Our lives today not only involve screens, but they often revolve around those screens. Most of us would say we cannot live without them, whether it’s a smartphone, a laptop, or a tablet. As I pondered how those screens have changed us, I noticed that each generation is shaped in their earliest years by the technology that grew up alongside them. Consider the screens that emerged when we were young:
- Baby boomers were the first generation to grow up with TVs.
- Gen Xers were the first generation to grow up with the computer.
- Millennials were the first generation to grow up with cell phones and the internet.
- Gen Zers were the first generation to grow up with smartphones.
- And Gen Alpha, our children today, will be the first generation to grow up with AI.
The biggest impact, however, is the transformation that’s taken place inside of us due to this evolution. In our day and age, we’ve seen five radical shifts that have impacted us:
1. Screens have shifted from public to private.
Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, my family had one screen in our home—a TV set in the den. Our family gathered to watch a “program” together (The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Gilligan’s Island, Gomer Pyle, The Brady Bunch, etc.). We watched, laughed, and talked about it together.
Today, we now have our own private screen in our hands, where young and old are on different platforms, interacting with different people on different topics. We’ve been pushed into silos with people who think and talk like us, allowing no divergence of thought. Parents may know their teenage daughter has an Instagram account but have no idea she has four Finsta accounts!
Result: This placed us into echo chambers, dividing team members or family members.
Steps: We must be intentional about stepping out of our echo chamber and finding others from different generations and perspectives to broaden our mindsets and skill sets. We must pursue connections with those unlike us, over breaks, lunch, or coffee together. Also, I suggest you pursue unfamiliar platforms. I get apps and subscribe to magazines to stay current.
2. Screens have shifted to include output and input.
When I was younger, the screens were only about output: movies and television shows. Viewers watched passively and gave no input. Today, we expect screens to be interactive, spending enormous amounts of time on social media and websites. We don’t just view something; we ask questions: we perform; we offer feedback or criticism and purchase products. We want to have a “say” about where our experience is going.
This can be tough for older bosses, who are used to leading people who expect only one-way communication. Today, Gen Z comes to work wanting to be heard and to participate in the team’s direction. Leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue.
Result: This has created expectations from younger generations to have a voice and be heard immediately. They want to be in circles rather than rows.
Steps: Stop seeing feedback from young teammates as something to manage, avoid, or curb. Welcome it, with the understanding that everyone has a voice, but not a vote. (I don’t believe people have an innate need to get their way; I do believe they have a need to be heard.)
Remember: people support what they help create. You’ll get buy-in if you let them weigh in! Suggestion: Host a monthly team time called “Hey Siri,” where staff can ask questions or comment.
3. Screens have shifted from long-form to short-form.
Ironically, screen time is longer, but time on any one piece of content is shorter. A teen’s attention span in the year 2000 was 12 seconds. Today, it’s eight seconds. We have a Google reflex. We’re a distracted population conditioned to expect short videos and posts, who hate being bored and find it hard to delay gratification.
Content that’s long better be amazing. Employee engagement and student engagement are challenging issues for various reasons, not the least of which is that we get distracted quickly. We react to content more and reflect on content less. We tend to be poor critical thinkers and have just become critics. Superficial. Judgmental. Sometimes artificial.
Result: This shift has created shorter attention spans and reduced critical thinking skills.
Steps: When you communicate, be EPIC (experiential, participatory, image-rich, and connected). There’s nothing wrong with being EDU-TAINING. Also, build critical thinking skills through asking “why” questions and “how” questions. Give departments problems to solve as a contest to build critical thinking skills.
4. Screens have shifted from general to customized.
When we stop and think about messaging over the centuries, we’ve evolved from expecting personal, in-person messages in a tribe, to expecting general messages to a broader, mass audience (i.e., radio, television, or other broadcasts), to specific and customized messages today, but that can also be mass messages thanks to AI. We now feel entitled to tailored information that suits us as consumers. We assume the sender knows us and what we like. None of this generic stuff anymore. That’s so 20th century. We expect to be catered to and nurtured as a customer. We don’t have time for anything that’s not targeted for “me.”
Result: This has created a sense of entitlement among all generations, but certainly for younger ones. Further, this pushes us deeper into individualism rather than larger communities where we can broaden our worldview and make sacrifices for a larger group.
Steps: Find ways to make your messaging feel personal. One of the eight paradoxes is that great leaders are both deeply personal yet inherently collective. People want to feel you know their personal struggle—so use AI if you need to. (META, formerly Facebook, now has a Mark Zuckerberg “bot”!)
5. Screen searches have shifted from many answers to one answer.
Two decades ago, we learned to use search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo! to find solutions to our problems and answers to our questions. In response, that search engine would provide many pages of answers that you could scroll through. If you were a content provider, your greatest hope was to show up on page one.
Today, thanks to artificial intelligence, all the information that goes into a response to our question is meshed to create one answer. The algorithms compile all the available data and attempt to simplify a solution for you. At first glance, I love this. Our work is shortened and simplified. Sadly, this fosters the Dunning-Kruger Effect, where we assume we know more than we really do.
Result: This creates a false sense of satisfaction and the assumption that the answer is instant, simple, and that we know it all.
Steps: If you use AI, utilize multiple platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, or Copilot (Microsoft). They offer different perspectives, not just one. Or, choose an analog strategy to get your work done, trading in a Google search for old-fashioned research.
Our world today is consumed by screens, and we’re often unaware of how they affect us. When we understand the issues, we can compensate for negative consequences. I recently saw a comic that made me chuckle. Two young people are seated on a sofa watching TV. One says to the other, “I’ve heard the weather is going to be beautiful today!” The other responds, “Me too! Let’s watch the weather channel.”
I say—let’s lead well through these shifts and manage our expectations and blind spots.