Are We Ready for These Young Kids?

We all know I'm an infographic junkie — I just love them. Send me an e-mail with one in it and you'll have me hooked. But, recently I read an article that was so interesting to me, I almost never made it to the infographic before I started noodling what this really means for us as marketers and fundraisers.

The article is The Hyperconnected Life, and it is talking about teens and young adults and how they use technology. Also within the article is a link to the report Teens and Technology 2013, which was done through research by Pew's Internet & American Life Project. And, of course, there's an infographic.

Now, I realize our industry is no stranger to trying to understand the younger generation. And no one is debating that many of our donors are from the older generations. But we also know that those donors are aging and all nonprofits are focused on trying to engage individuals along the entire lifecycle. Young adults might not have much money, but they have time for volunteering and participating, and they also have a lot of friends — meaning their networking reach can be extensive.

What's interesting is that they are not like their parents. So, while they may be introduced to nonprofit giving and volunteering through their parents and family activities, they are wired (forgive the pun) totally differently.

Here are some key findings in the report and some thoughts that came to my mind. Of course, it's not surprising how "connected" they are for their age: 80 percent own a computer, 78 percent a cellphone, and 37 percent own a smartphone. But the real question is how this affects their view of life, how they interact, etc. In fact, in the report from Pew it seems that the experts are split as to whether this level of connectivity is positive or negative.