Comment of the expert Ivan Igov, a longtime school psychologist and family therapist.

In the 90s, American explorers William Strauss and Neil Howe introduced the controversial theory of the repeated cycle of generations associated with changing a particular archetype of society. Each change in this archetype opens a new era (called a reversal) lasting about 15-20 years, in which there is a certain social, political and economic climate and social sentiment. The follow-up of generations began in 1914 (the so-called. "Lost Generation") to this day. Although it is criticized a lot, this theory is becoming more and more necessary, especially in the Western world, because it gives some chronology of the different historical patterns of behavior in society.

To be honest, I didn't take Strauss-Howe's theory seriously at all.

I thought of it as something of a "social horoscope" until I ran into it head-on.

And the following happened: about 5 years ago I was assigned to evaluate the potential of a group of young people who applied for internship positions in a large Bulgarian company. These were the first of Generation Z to enter the labor market.

Potential assessment is a standardized procedure that is done with several types of methods, including psychological tests. One of the important ones for me is the training ability test, which can reliably predict

how quickly a young person can adapt to a business environment, learning new things and mastering the relevant competences.

What was my surprise when the results of these trainees turned out to be significantly lower than those of the standard sample of other adults. And it should be the other way around, given that they are younger and more flexible.

There were also differences in the other assessments. The trainees were greater individualists, more introverted, but actively seeking social contacts, and their career motivation was mainly aimed at achieving a lifestyle that balanced career with leisure. There were many surprises and this led me to delve into the research for this generation around the world in more detail and I gathered enough evidence that the results I obtained were adequate. The most important of these was that this first digitally born generation perceives the world and learns differently. While older generations learned mainly abstract-logical schemes (as taught in school), Generation Z reinvented active learning (Jerome Bruner), in which the child, instead of passively studying content, discovers, connects and rearranges stimuli in order to adapt them to his cognitive circuit. Something like a puzzle that may not accumulate very specific knowledge, but stimulates and develops creativity. An example of this is the fact that in the last twenty years all world tournaments in mathematics and informatics have been won by children and adolescents studying in China, where Internet access is regulated and limited. But in terms of innovation, the country ranks only 16th in the world. Leading are Switzerland, Finland and South Korea, which are also leading the way in Internet access.

In a nutshell – the first digital generation has grown and successfully completed education and started a career. And it's not worse than other generations, albeit different.

What will happen to the Alpha generation, I don't know. There are many conflicting studies. Most of the children of this generation are still in primary school. They are related to digital technologies right from the cradle and this will probably also affect their learning and communication, make them different, but I do not believe they will be less successful. (As long as they don't survive another pandemic).

Abbreviated

Youth

education

Ivan Igov