Derek E. Baird, M.Ed.

The Gen Z Frequency Translated into Chinese Language Edition

I'm so proud and excited to announce that my book, The Gen Z Frequency, has been translated into a Chinese language edition by Blue Lion Press and Zhejiang University Press.

Just like the original version of the book, the Chinese language edition offers a comprehensive guide for any youth brand or organization trying to reach Gen Z.

"Many books talk about Gen Z, but this is a definitive playbook for modern marketers and business people to authentically engage an emerging generation."

-Stefan Heinrich, Head of Global Marketing, ByteDance (TikTok)

The book covers content creation, connecting with youth culture, online community and content engagement strategies, and tactics such as social media, experiential, emerging technologies (like AR and VR), kids' privacy law, building online communities, embracing youth culture, and much more.

 

 

How The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Will Reshape Online Privacy for Kids’ Across America

Here's my latest piece for Virtual Reality Pop! magazine, this time focused on the new privacy law, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and how it will impact both publishers and creators of digital experiences for kids, including virtual reality.

The primary challenge for many companies is that to be CCPA compliant, they will now be required to acquire actual knowledge of a users age, and by doing so, it may potentially open them to COPPA liability.

The primary benefit for kids, teens, and families are that the CCPA will give parents and teens more control over what personal data companies can collect from minors.

Gen Z, Privacy & Photos on Social Media

MediaSmarts has been developing digital and media literacy programs and resources for Canadian homes, schools and communities since 1996.

Through their work, Media Smarts supports parents, educators and youth media professionals with information and tools so they can help children and teens develop the critical thinking skills they need for interacting with the media they love.

Building on the privacy findings from their Young Canadians in a Wired World research, this 2017 qualitative study, To Share or Not to Share, of Gen Z youth ages 13 to 16 examines the reasoning that teens apply when deciding to share photos of themselves or other people electronically.

These interviews explore the ways that reputational privacy and social norms impact teens’ decisions to post photos and investigate whether or not they actively consent to the collection and use of their personal information by the platforms they use for sharing photos. The findings of the Media Smarts study also dovetailed with my own research for my book, The Gen Z Frequency.

Key Highlights

• Participants engaged in a number of different strategies to manage their privacy. Though a small number of photos were kept entirely private, most of the participants’ efforts were aimed at controlling who saw particular photos and preventing them from being spread to unintended audiences.
  
  
• A small number of topics were seen as not appropriate to share because they were seen as “private” (as opposed to not being shared out of fear of a negative.
  
  
• Photos containing family members were the most commonly cited as not appropriate to share because they were seen as “private”, though some participants included close friends as well.
  
  
• Snapchat, where photos are temporary by default, creates an expectation of being casual and “fun”, while Instagram’s persistent feed promotes the careful maintenance of a public-facing profile.
  
  
• When participants actively sought consent before posting photos of friends, the question was generally not “Should I share it?” but “Which one should I share?”, with the emphasis on selecting a photo in which everyone looks good according to the standards of the platform.

 

VR Pop: Gen Z Tunes into Augmented Reality

Here's my latest piece for Virtual Reality Pop magazine! From Disney Studios + Pixar VR entertainment experiences to Google Cardboard and Oculus VR in school, Gen Z's reality now comes in virtual and augmented.

Given that all the big tech giants (Apple, Google, and Facebook) have already baked augmented reality capabilities into their smartphones or apps, the rate at which this always-connected Gen Z has adopted these technologies shouldn’t be surprising.

Meet the Tweens of Gen Z

What sets Gen Z apart is an unrelenting relationship with information and technology, and their early independence, born of impatience and the confidence to act. These are the identifying traits of what will be the largest demographic in history.

And yet, their confidence and knowledge often out pace experience...which causes tension between an advanced intellect, and the reality of their actual age and emotional intelligence.

At the epicenter of this tension we find tweens—a complex subset of Gen Z. They are caught up in the turbulent transition from simply being a kid, to fending off the intricate pressures of teenage existence. They are the pivotal middle-ground of Gen Z.  

Tweens pose an interesting dilemma. Kids (5–8) are still largely influenced by and accessed through their parents.

Teens (14–18) are rapidly forming their own opinions and establishing independence from parents, and there are direct channels to reach them.

Tweens (9–13), on the contrary, are the hardest to reach, even while they are actively seeking cues and learning to form opinions. 

Because they are the least accessible, and arguably the most open to influence, tweens are an important puzzle to solve for companies marketing to Gen Z.

Gen Z is set to influence nearly $600 billion dollars of family spending and will comprise 40% of consumers by 2020. To succeed in marketing to this unique segment, any brand that wants in, has to be willing to play by their rules.

My colleague, Gregg Witt and I have co-authored a new book for Motivate Youth.

In this guide, you will learn key insights, strategies, and tactics your company can deploy to improve tween marketing efforts. You can download a copy of Meet the Tweens of Gen Z over on Scribd.

 

For Storyteller Branden Harvey, Changing the World Sounds Good

Meet Storyteller Branden Harvey

I'm a big fan of Branden Harvey. He first popped up on my radar during the early days of Snapchat, er, Snap Inc! At that time he was a crazy kid from Portland with a awesome hair cut and unbridled good energy and positive vibes. 

Then he traveled to Africa, using Snapchat and Instagram to share his adventures. And what adventures did he have! It was then I saw that Snapchat really was a powerful *storytelling* tool. Branden is a talented storyteller who combines his infectious brand of optimism, digital skills and social media presence to spread good in the world!

At a time when there's so much negativity and, frankly bullying on social media, it's so refreshing to have someone like Branden use his storytelling gift, passion for social media and photography to lift spirits and challenge us to look for the silver lining and good in other people, places and things. 

Sounds Good Podcast

He has a new podcast called, "Sounds Good." Every Monday he talks to people in the creative fields about their process, living authentically and sharing their advice and knowledge. It's fantastic. You can find "Sounds Good" on iTunes, SoundCloud and other podcast networks.

Every week I listen to "Sounds Good" and think, "That was my favorite episode." But this episode featuring Jessica is just a wee bit more special.

This week Branden sat down with Jessica Hische, an amazing lettering artist and author, who has worked with creatives like Wes Anderson, New York Times, American Express and many, many others. 

STUDY: The Role of Social Media and Technology in Peer Bullying

Recently published research in the journal Psychology of Violence,  from the University of New Hampshire Crimes Against Children Research Center (CCRC),  – “The Role of Technology in Peer Harassment: Does It Amplify Harm for Youth?” (pdf)  conducted a survey  of 791 young people aged 10-20 to find out the role of technology and social media in peer bullying.

The big take away from the study is that the negative impact of online bullying is "significantly lower" than bullying behaviors that occur face-to-face.

• "...That those seeking to prevent the most detrimental forms of peer harassment might focus less on cyberbullying per se and instead [consider] prevention programs that teach youth to handle negative feelings and to de-escalate tensions."

• “Compared with in-person incidents, technology-only incidents were less likely to involve multiple episodes and power imbalances.”
   
• “They were seen by victims as easier to stop and had significantly less emotional impact.” So, no, the idea that tech amplifies harm, is not supported by the data."

While many researchers have been concerned that cyberbullying could actually be worse than facing a victim offline and in person, the study actually provided opposite results.

"Technology-only incidents were less likely than in-person only incidents to result in injury, involve a social power differential and to have happened a series of times," Kimberly J. Mitchell, lead author of the study, said in a news release.

"Mixed episodes, those that involved both in-person and technology elements, were more likely than technology-only episodes to involve perpetrators who knew embarrassing things about the victim, happen a series of times, last for one month or longer, involve physical injury and start out as joking before becoming more serious. It is these mixed episodes that appear to be the most distressing to youth."

This study represents a big shift in thinking about social media bullying and should make everyone involved in working with kids and teens shift more focus on to the bullying behaviors that take place in the classroom, home and playground.

The Role of Technology in Peer Harassment: Does It Amplify Harm for Youth?

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Trend Watch: Tenth Grade Tech Trends

I ran across this really interesting essay over on Medium by Josh Miller, who interviewed his sister on the latest tech and social media trends at her high school.

Josh's findings dovetail with what I've heard in my own interviews with tweens and teens on the hows and why's of their social media habits.   

Take a peek into the mind of a teenager on social media to learn what's in (spoiler, not Facebook) and what's hot (rhymes with snap and cat).

Tenth Grade Tech Trends

Why Snapchat Is The Future of Social Media [VIDEO]

In his new video, fimmaker Casey Neistat makes the case for Snapchat being the future of social media, but in a fundamentally different way.

It's not like Facebook or MySpace, his argument goes, though it may be their natural evolutionary successor.

Snapchat is different, Neistat (and the gaggle of Snapchat teens he interviews) says, because it actually mirrors the way we interact in the real world.

"Snapchat is great because it's virile and vital. Because it's right now. Because there's no pressure to be produced or fake, because everything disappears in a few seconds anyway."  -David Pierce, The Verge

Snapchat is a way to let people live your life with you, a surprisingly close approximation of just running into someone for a few seconds at the store or on the subway platform. Neistat points particularly to Snapchat Stories, the public-facing part of Snapchat, as the feature that made Snapchat really move into the mainstream.

 

 

To illustrate the power of Snapchat, Neistat invites Jerome Jarre, the King of Snapchat with 1.2 million follwers, to send a Snap his fans asking them to meet him in Union Square----16 minutes later Jarre racked up 142,000 views on his Snap and several hundred screaming fans actually showed up in person.

Read more on The Verge

Snapchat Social Safety Guide for Parents and Educators [PRIVACY]

Few things strike fear in parents and educators as much as Snapchat. It wasn't too long ago that social technologies like MySpace, Facebook, SMS and camerphones had the power to elicit such a negative response.

But slowly, as parents and educators began to learn more about these new tools and social technologies, they not only embraced them, but many educators began integrating them into their teaching practice.

The Snapchat team has put together a wonderful guide to help parents and educators learn more about the app and help demystify some of the rumors. It's a good starting point to learn more about the app, which is becoming more and more mainstream every day.

The guide also talks about the SnapKidz--the totally private and secure version of Snapchat designed for kids under the age of 13. Snapkidz is a fun way for tweens to privately share photos of camp, that trip to Disneyland or family vaycay with their friends, cousins and even grandma! 

For educators, this guide is a great opportunity to have a discussion with your colleagues in a professional development setting to learn more about Snapchat and how students in your school are using this tool. Who knows, you might even find yourself using the "Our Story" feature to document that field trip!

Happy Snapchatting!


Snapchat Social Safety Guide for Parents & Educators

STUDY: 59% of 8-14 Year Olds with Smartphone Use Chat Apps

New research from UK-based digital marketing platform SuperAwesome, which currently houses the largest kids research panel in the region, maps out a compelling crop of comparative digital kids data from 2009 to 2014. 

The survey contains lots of really interesting stats on kids gaming, social networking and mobile habits, but one of the most interesting statistics comes from the data regarding chat apps. Back in 2009, MSN dominated, but now kids have shifted their loyalty to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

So while kids may not be using Facebook, they are using Facebook products (FB Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp) as primary social networking and communication tools. It looks like the great unbundling of Facebook strategy may pay off and keep younger users in the Facebook mobile ecosystem. And mobile ad network. (Shock! Awe!)

The other big take away is the shift from passive consumption of media to an active embrace of maker culture. Kids are creating movies and publishing them on YouTube, creating worlds in MineCraft and embracing LEGO more than ever.

While this data is primarily focused on kids in the UK, I would garner that data from U.S. kids would closely align with the SuperAwesome findings. 

Kids Trends: 2009 vs 2014

SnapBrand: How To Leverage SnapChat to Market to Millennials [INFOGRAPHIC]

Once the private domain of teens, SnapChat has moved into the mainstream with several large companies using SnapChat to appeal to younger demographic.

Some of the companies currently utilizing SnapChat as a marketing platform, include: Acura, DoSomething.org, Juicy Couture, Taco Bell and even Lena Dunhum's hit show Girls has joined Snapchat.

It's not clear at this point what the conversation rate is or if teens will resent that corporate America has co-opted their parent free zone with ads (like all the "old people" that took over Facebook!), but it will be interesting to see how this develops.

 

Via Marketo Blog

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Trend Watch: TeenFacefeed

Part SnapChat. Part Chatroulette. Part Secret. A dash of Instagram. Teens are going gaga for Facefeed. 

"This isn't OkCupid or Tinder. This is trying to replicate how you would meet someone at a party. 

You see faces of people (no name, no background info), and you can say 'hi' with a smile to anyone you feel looks interesting."

There's no profile to set up. Facefeed doesn't link with any of your social accounts. You just log in, take a selfie, and put it out there in the world.

If someone thinks your selfie looks nice, that person can write you a message. If you want to reply, you can. If you don't, you can block that person forever.

And if you become friends with that person, you can add them to a friends list, so you can write to each other as often as you'd like."

Read more at Business Insider

 

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Noah: A 17-Minute Film Set Completely on Teen's Laptop [VIDEO]

Noah, a short film that debuted at the Toronto International FIlm Festival, illustrates the flitting attention span and lack of true connection in digital culture more clearly than anything else in recent memory. (Warning: NSFW)

"These words are probably unfurling inside one of many open tabs on your computer screen. Perhaps one tab is for work, one is for chatting, and another is for Twitter. You probably even have some others open for no particular reason.

This is the way we receive information and the way we communicate now: constantly, simultaneously, compulsively, endlessly, and more and more often, solitarily. This strange new mode of living--and its indelible effect on our humanity--is perfectly captured in a new short film that debuted this week at the Toronto International Film Festival.

 

The 17-minute, mildly NSFW Noah is unlike anything you've seen before in a movie--only because it is exactly like what many of us see on our computers all the time. Created by Canadian film students Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg, the film begins when our high school senior protagonist types in the password that opens up his laptop, and the narrative takes place entirely on his computer screen.

It doesn't matter how far removed in age you are from the characters, if you are digitally savvy enough to be reading this, Noah will hit uncomfortably close to home."

Read the entire article over on FastCompany

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Millennials Explain Snapchat

MTV Insights published an online study on the app Snapchat, surveying millennials ages 15-24 and how they use the photo-messaging app.

• Snapchats tend to be selfies or photos of "random" things paired to random captions. Artistic and planned photos are left to Instagram, which is perceived as more "official."

• There's etiquette for Snapchats, including how many Snaps are appropriate to send to a crush (no more than five/day) and the acceptable waiting times before opening a Snap.

• What people like most about the app is that it's "face-to-face" interaction and snapchat selfies made the surveyed group "feel like you're just talking to someone." However, users say they like the distance to it as well.

It's a really informative piece and well worth a read for anyone who's building products geared towards a youth audience or even parents and youth pastors who want to just decode the hype behind this popular mobile app.

You can read the entire article over on MTV Insights.

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