Podcast 42: What have the generations in work been doing in lockdown?
Welcome to a Question of Gamification! Today's question is, "what have your people been doing in lockdown?"
We will take a look at how much they've been spending their time on various tools and media, based on the global web index. We will look at where have your people hung out and you know, we'll use a few statistical research tools that have given us different insights.
Generations at work
But, we also look at it from a generational perspective. First things first, and… what have they been doing on mass? Well, in April, they were mainly still searching for Coronavirus updates. People were looking for, rule changes, etc. The biggest group active in doing that were the millennials, followed closely by Generation X. Generation X are those aged in the mid-thirties to mid-forties, some even end of the forties. And then, boomers are the generation that follows in age group the 55 plussers. Millennials are aged between 25 to 35 more or less and Gen Z are classed those younger than 25 better.
The generation as defined by Global Web Index in their research:
Gen Z – 16-23 years-old
Gen Y (Millennials) – 24-37 years-old
Gen X – 38-56 years-old
Baby boomers – 57-64 years-old
If we look at, the various generations, they had one consistency, all of those actively in work were looking for Coronavirus updates and following the statistics and probably reading some of the news. Then, after that, actually, the divide becomes more interesting.
Listening to music online was very much a Gen Z sport, as in, the youngest of the generations in work would have spent 70% of their time engaging with music. Then, you know, for millennials that drops down to about 60% for Gen X 50% and for the baby boomers down to about 40%. It had a gliding scale backwards. Watching movies was the highest for millennials, watching funny videos, the highest for GenZ, so the younger ones. And then playing games actually came in a solid fourth place across ALL age groups. Now give it 10 years ago, that was not the case, so playing games on mobile playing games on laptops, if you combine the two, they were actually one of the top activities for Generation Z, a generation of millennials, and even 30% of Gen X and baby boomers are 30/35% of those were engaged in playing games, either online, or mobile or on a PC or laptops.
Top online consumption (based on figures from April 2020 from Global Web Index)
Coronavirus news and updates (68%)
listening to music (58%),
watching movies/shows (49%),
watching funny videos (42%),
playing games on mobile (40%), and
looking at memes (32%)
Unless you are a Gen Z native in which case the list was something more like this:
Listening to music (71%)
Looking for memes (54%)
Looking at funny videos (52%)
So, there's quite an interesting divide. Now. Some of the other things people have done is reading business articles, looking for cooking recipes, looking for discounts, healthy eating, sports news, celebrity news. And then it goes all the way down to, well, beyond 10th place before people actually engage in learning activities like podcasts, live blogs and webinars are way down.
They weren't consuming educational content
If you were thinking, and a lot of my audience is in the learning space, so I would have expected it to be higher. If you're thinking that your people have been diligently learning and consuming content, think again! Most likely there will have been listening to music or listening to something, watching movies or videos, looking at memes or playing games. I'm thrilled to say that games are up there.
Games enable connection and achievement
Now, this was a global web index report dating back to April. Haven't yet seen the figures for May and June, but my thinking is that, this may not be vastly different. When I look at, the increase in consumer behaviour, even in just the UK, analysed by, Statista and others, we see a,
We will take a look at how much they've been spending their time on various tools and media, based on the global web index. We will look at where have your people hung out and you know, we'll use a few statistical research tools that have given us different insights.
Generations at work
But, we also look at it from a generational perspective. First things first, and… what have they been doing on mass? Well, in April, they were mainly still searching for Coronavirus updates. People were looking for, rule changes, etc. The biggest group active in doing that were the millennials, followed closely by Generation X. Generation X are those aged in the mid-thirties to mid-forties, some even end of the forties. And then, boomers are the generation that follows in age group the 55 plussers. Millennials are aged between 25 to 35 more or less and Gen Z are classed those younger than 25 better.
The generation as defined by Global Web Index in their research:
Gen Z – 16-23 years-old
Gen Y (Millennials) – 24-37 years-old
Gen X – 38-56 years-old
Baby boomers – 57-64 years-old
If we look at, the various generations, they had one consistency, all of those actively in work were looking for Coronavirus updates and following the statistics and probably reading some of the news. Then, after that, actually, the divide becomes more interesting.
Listening to music online was very much a Gen Z sport, as in, the youngest of the generations in work would have spent 70% of their time engaging with music. Then, you know, for millennials that drops down to about 60% for Gen X 50% and for the baby boomers down to about 40%. It had a gliding scale backwards. Watching movies was the highest for millennials, watching funny videos, the highest for GenZ, so the younger ones. And then playing games actually came in a solid fourth place across ALL age groups. Now give it 10 years ago, that was not the case, so playing games on mobile playing games on laptops, if you combine the two, they were actually one of the top activities for Generation Z, a generation of millennials, and even 30% of Gen X and baby boomers are 30/35% of those were engaged in playing games, either online, or mobile or on a PC or laptops.
Top online consumption (based on figures from April 2020 from Global Web Index)
Coronavirus news and updates (68%)
listening to music (58%),
watching movies/shows (49%),
watching funny videos (42%),
playing games on mobile (40%), and
looking at memes (32%)
Unless you are a Gen Z native in which case the list was something more like this:
Listening to music (71%)
Looking for memes (54%)
Looking at funny videos (52%)
So, there's quite an interesting divide. Now. Some of the other things people have done is reading business articles, looking for cooking recipes, looking for discounts, healthy eating, sports news, celebrity news. And then it goes all the way down to, well, beyond 10th place before people actually engage in learning activities like podcasts, live blogs and webinars are way down.
They weren't consuming educational content
If you were thinking, and a lot of my audience is in the learning space, so I would have expected it to be higher. If you're thinking that your people have been diligently learning and consuming content, think again! Most likely there will have been listening to music or listening to something, watching movies or videos, looking at memes or playing games. I'm thrilled to say that games are up there.
Games enable connection and achievement
Now, this was a global web index report dating back to April. Haven't yet seen the figures for May and June, but my thinking is that, this may not be vastly different. When I look at, the increase in consumer behaviour, even in just the UK, analysed by, Statista and others, we see a,
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