When do you start seeing yourself reflected positively in all (hey, even any?) of the media you consume?”

There’s a real cognitive dissonance to identity erasure. You can be standing right in front of someone telling them exactly who you are, and they can just look right through you, and intone, like a Westworld robot, “That doesn’t look like anything to me.” Nevertheless, it’s a daily reality for LGBTQ folks, and bi- and pansexual people in particular. (The term pansexuality, which has come into wider use in recent years, intends to explicitly refer to attraction to all genders, not just cisgender people — or, as self-identified pansexual Janelle Monae put it in Rolling Stone last year: “I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker.” However, many in the queer community define bisexuality the same way. You can read more about that conversation here.) Until recently, sexual and gender identities that existed outside the binary have been anathema to mainstream culture — and often, even, to more traditionalist branches of gay culture.

For a long time, people who identify as bisexual or pansexual didn’t have a whole lot of visible role models — particularly on television. But as our understanding of the LGBTQ spectrum has become more diverse and nuanced over time, there’s been a blossoming of bi- and pansexual representation. In the past few years, characters such as Rosa on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, David Rose on Schitt’s Creek, Darryl Whitefeather on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and Leila on The Bisexual — to name just a few — have been at the forefront of a bi- and pansexual renaissance on the small screen.

But it wasn’t always this way. Even after television began to centralize gay characters and their experiences — on shows like Ellen, Will & Grace, Queer as Folk, and The L Word — the “B” in that alphabet soup fell to the wayside. Bisexuality was seldom mentioned at all, and if it was, it existed chiefly as a punch line — an easy ba-dum-CHING moment for savvy characters to nose out someone who wasn’t as in the know as they were. On Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw called bisexuality “a layover on the way to Gaytown”; and on 30 Rock, Liz Lemon dismissed it as “something they invented in the Nineties to sell hair products.”

Even some of the earliest shows to break ground for queer representation didn’t factor bisexuality or pansexuality into their worldviews. The designation basically didn’t exist in the gay-straight binary world of Queer as Folk, and was largely seen as a phase on The L Word. Buffy the Vampire Slayer gave many TV viewers their first-ever depiction of a same-sex relationship in 1999 with the Wicca-fueled romance between Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) and Tara Maclay (Amber Benson), but the show too neatly glossed over Willow’s years-long relationship with her boyfriend Oz (Seth Green) as a fleeting step on the way to full-time lesbianism. Or, as Willow succinctly put it in Season 5: “Hello! Gay now!”

Characters who labeled themselves as bisexual were considered to be confused at best and dangerously promiscuous at worst. On The O.C. in 2004, Olivia Wilde’s bi bartender character, Alex Kelly, appeared as a destabilizing force of chaos in the lives of the show’s otherwise straight characters. On a 2011 episode of Glee — a show which, at the time, was breaking ground for gay representation on TV — Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) savagely shot down his crush, Blaine (Darren Criss), when Blaine mentioned that he might be bi: “‘Bisexual’ is a term that gay guys in high school use when they want to hold hands with girls and feel like a normal person for a change.” By the end of the episode, Blaine assures Kurt that he is, don’t you worry, “100 percent gay.”

One of TV’s first enduring portrayals of nonbinary sexual attraction came with the entrance of Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) into Russell T. Davies’ 2005 Doctor Who reboot. (Davies also created the original U.K. Queer as Folk.) The time traveler swashbuckled into the series to equal-opportunity flirt with the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his companion Rose (Billie Piper), because, as the Doctor explains, “He’s a 51st-century guy. He’s just a bit more flexible.” Captain Jack went on to feature in his own spinoff series, Torchwood.

Then came Callie Torres on Grey’s Anatomy. Portrayed by Sara Ramirez (who came out as bisexual herself in 2016), Callie had a seasons-long arc that spanned from her burgeoning realization of her bisexuality in 2008 to her complex relationships with both men and women over the years. Callie’s drunken rant from the 11th season would make a great T-shirt to wear to Pride if it weren’t quite so long: “So I’m bisexual! So what? It’s a thing, and it’s real. I mean, it’s called LGBTQ for a reason. There’s a B in there, and it doesn’t mean ‘badass.’ OK, it kind of does. But it also means bi!”

Once the 2010s rolled around, representation began to pick up steam. True Blood’s Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley), The Legend of Korra’s titular hero (Janet Varney), Game of Thrones’ Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal), The Good Wife’s Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi), and Peep Show’s Jeremy Usborne (Robert Webb) all were portrayed in romantic relationships on both sides of the binary. But these characters’ sexual orientations were seldom given a name.

In some cases, this felt quietly revolutionary. On post-apocalyptic CW drama The 100, for example, set a century and change in the future, protagonist Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor) is romantically involved with both men and women with no mention of labels. Because on the show’s nuclear fallout-ravaged earth, humankind has presumably gotten over that particular prejudice. On other series, however, not putting a name to the thing seems like a calculated choice. Take Orange Is the New Black, a show that has broken a lot of barriers but steadfastly avoids using the B-word to describe its clearly bisexual central character, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling).

A few years ago, though, tectonic plates began to shift. On Pop TV sitcom Schitt’s Creek, David Rose (co-creator Dan Levy) explained his pansexuality to his friend via a now-famous metaphor: “I do drink red wine. But I also drink white wine. And I’ve been known to sample the occasional rosé. And a couple summers back, I tried a merlot that used to be a chardonnay.”

Bisexuality got its literal anthem on the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend with “Gettin’ Bi,” a jubilant Huey Lewis & the News-style number sung by Darryl Whitefeather (Pete Gardner) about waking up to his latent bisexuality as a middle-aged man. “It’s not a phase, I’m not confused / Not indecisive, I don’t have the gotta-choose blues,” he croons, dancing in front of the bi pride flag. Darryl’s exuberant ode to his identity felt like someone levering a window open in a musty room — a celebration of something that, less than a decade before, TV was loathe to acknowledge.

For Hulu and the U.K.’s Channel 4, Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behavior, The Miseducation of Cameron Post) cowrote, directed, and starred in a series picking apart the subject, titled, aptly, The Bisexual. In it, Akhavan portrays Leila, a thirtysomething woman coming to a dawning awareness of her bisexuality after having identified as a lesbian for most of her life. The show navigates the tricky territory that bisexuals inhabit when they’re misunderstood — or sometimes outright rejected — by queer and straight communities alike. Akhavan, a bisexual Iranian-American woman, has said the idea for the show came to her after repeatedly hearing herself described as a “bisexual director.” She told Vanity Fair that “there was something about being called a bisexual publicly — even though it’s 100 percent true! — that felt totally humiliating and in bad taste, and I wanted to understand why.”

As Leila shuttles her way between sexual partners and fields tone-deaf comments from friends on both sides of the binary, The Bisexual offers no easy answers. But it also never flinches. “I’m pretty sure bisexuality is a myth. That it was created by ad executives to sell flavored vodka,” Leila remarks in the first episode, unconsciously echoing 30 Rock’s throwaway joke from a decade ago. Except this time, the stakes — and the bi person in question — are real.

The next generation — younger millennials and Gen Z kids in particular — tends to view sexualityas a spectrum rather than the distance between two poles. Akhavan neatly encompasses this evolution in an exchange between Leila and her male roommate’s twentysomething girlfriend, Francisca (Michèlle Guillot), who questions why Leila is so terrified to tell anyone that she’s started sleeping with men as well as women. When Leila tells her it’s complicated because it’s “a gay thing,” Francisca responds, “So? I’m queer.” “Everyone under 25 thinks they’re queer,” says Leila. “And you think they’re wrong?” Francisca counters. Leila considers this for a moment before answering, “No.”

Representation matters, and here’s why: Seeing who you are reflected in the entertainment you take in gives you not just validation for your identity, but also a potential road map for how you might navigate the world. For many years, bi- and pansexuals existed in a liminal place where we were often dismissed outright by not just the straight community — but the queer community as well. Onscreen representation is not just a matter of showing us something we’ve never seen before, but of making the invisible visible, of drawing a new picture over what was once erased.

[petnews2day]

According to the report, the Global Pet Food Market is projected to display a notable growth represented By a CAGR of 4.9% during 2023–2028

New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/pet-industry-news/pet-financial-news/according-to-the-report-the-global-pet-food-market-is-projected-to-display-a-notable-growth-represented-by-a-cagr-of-4-9-during-2023-2028/

According to the report, the Global Pet Food Market is projected to display a notable growth represented By a CAGR of 4.9% during 2023–2028

ReportLinker

The global Pet Food Market was valued at USD 104. 44 Billion in the year 2021 with the Americas region leading the regional market share. Premium pet food has witnessed a lot of attention in recent years as a result of pet humanization, which has increased pet owners’ willingness to spend money on premium-quality goods.

New York, Oct. 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report “Global Pet Food Market (2022 Edition) – Analysis By Food Type, Animal Type, Nature, Distribution Channel, By Region, By Country: Market Insights and Forecast with Impact of COVID-19 (2023-2028)” – https://www.reportlinker.com/p06326341/?utm_source=GNW Pet owners seek pet food manufactured from organic raw materials and ingredients without Preservatives and chemicals or artificial elements. Consequentially, key players in the market are responding to this premiumization trend by offering a variety of pet food recipes to meet the needs of both pets and their owners.

With the rising urbanisation and increase in dual income, no kids families that are backing the pet adoption rates are consequentially fostering the growth of the global Pet foods market. Millennials and Gen Z contribute largely to the pet ownership landscape, due to the rise in their disposable income, and the introduction of work from home or in hybrid formats is driving pet population growth, which is consequentially fostering the Pet Food market.

Globally, dogs are the most popular pet, present in around one in three homes worldwide. Almost a quarter of pet owners have a cat. Moreover, Pet life expectancy is increasing, which accounts for rise in specialized senior pet care products such as immune and digestive care food supplements. This is backed by the survey data from science.org that Dog life expectancy has doubled in the past 4 decades, and housecats now live twice as long as their feral counterpart.

Additionally, due to increasing pet health awareness after COVID-19 cases were also discovered in certain animals, the market saw a surge in sales of health-conscious premium and super premium foods, medical and therapeutic functional foods, and a variety of treats and supplements for dogs.

Scope of the Report • The report presents the analysis of the Pet Food Market for the historical period of 2018-2021, the estimated year 2022 and the forecast period of 2023-2028.

• The report analyses the Pet Food Market by Value (USD Billion).

• The report analyses the Pet Food Market by By Food Type- Dry, Wet, Snacks and Mixers, Others.

• The report analyses the Pet Food Market By Animal Type- Dog, Cat, Others.

• The report analyses the Pet Food Market By Nature- Conventional, Organic

• The report analyses the Pet Food Market By Distribution Channel- Offline, Online.

• The Global Pet Food Market has been analysed By Region (Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and MEA).

• The Global Pet Food Market has been analysed By Country (United States, Canada, Brazil, Germany, U.K, France, Italy, China, Japan and India).

• The key insights of the report have been presented through the leading company shares. Also, the attractiveness of the market has been presented by region, by Food Type, By Animal Type, By Nature, By Distribution Channel.

• Also, the major opportunities, trends, drivers and challenges of the industry has been analysed in the report.

• The report tracks competitive developments, strategies, and recent developments. The companies analysed in the report include Mars Petcare Inc., Nestle, GENERAL MILLS INCORPORATED, AGROLIMEN SA, SPECTRUM BRANDS, JM SMUCKER, Unicharm Corporation, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Deuerer, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition.

Key Target Audience

• Pet Food Companies

• Food and Beverage Companies

• Research and Development (R&D) Organizations

• Government Bodies & Regulating Authorities

• Investment Banks and Equity Firms Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06326341/?utm_source=GNW

About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need – instantly, in one place.

__________________________

Story continues

CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001

[bubblesthewaterbender]

Okay so I finally caved and got twitter maybe a week before the Parkland shooting. It was the first event like that I saw people talk about on that platform and it taught me a lot.

I saw a tweet that went viral from Sarah Chadwick, who later helped found the Never Again movement and March For Our Lives. The tweet was her basically telling the president to fuck off, it's been deleted but it did make the news. I honestly don't know what I was thinking, but I followed her. Because of how twitter works I saw the tweets she liked, and tweets from people she followed, and I was already down a rabbithole so of course I was scrolling.

I saw people tweet for their followers not to worry, that they were alive and home. I saw video from inside classrooms posted after, or screenshots of snaps or texts of teenagers telling their family and friends in group chats that they loved them. All of this was the next day btw, but it was still there, right at the front, right when people didn't know what exactly was going on still.

However, the thing I still think about sometimes is the missing notices. People saying their brother, their daughter, their friend, was still missing and to please respond if you know where they are. One had a reply revealing that they were one of the dead, and I learned that before the official list was public. I think all the missing I saw turned out to be victims, but it's been a little bit.

Was it prying/none of my business? Absolutely, and I feel really weird about that. But in that shooting I learned that the current technology that people rag millennials and gen z for was actively letting kids in the worst moment of their lives know that their loved ones are okay, and later giving them a voice to say that what they went through should never happen again.

The next time I see one of those “millenials will be photographing the end of the world” posts I’m gonna scream because let me tell you, I just went through a natural disaster and Snapchat literally saved people’s lives. Thanks to snapchat I knew exactly what roads were flooded, what stores were open, what my HOUSE looked like (since I wasn’t there), and which shelters I could go to. People were snapping/tweeting asking to be rescued and THEY WERE. I didn’t get my news from the tv, I saw it in real time on social media and I will never not be grateful for that.

[shopcode]

55% of Gen Alpha Wants to Buy What Their Favorite YouTube, Instagram Influencers Wear

More than half (55%) of children between the ages of six and 16 want to buy a product if their favorite YouTube or Instagram influencer uses or wears it, according to a new report on Generation Alpha from Wunderman Thompson Commerce provided to Marketing Dive. The agency surveyed more than 4,000 kids in the age group in the U.S. and U.K. earlier this summer.

While social media plays a large role in guiding Gen Alpha's habits, the findings revealed that peers remain the most influential factor over purchasing decisions for kids. 28% of those surveyed want to purchase something their friends have, versus 25% who said social media stars are the top influencers on shopping decisions. However, the report additionally showed that 14% of respondents are interested in the idea of influencers launching their own retail outlets.

57% of Gen Alpha said that they want to buy things they see in ads on Instagram. Videos were the most effective format to push messaging on the app, with 24% of kids saying they were compelled to buy from Instagram videos versus 19% who said they'd be interested in buying products through other posts.

Insight Wunderman Thompson Commerce's latest report provides hints at how the influencer space might change as the Gen Alpha age group grows its purchasing power and, in turn, starts to guide marketing strategies in the same way that older peers like Gen Z and millennials have done before it.

The study reinforces the idea that influencers could move beyond being mere partners with outside companies to instead focus on stewarding their own brands and businesses, potentially by opening standalone retail operations in a shift that could signal both good and bad news for legacy players.

"While some brands and retailers are already making the most of the strong connection between influencers and consumers, it will be crucial for businesses to watch the evolution of the influencer trend," Neil Stewart, global CEO of Wunderman Thompson Commerce, said in a statement. "If younger consumers' wishes are granted and influencers become retailers themselves, this will only mean more competition for existing brands and retailers."

Influencers extending their brands through personal product lines has gained traction in recent years, but not always resulted in successes. Kylie Cosmetics, the beauty line founded by reality-TV star Kylie Jenner, has become a serious contender in the category, largely without sinking a ton of money into paid social advertisements – a sign that the recognizability of Jenner's name is enough to get consumers interested.

On the other hand, Arii, a social media influencer with more than 2.5 million Instagram followers, shuttered a personal clothing line less than two weeks after its debut earlier this year due to abysmal sales, as reported in Adweek. The contrast highlights the fickle nature of the influencer sphere and how broad reach online doesn't always translate into concrete actions from followers.

Still, brands ranging from Papa John's to Suave have been capitalizing on the popularity of influencer marketing, and the channel is expected to command $15 billion in spend by 2022. Interestingly, Gen Alpha tend to favor Amazon, one of the most-recognized and well-like brands among the demographic, according to Wunderman Thompson Commerce. Amazon earlier this week unveiled influencer storefronts that let online celebrities from apps like Instagram and YouTube curate a selection of products available to purchase on its e-commerce platform. [...]

(Source: MobileMarketer)  09.2029

[walterhsvcu-blog]

Post 10

Respond: Tumblr post #10 GEN X IS APATHETIC! BOOMERS CAN’T INTERNET! MILLENNIALS ARE LAZY! WTF is GEN Z??? Y’all, how much do we really know about each other? I’m a solid gen Xer: I know where I was when Kurt Cobain died and I’m still wearing the denim jacket I got 20 years ago...I like to (jokingly?) blame my mother, a boomer, for most of what is wrong with our capitalist society. I also like to make (well-intentioned) jokes about the internet (my partner is an old millennial, I’m a young Xer, somehow, we make it work...) What are the PVMC stereotypes about YOUR generation? Are they rooted in truth? How do you perceive those stereotypes as being harmful to you in the past, currently, and for your future? What kinds of possible biases (BE HONEST!) do you have against other generations? Are there useful ways for us all to transcend blanket generational generalizations for a better community? Where do you see this happening (IRL or in PVMC?) #ARTE222post10

 My birthday falls in 1996, so I am right on the fringe of being a “Young Millennial” and an “Old Gen Z”. I definitely feel more in line with a Millennial when it comes to being defined by name, primarily because I don’t want to be grouped in with kids who were born in the 2000’s, like what is that, they were literally born and handed an iPhone instead of a pacifier. That, was a stereotype, a truthful one, but still. I do feel apart from that generation, but I also don’t feel like a complete millennial either, in some ways I definitely do align with Gen Z’s. I think most people assume that people from my generation knows everything there is to know about technology (more true than false), doesn’t know how to fix anything by hand (depends on what), doesn’t work hard to attain anything (not true for me at least), and is overly sensitive (to which I’d say no, that were just more aware and vocal). I’ve never had any real problems with these “stereotypes, at least I’ve never been seriously targeted for them specifically. Elder generations do treat me like I am not capable in certain situations, and while frustrating I’m not entirely sure that is a direct relation to generation or the fact that they’re “Older”. I do think that Gen X and Boomers are very stuck in their ways/beliefs, and less willing to accept new ideas/thoughts/lifestyles than the newer generations are. While that can be frustrating in conversation, I have avoided to either have those conversations, or when caught in one try not to create tension because it’s not worth it with little success on changing their mind. I think generational gaps are always going to exist. We as humans are always growing and expanding as a society, and each generation is going to be privier to stay “in their comfort zone” in that they are more likely to stay within the ideas and mechanisms they grew up with rather than to adopt newer ideas/mechanisms etc.

[solatgif]

THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY: WEEKEND ROUNDUP FOR SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

Labor Day has always marked the end of summer for me. Here is a hopeful look in the form of a summer road trip from Judd Birdsall, managing director of the Cambridge Institute on Religion & International Studies at Clare College, Cambridge, for the Washington Post: We are American evangelicals raising our family in England. Here’s what we saw when we drove across the U.S.

With school in session: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans? This is a longform article by Jay Caspain Kang for The New York Times Magazine on how “a high-profile lawsuit against Harvard is forcing students and their families to choose sides.”

Today we launched our Thank God It’s Friday Newsletter so you can get our TGIF weekend roundups delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe today to receive our second issue next Friday. And if you have any links or recommendations to share, please tweet me @musicgoon or email me at aaron@musicgoon.com.

LINK ROUNDUP

1. Patti Withers: Once Abused by the Church, Now I Love the Church

The supremacy of Christ over sexual harassment, spiritual absue, a cult-like church, and an abusive pastor.

2. Thomas Hwang: What’s It Like to be a Lead Pastor?

SOLA editorial board member Thomas Hwang writes on his personal blog. “A few months ago, I transitioned from an associate ministry to begin a new chapter in the lead role. This was a crazy turn of events that will one day make for a fun, interesting story to write about. During this season, I’ve discovered that this transition is far more challenging than anything I’ve ever experienced. But like parenting, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of material out there explaining what this transition is like.”

3. Rebecca Sun: 'Crazy Rich Asians' Co-Writer Exits Sequel Amid Pay Disparity Dispute

Rebecca Sun is the senior reporter at The Hollywood Reporter. She tweets, “I worked very hard on this story because it gets to the heart of a deeper, more nuanced level of consideration about inclusion and equity in the industry, and how value is assigned to creative contributions. Getting into the room (i.e. hiring) is step one.”

4. Hannah Nation and EF Gregory: Love from the Margins: Lessons from 4 Pastors in China

The Gospel Coalition interviews four Chinese house church pastors and presents a compelling testimony of what we can learn from the Chinese church.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Hanley Liu: Salvation Is More Important Than Success

In this 6-minute sermon excerpt from FCBC Walnut, Pastor Hanley Liu explains how the most important thing is not the success of your children, but the salvation of your children. “It is never too late to call your kids and show them why the most important thing in life is Jesus Christ and him crucified. Because when you understand that, you understand everything.” Pastor Hanley serves as a member of the SOLA Council.

2. Trillia Newbell: Division Between Younger and Older Women

FTC.co asks Trillia Newbell, Director of Community Outreach at the ERLC, "What keeps younger and older women divided in the church?" Watch her respond in this less than 2-minute video clip.

3. Tabletalk: A Field Guide from the Abyss

“The September issue of Tabletalk considers the many ways that Satan attempts to tear down the church, and presents these attempts creatively in the form of a training manual for demons.”

4. Won Kwak: Throwing In The Towel As A Pastor

“We asked Won Kwak, ‘When are you most tempted to throw in the towel as a pastor?’”

5. Aaron Lee: Book Reviews

This week I reviewed Richard Dawkins, C. S. Lewis and the Meaning of Life and Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image.

FROM SOLA

1. Oh Young Kwon: Opening the Gates Between Rich and Poor

“My Korean-immigrant church is in Lincoln Heights, a community once marred by gang violence and generational poverty. The church prides itself as one of the first Korean-immigrant churches in America. However, the church itself doesn’t reflect the surrounding community, which is predominantly Latinx and African-American. Needless to say, interactions between the church community and the surrounding neighborhood are minimal at best, non-existing to be fair.”

2. Joseph Lee: How to be an Authentic and Appealing Church for Gen Z

“Forging an authentic relationship with Gen Z-ers might seem like an uphill battle for many pastors. We fear to have this authentic relationship with our students because we are afraid that our students might ‘shoo’ us off or outright ignore us. While we may think that Gen Zers are completely alien, they are actually quite similar to the Millennials than we ever thought.”

3. P. J. Tibayan: I’ve Graduated, Now What? 3 Steps to Finding Your Place In the Church

“So how do we transition well from following Jesus as a college student to following Jesus post college? The difficulty of transitioning can be a confusing or paralyzing discouragement. We go to church gatherings on Sundays and feel out of place and confused on how to embrace the new normal. But college grads who had just been immersed in college ministry don't have to be paralyzed by this transition.”

4. Thank God It’s Friday: Weekend Roundup

In case you missed it, here are some headlines from last week: From Gay to Gospel: The Fascinating Story of Becket Cook, I Was a Violent Klansman Who Deserved to Die, An Uneven Playing Field: The Complex Educational Experiences of Asian Americans, and Won Kwak on What Others May Not Know About Asian Believers.

5. SOLA: TGIF Subscription

Get our weekly TGIF weekend roundups delivered straight to your inbox for free. Subscribe today so you never miss out.

[nrip]

3 Ways Social Media Can Improve Healthcare Marketing Efforts

Social media is in its prime. According to a 2018 report by Adobe Digital Insights, Social media is the most relevant advertising channel for 50% of Gen Z and 42% of millennials. The significance of this statistic cannot be underestimated. 

For the healthcare industry in particular, social media can help engage patients, providers, and the public with relevant and timely information, as well as communicate the value and credibility of the health system.

Findings from the 2018 Sprout Social Index found that posts with links to more information are the most preferred type of content on social media. In addition, 30% of consumers said that this is the kind of content they’d like to see most from brands on social. 18% preferred graphics and images, while 17% would like to see produced video.

The wide variety of content that can be distributed via social media – from images and video to mixed-media blog posts, polls, and infographics – is a great way for healthcare brands to begin to capitalize on their mission and engage with patients through captivating, often emotionally-charged subject matter. 

When executed correctly, social media campaigns are incredibly powerful. Of course, proper targeting and optimization is necessary to begin to map out your strategy. This planning is best executed with a healthcare CRM or other database in place to gauge your market opportunities. 

If your organization has not yet begun to capitalize on this marketing tactic, it’s time to reevaluate your strategy: Why is Social Media Becoming a Critical Component of Healthcare Marketing Strategy?

A recent study by PwC found that 42% of individuals viewing health information on social media look at health-related consumer reviews prior to reaching out, proving that positive feedback – even that provided by strangers – is a powerful means to building trust. The same report also found that 32% of US users post about their friends’ and family’s healthcare experiences on social media. 

According to another report by PewResearch, 80% of social media users are specifically looking for health information, and nearly half of those are searching for information about a specific doctor or health professional.

If the statistics alone don’t demonstrate the value of social media for healthcare, then the opportunity to engage one-on-one with patients and providers should. As has been proven many times, individualization is key to modern marketing tactics. Social media provides an excellent opportunity for healthcare organizations to increase patient referrals and improve the overall quality of care – therefore, it’s no surprise that many health systems are jumping on the social media bandwagon. 

Let’s take a look at three ways social media can improve overall healthcare marketing efforts:

1. Engage with Patients in Real-Time

One of the benefits of social media marketing in healthcare is enabling deeper and more meaningful discussions that address patient questions, concerns, and interests in real-time.

The question is: How can healthcare marketers effectively use social media to communicate and engage with existing patients?

Health systems can facilitate patient empowerment by enabling and engaging in patient forums and research networks online. For example, PatientsLikeMe allows patients to manage their own health conditions by discussing treatments with patients who have similar conditions. Hospitals and other health networks can develop their own platforms that allow patients to share their experiences and receive support from similar individuals.

Along with forums, health systems can use social networking pages to encourage patient discussions. For example, Children’s Mercy uses their Facebook page as way to showcase their reputation as a renowned care center. “Locally, Children’s Mercy wants parents to know their kids are in good hands. Social is a good way to share news and feature CMH doctors and patients,” according to PR Director Jake Jacobson.

What Social Media Tactics Best Promote Patient Engagement?

This video promotes Children’s Mercy’s Research Institute and, in particular, their cystic fibrosis research program. Posts such as these encourage members of the community to support the hospital’s research efforts while also raising awareness around disease and treatment – especially for lesser-known conditions. 

According to the Journal of Health Management, “When patients tell their stories, their friends see that and the likelihood of spreading the message increases many-fold.” A video like this one tells a story that community members can easily relate to, creating a positive, trust-enforcing image for Children’s Mercy. 

To successfully engage patients on social media forums or networking sites, organizations must regularly monitor these platforms to respond to patients in a timely manner, as well as ensure a variety of fresh, engaging content is uploaded regularly to keep patients interested and engaged.

2. Facilitate Physician Collaboration

Healthcare marketers can also use social media channels to encourage physician alignment and collaboration. Texas Health, a network of 25 hospitals that employs 5,500 physicians, created an enterprise social network to help physicians communicate and work with one another in overcoming challenges posed by the work environment, such as EHR requirements.

As a result of this networking initiative, the health system saw improved physician collaboration, in addition to a shorter learning period and greater acceptance of using social media tools.

Why Should Healthcare Marketers be Concerned with Improving Physician Alignment and Collaboration?

Social media is an easy way for physicians to find and connect with other health professionals, even those outside of their own health system or hospital. Physicians can also share their knowledge or research to benefit other providers and even communicate with colleagues about patient issues. 

According to Master of Health Administration, 88% of physicians use the Internet and social media to research pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical devices. Social media helps doctors stay up to date in the rapidly-changing healthcare environment – not only about patients themselves, but about new research and technology that can better facilitate care.  

Overall, these practices improve physicians’ knowledge and willingness to work as a team. The more informed and educated a health system’s physicians are, the happier patients will be with their experience and the quality of care provided. 

Ultimately, healthcare marketers should strive to provide patients with better experiences in order to foster loyalty, retention, and positive word-of-mouth referrals. Improving physician engagement and alignment via network-driven social media networks is one way to do so.

  3. Support Population & Preventative Health Initiatives

Since many social media sites are public communication platforms that can reach a wide breadth of individuals, healthcare organizations can use this marketing tactic to support broader population health and preventative health initiatives.

One way to do this is to communicate educational information about health events and crises. Lee Aase of Mayo Clinic and Shannon Dosemagen of Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, say “organizations can use social media to distribute time-sensitive health information, promote information sharing to encourage behavioral changes (including corrective changes during potential health crises), be a platform for conversation between agencies and constituents (rather than just as an information provider), and allow the public to provide useful information and feedback.”

MayoChildren'sCenter@MayoClinicKids

    If you're spending time outdoors in the brush, you're also at higher risk of brushing up against a poisonous plant. Exposure to plants like #poisonivy can cause an itchy rash that lasts for weeks. So how do you treat it?https://mayocl.in/2KpZjQf 

  9

12:47 AM - Jun 25, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

  See MayoChildren'sCenter's other Tweets

      Healthcare organizations can also use social media as a platform to distribute information about common health conditions, diseases, and other public health issues in the hopes of preventing these occurrences.

As John Weston, CMO of Mayo Clinic notes, “We leverage the rich content we have to provide consumers with information about diseases and conditions, even when it is likely they may never become a patient. We view this as part of our moral responsibility—to share our knowledge and expertise to benefit others.”

Key Takeaways

Though social media does provide the opportunity for healthcare organizations to reach large consumer and patient populations, marketers need to be mindful of maintaining HIPAA compliance and other privacy regulations on these public platforms. Providers can maintain the trust of patient-provider relationships by staying far away from personal patient information and establishing a professional presence. 

Keeping this in mind, social media marketing in healthcare has the potential to improve patient engagement, drive physician alignment, and foster a healthier society overall. Campaigns that are executed with strategic, targeted goals and that align with a multi-channel marketing strategy will see the most success. 

[blogdanielwilson-blog]

Generation Z: What Do They Want from their Hotel Stay Experience?

"The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect to their elders. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and are tyrants over their teachers."   Attributed to Socrates in 470 BC, this popular quote sums up how humanity has felt about its younger generation since the beginning of time. Generation Z is no exception. Born between 1995 and 2010, these digital natives have become an important influence on people of all ages and incomes, according to a McKinsey report.

In particular, they are changing the way we consume and relate to brands. This has far-reaching consequences for hospitality, making it essential for hotels to take notice of what Gen Z wants from a hotel stay experience—and to ensure they provide it.

Understanding Gen Z

While the majority of Gen Zers are still under the age of 20, this demographic already makes up 25.9% of the U.S. population and is responsible for contributing $44 billion to the economy. They may not be booking hotel stays just yet, but Sparks and Honey's Generation Z 2025: The Final Generation shows 65% of parents consider their teens' opinions when they buy family vacations. What that opinion is includes the following:

Tech, Tech and More Tech

It goes almost without saying that innovative technology is a must for any brand aiming to serve Gen Z in the future. What many don't appreciate fully, however, is the degree to which this group is continuously connected. It's no longer enough to have free internet in your properties. Offerings now need to extend to seamless Wifi for multiple devices, hiccup-free video streaming, and Internet functionality that integrates with hotel systems such as mobile check-in and room access, bill payment, and even ordering capabilities.

Social Media Integration

With Gen Z being always online and completely comfortable with social media, it's vital for hotel brands to have strong, active presences on social media that guests can connect with at any time. That means up-to-date profiles, frequent postings, interactive communication on multiple channels, and a solid social marketing strategy. Research shows this group typically logs up to 10 hours a day of screen time, with many experts arguing that it's not an addiction but an extension of themselves.

A Community Experience

The days of "I want to be alone" are long gone, and Gen Zers are noticeably focused on aligning with a community culture. They value experiences over material possessions, and the ability to meet and mingle with others is an important part of travel. Hotels that offer communal seating, social hubs, dining and common areas for guests wanting to interact with others deliver the atmosphere they're looking for.

Enterprising Dining

Food-related activities are a huge part of the Gen Z experience, with food media driving expectations in a big way. A 2018 study by Y-Pulse called "Understanding Tomorrow's Tastemakers Today" showed 56% of respondents watched Food Network shows and food videos on Facebook and Instagram. As a result, while Gen Zers still want to experience the fun aspects of ordering from the kids' menu, they prefer to choose their own food from the adult menu. They want sharable food with photo-worthy presentation, made from plant-based, ethically-sourced, and locally-available ingredients.

Value for Money

Gen Z is keenly aware of economic insecurity, having grown up partly during the Great Recession. This makes them responsible about spending and determined to get value for money, while not skimping on the basics. Their youth and relatively good health enable them to take advantage of lower costs for alternative accommodation with less emphasis on luxury and comforts, a factor that has contributed significantly to the rise of services like Airbnb and ride-sharing apps like Uber. A recent study from UNiDAYS and Ad Age found Gen Z students actually prefer staying at hotels than booking Airbnbs, which is a reverse trend that's good news for hotel chains across the world.

A Local Lens

With their focus on experiences rather than possessions, they want authentic local experiences rather than traditional, guided touring. It's important for hotel brands to offer opportunities for guests to enjoy local food and entertainment as part of a cultural immersion in the community.

Opportunities for Engagement

The rise of user-generated content over the last decade has made Gen Zers very comfortable with crowdsourcing information about future purchases. They base their decisions to buy on reviews by strangers, friends, and influencers and believe they have a duty to contribute to the conversation. Engagement is the name of the game and Gen Zers aren't afraid to engage—as long as it's seamless, error-free and worth their while.

Preparing for a Gen Z Future

All this makes it stunningly clear that Gen Z is already impacting the hospitality industry and will continue to do so for at least the next decade. Hotel brands should start implementing measures right now if they want to be ahead of the pack. Many are, with big brands like Marriott, Hilton and even Generator adapting their philosophies rapidly to include:

Reviewing marketing methods: Reaching this demographic is going to require high levels of personalization. As a result of the constant bombardment of information, Gen Zers have developed sophisticated methods of filtering out irrelevant information. As selective media consumers, they have both the knowledge and the awareness to rule out any attempt at interruption marketing, so getting their attention is going to require fine-tuning. To reach them meaningfully, you'll need to meet them where they hang out (hint: it's online), focus on direct, individualized messaging that emphasizes benefits for them, leverage reviews and engagement, deploy superior technical designs, and highlight your company's values. You'll also need to make the switch from text-heavy marketing to a more visual, video-based approach, because, according to the Pew Research Institute, 85% of Gen Zers use YouTube and 32% say they use it more than any other social media site. Earn instant respect by proving to your Gen Z guests that you understand social media, by making it part of their journey from arrival to departure.

Implementing high-touch tech options: Several hotel brands are doing this; Hilton's new Signia line; one of the newest on the market is starting out with three locations in Florida, Atlanta and Indiana. This new brand makes use of natural light and smart technology that offers guests over 100 workouts in their rooms and the gym, wireless charging stations, digital whiteboards, an app that controls check-ins, in-room lighting, temperature, and access to the user's own Netflix account.

Assessing destination appeal: With the Gen Z focus on the experience, destinations that are "ho-hum" are not going to cut it. Destinations that aren't exciting and inspirational in and of themselves need to connect with tour operators who offer unique, local adventures, not cookie-cutter versions. In a paradoxical shift, those authentic, local activities also need to be available via online booking options, without the guest having to spend 30 minutes on hold by phone.

Getting app-enabled: "There's an app for that" might be tongue-in-cheek for Boomers and Millennials, but for Gen Zers it's a foregone conclusion. Brands that don't have apps for booking, ordering, and their loyalty programs are likely to be considered outdated by this audience. And since many teens can already write mobile apps of their own in an hour or two, they simply won't take seriously any major brand that can't wrap its proverbial head around the idea.

Revisiting the dining experience: Gen Z is causing the restaurant industry to review the dining experience offered for guests, and hotel brands need to do the same. Technomic's 2018College and University Consumer Trend Report shows 42% of respondents want street foods on the menu, 23% prefer to "build" a meal of appetizers or snack goods, 46% choose chicken ahead of any other protein, and hamburgers and pizza remain reliable favorites. To capture the imagination of this market, hotel brands need to factor these requirements into their dining offerings alongside the use of organic, sustainable and locally-sourced ingredients.

Evaluating the facilities: The days of huge, ornate and intimidating lobby areas are gone, and hotels need to rethink their layouts. Focus on comfortable, communal and connected public spaces, where guests can relax for indefinite periods of time watching video on their devices, chatting online and even running their businesses by mobile. When it comes to accommodations, they don't need the predictability of having the exact same furnishings in Bermuda as Baltimore. They want the local colors and flavors of the destination, updated with a high-tech spin.

Connecting with celebrity ambassadors: When Kylie Jenner posted she no longer opens Snapchat in Feb 2018, the company's shares sank by 7.2% and lost $1.3 billion in market value within a day as a result. While chances are good Jenner had no idea what the fallout of her tweet would be, it just shows how much weight the opinion of an influencer carries. Hotel brands that have the budget would do well to court a particular celebrity and get them onside, rather than waiting for competitors to do it first. Brands that don't have the funds for a Jenner can team up with micro-influencers who can act as ambassadors for your destination.

Consulting with Gen Z demographic: The sure-fire way to take account of a target audience's requirements in your planning is to ask them what those requirements are. Hotels can do this in several ways. First, there are multiple studies available that provide information. Second, the audience itself is so tech-enabled it's an easy step to set up research online, on social media and by email to ask them for their opinions. And third, a 2018 study by American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation shows 51% of Gen Zers express interest in working in hospitality. What better way to ensure you're catering correctly to a market segment than to employ members of the target audience yourself?

Generation Z is on its way, and hotel brands wanting to remain relevant and competitive in the future have limited time available in which to prepare for this audience. At the very least, hotel executives should be reviewing the points listed here to determine whether they are on track for this new market segment.

 Travel concierge app is an app that provide different type of facilities to the customers. It is beneficial for direct booking of hotels.

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Summer Vacation's New Norm | PYMNTS.com

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Summer is here and while schools nationwide are emptying, families across the U.S. are readying for the annual pilgrimage to beaches, national parks, amusement parks, resorts and campgrounds nationwide. And those families heading out by planes, trains and automobiles each summer represent a pretty hefty chunk of change commerce-wise. Depending on the estimate, the average American vacation costs $1,145 per person — meaning a trip for a family of four averages out around $4,500.

How and where people spend their vacation time and money is changing — and quickly.

Increasingly kids and teenagers are choosing the locations, often with an eye toward what Instagrams well, while parents are stepping back.

Way back. In fact so far back that in many cases they aren’t even on the trip.

Why Picking the Perfect Vacation Spot is Becoming Kid Stuff 

According to data from global luxury travel network Virtuoso, families are using a wider lens when it comes to their summer 2019 travel destinations. When looking at what families are mostly selecting for when it comes to choosing their destination, finding action and adventure topped out the list. That represents a gain in ground for action and adventure travel — which in 2018 was only number 2 in the family-specific list tracked in Virtuoso’s Luxe Report.

That gain, according to the report, is largely driven by social media savvy Gen Z consumers, who tend to exert a larger than expected amount of sway in bookings. The younger members of Generation Z, incidentally, are about 10 years old, and the oldest members are college age.

“They may be young, but Gen Zers have strong opinions and exert considerable influence over travel decisions,” the 2019 Virtuoso Luxe Report notes.

And if that sounds crazily young to be directing the annual vacation budget, according to Expedia, merely considering Gen Z’s influence is in fact starting too old. It’s really Generation Alpha — currently still in production and maxed out at the age of 9 — that is really the power behind the travel crown.

OK, that’s a slight exaggeration. What Expedia’s study actually says is that those consumers born after 2010 “may be young, but their ideas and opinions and are already influencing family travel decisions.”

The reasoning is 83 percent of respondents of travelers around the world report that they plan trips together as a family. More than half of parents and grandparents also said their Gen Alpha family members attempted to influence family trip planning by showing them online and television media. Another 60 percent of respondents say travel ideas come from both children and adults.

So where is the next generation (and the generation after that) leading us all on vacation? Well that, it seems, depends on what type of traveler one is asking.

The Luxe Report notes the favored locations include as follows: Italy, Mexico, Hawaii, Orlando, England, South Africa, Costa Rica, France, the Dominican Republic and Spain. And if that list sound a bit Europe-heavy, note that is the “average list.” The list of exotic leading destinations for families: Iceland, the Galapagos Island, Cuba, Antarctica, Morocco, Japan, Egypt, Bhutan, Rwanda and India.

If at this point you are trying to struggle to recall any family vacation to Antarctica you’ve ever heard of that wasn’t in the novel “Where’d You Go Bernadette” or if you’ve ever met a single person excited for their family trip to Rwanda this summer — note that Virtuoso does cater to luxury travelers, who may think just a bit more broadly when it comes to global destinations.

Expedia’s survey noted that more middle class range families tend to prioritize trip booking around theme parks and attractions (74 percent), water activities (67 percent), and outdoor activities (55 percent). Cost is a factor in booking — though often not a leading one. Convenience is generally more important than lowest price when selecting transportation and accommodations for family trips. More than half of family travelers select their transportation because it’s the fastest option and approximately 40 percent select their accommodations based on location and family needs.

And even if family vacations aren’t en masse radically shifting toward the Galapagos Islands this summer, the composition of those vacations is shifting. Parents are doing less of the driving when it comes to family vacations — but in fairness, it is because statistically speaking, they are going on fewer of them.

Gramping — the New Face of Family Vacations

While the phenomenon has a lot of names — skip-generation travel, multi-generation travel — our favorite way to describe the phenomenon where grandparents and kids vacation together while mom and dad stay home or go on their own vacation is the term “gramping.”

And gramping, according to both Expedia and Virtuoso, is on the rise.

“It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” Sarah Gilliland, whose parents took her twins away on a trip to a national park, told Boomer Magazine.

And it is a win-in that market watchers say is driving the trend putting more travel destination picks into the hands of younger people. Grandparents, famed the world over for allowing children to stay up late and to eat as much chocolate as possible, are unsurprisingly also pretty accommodating travel agents.

“When grandparents are planning the trips, for example,” Kimberly Wilson Wetty, co-owner of Valerie Wilson Travel told Skift, “they are tailoring choices to the grandchildren more so than the parents. It’s about making the kids happy and experiencing the world together as a family — it’s educational and family bonding time. After all, if you pick a destination that the grandkids can’t enjoy, no one will be happy.”

We’d also note that in Expedia’s mixed data on grandparents, 95 percent report that fun and keeping the group happy and entertained is their leading priority when planning a trip — a result we believe was attained by grandparents finding a way to be 110 percent in favor of their grandchildren having fun.

But while Generation Z and Generation Alpha are leading Generation X and baby boomers out on increasingly Instagrammable vacations, you may find yourself wondering what sort of vacations millennials too old to be taken along and too young to have children are taking.

Good news — something better than staycations.

Millennials and The Magic of Mircocations

While millennials are a generation famous for loving new experiences, by the numbers people under the age of  40 take fewer long trips than those in other demographic sets.

But they are taking more short trips, or “microcations” as they are called in the 2019 Vacation Confidence Index, released by Allianz Global Assistance. A microcation is defined as a trip of four nights or less — or what might once have been described as a long weekend.

A little over 72 percent of millennials said they had taken at least one of these “microcations” in 2018, compared to 69 percent of Gen X-ers and 60 percent of baby boomers. The data also indicated that 21 percent of millennials said their longest trips were three to four nights, while 12 percent said they took trips no longer than one or two nights. Nearly one third said they take around three microcations of the course of a year.

“The days of the ubiquitous week-long summer vacation may be disappearing, but we’re happy to see that Americans, especially millennials, are eager to travel more frequently,” said Daniel Durazo, director of communications at Allianz Global Assistance USA, in a statement.

As for why, the survey indicates money is the leading issue. About a quarter of respondents reported they couldn’t afford a stay longer than four nights for a trip, a little over a third reported they preferred to bank and manage time off this way and a little under a third noted trips tended to coincide with special events like weddings.

So what is the lesson to take away from the new world of travel — other than the fairly obvious conclusion that whenever possible one should seek to vacation with their luxury travel-enthused grandparents?

That the great American summer travel tradition is apparently alive and well, and even in style as of 2019. It’s just a style that has changed quite a bit in recent years.

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With an estimated 64 million connected cars on the road by year’s end, QSRs are scrambling to win consumer drive-time dollars via in-dash ordering capabilities, while automakers like Tesla are developing new retail-centric charging stations. The PYMNTS Commerce Connected Playbook explores how the connected car is putting $230 billion worth of connected car spend into overdrive.

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[itsfinancethings]

The TikTok-tivists are at it again.

Thousands of users of the popular video app flocked to the Apple App Store in the last few days to flood U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign app with negative reviews. On Wednesday alone 700 negative reviews were left on the Official Trump 2020 app and 26 positive ones, according to tracking firm Sensor Tower.

TikTok fans are retaliating for Trump’s threats of banning the app, which is owned by China’s Bytedance Ltd. and is hugely popular in the U.S., especially among teens. The thought of taking away a key social and entertainment hub in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to outrage.

“For Gen Z and Millennials, TikTok is our clubhouse and Trump threatened it,” said Yori Blacc, a 19-year-old TikTok user in California who joined in the app protest. “If you’re going to mess with us, we will mess with you.”

Blacc said the movement gained steam Wednesday when a popular TikTok user, DeJuan Booker, called on his 750,000 followers to seek revenge. He posted a step-by-step primer on how to degrade the app’s rating, notching 5.6 million views. “Gen Z don’t go down without a fight,” said Booker, who goes by @unusualbeing on TikTok. “Let’s go to war.”

omg guys.. it would be so bad if we got the app store to delete trumps app definitely do NOT leave a one star review that would be so bad could u imagine pic.twitter.com/kHcidOR1H8

— 𝙜𝙞𝙖⁷ (@FL0WERH0YA) July 9, 2020

The efforts to push the app low enough so that Apple will remove it from the app store may be misguided. Apple doesn’t delete apps based on their popularity. The App Store may review those that violate its guidelines or are outdated, but not if their ratings sink. A similar tactic was tried in April to protest Google Classroom by kids frustrated with quarantine home-schooling.

But young people are looking for ways to make their voices heard, even if some of them can’t yet vote. Last month, many young people organized through TikTok to sign up to attend Trump’s first post-shutdown campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but then didn’t show up. The Trump campaign denied the online organizing effort contributed to lower-than-expected attendance.

The Trump campaign and Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok was experiencing connectivity issues on Thursday, according to Downdector, which measures web traffic.

Trump’s re-election smartphone app is a big part of the president’s unrivaled digital operation and was meant to circumvent tech companies like Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. and give the campaign a direct line to supporters. The app has helped the campaign engage Trump’s die-hard supporters, especially in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, by feeding them his latest tweets and promoting virtual events. Supporters can donate to the president’s campaign or earn rewards for recruiting friends like VIP seats to rallies or photos with the president.

The Official Trump 2020 app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times on Google’s Android store as of June 15. Apple doesn’t publish information on downloads.

Reviews with titles such as “Terrible App” or “Do Not Download!” have been flooding the App Store since late June. Official Trump 2020 now has more than 103,000 one-star reviews for an overall rating of 1.2.

But the uptick of activity has also caused the app to rise in rankings. Users have to download the app to review it, vaulting it to second place on the Apple store from No. 486 on Tuesday, according to Sensor Tower.

“Do I think that this is going to fundamentally change the election? No,” said Tim Lim, a veteran Democratic digital strategist. “But it goes to show that they are just as susceptible to these mass actions as anyone else. Trump is starting to see what it feels like to have a massive online army committed to defeating him.”

Trump earlier this week said his administration is considering banning TikTok as one way to retaliate against China over its handling of the coronavirus. Trump’s comments came after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Americans not to download the app unless they want to see their private information fall into “the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” Bytedance is also facing a U.S. national security review for its acquisition of startup Musical.ly. It has denied allegations that it poses a threat to U.S. national security.

Trump didn’t offer specifics about a potential decision and Pompeo seemed to walk back the idea of a ban in a later statement, saying that the U.S. efforts to protect American consumers’ data don’t relate to any one particular company.

Many TikTok users say they care less about potential Chinese snooping and more about Trump taking away their digital hangout. In the U.S., TikTok has been downloaded more than 165 million times, according to Sensor Tower.

“I don’t believe Trump is trying to take TikTok away because of national security, but more to retaliate against activism on the app and all the videos about him that drag him through the mud,” said Darius Jackson, an 18-year-old TikTok user in Champagne, Illinois, who asked his followers Wednesday to give Trump’s app a one-star rating.

“This is the first year I’ll be able to vote and I think activism on TikTok is going to make a big difference,” Jackson said.

—With assistance from Mark Gurman.