How the world is changing for generation Z+

I am really honoured to be here today to be invited to speak to you on this significant day in your lives and that of your parents. I must first of all commend the teachers who have made today happen. I am honoured to stand among them. Teachers are the best humans on earth. Without them, where would we all be?

Without a teacher who inspired me, I would not be standing here today. So let us stand up and honour our distinguished teachers. They are the true champions and heroes of our lives.

The world has changed dramatically in the last four decades since some us of were born. Let me tell you how the world has changed for me personally especially in terms of access to phones.  My first touch of a phone was in my landlord’s house, who was about the only person with a dial-up phone on our street. It was a status symbol in those days and I was so nervous holding the phone that I turned it upside down unknowingly.

I am sure a lot of you have not seen that kind of phone before and those of you that have seen it may have only seen it in your grandparent’s home or in a Youtube video. Then in my early teenage years, there was more democratisation of access to phones with the introduction of phone booths.

But then we had to queue up for hours in order to make a phone call. For the few lucky ones who still wanted a phone in their house, they had to apply to what we called the almighty NITEL and wait for months to be able to get a line allocated to them. So there were few phones in people’s houses and it was a sign of a privileged status to have a phone.

It was not just the phone that was a sign of status. The computer was. Some of us did not have the privilege of working on a computer until well after we left secondary school. The computer was that big well-kept box that you found covered in the offices of some big men and in computer schools. So after secondary school, if your parents could afford it, the fad was to go to a computer school to learn how to use one and that gave you a superior skill that you stated on your CV when applying for jobs after University.

Nigeria has changed since my post teenage years. I got my first cell phone somewhere in 2002. I was one of the early adopters basically because I am a journalist and the phone companies gave us a line. It was quite expensive to get a SIM in those days and the phones could basically do only calls and text messages.

I have seen the world change even more dramatically as an adult. Phones, computers are no longer a luxury. They are now a necessity. In fact, there are no longer phones and there are no longer computers. They have been replaced by gadgets that connect you to the world. What you do with that connection now depends on you.

There are generations that have been born after me who were born closer to when these technologies became democratised in Nigeria, at least.   We have the millennials or Generation Y, said to be born between 1981 and 1991, who grew up on personal computers, cell phones and video games. Generation Z said to have been born between 1991 and 2001, who grew up on tablets, smart phones and apps.

I define Generation Z+  as those born between 2001 and 2011 who are now growing up in the world of 4G/5G and immersive technology. All of you graduating today fall into this category of my rough definition of Generation Z+. You are often described as “digital natives” because for most of you were actually born on the internet, and you have lived on the internet. Already, as this ceremony is going on, I am sure you or your parents are sharing your pictures online. When you were born, your pictures were posted online. For most of you, your life history, from the day you were born to this day you are graduating, is printed online on facebook. You do not need a physical album like some of us did when we were growing up. Facebook is your album.

For most of you, you spend more time chatting with your friends online than in real life. There are friends you have never met outside the digital space that know more about you than your parents. Perhaps, the only things that Generation Z+ do not do online is eat and sleep but even then sleeping and eating is highly influenced by their lifestyle in the digital space. If you do not exist in the digital space, you do not exist in the world of Generation Z+. You are either on Youtube, Snapchat, IG, facebook, Musical.ly other social sites or you are nowhere.

What am I getting at? The world is constantly changing. In my life time, I have been privileged to move from zeroG   to 4G and on the edge of 5G. But you have started from 3G and only God knows where you will end. But the changes do not really matter.

What matters is what you do with the changes. Life will change whether you like it or not.  But there are those who will make the change happen and there are those who will become victims of change. However, the decisions to either make change happen or to become a victim of change is largely in your hands. You can choose to succeed and you can choose to fail.

Your parents have done the irreducible minimum by giving you education. You have to decide what you do with your education going forward. It is important that you know that technology has become a leveller. Today, education is democratised thanks to the MOOC and other e-learning platforms.

There is nothing you cannot learn if you choose to and if you are diligent and disciplined enough to pursue. Cost is even no longer a barrier for access to knowledge. Your gadget is now your gateway to the future. For you as Generation Z+, given minimum education to be able to read and write, there is no longer an excuse for failure.

But because you are a Nigerian, you also have a responsibility to the millions of Children out there who are not privileged to enjoy the education you have enjoyed. About 45% of Nigeria’s population (81 million) are children like you under the age of 15. Of this number, an estimated 10.5 million of them are not in any school.

A good number of the remainder attend public schools with very poor infrastructure and many inadequately equipped teachers. You are among the privileged few that have had private education. Try and make the world a better place with the knowledge you have acquired not only for yourself but for the millions who did not get the privilege of quality education because their parents cannot afford it.

Remember, by 2050, many of you will be adults with your own families living in the third most populated country in the world. The United Nations estimate that Nigeria will have  population of  450 million by 2050, a good proportion of whom have been poorly prepared to take advantage of the opportunities or tackle the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution, which Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum  in his new book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution says will be marked by “ubiquitous, mobile supercomputing, Intelligent robots, Self-driving cars, Neuro-Technological brain enhancements, genetic editing, among others.  By 2050, space tourism would have become normal, drones would be delivering more than food and hoverboards may become a more viable means of transportation and electric cars will become the norm rather than the exception.

The advancing fourth industrial revelation has significant implications for the career choices you make today. A report by the World Economic Forum notes that in the advanced world, 35 percent of the skills demanded for jobs across industries will change by 2020. Also the Boston Consulting Group has predicted that by 2025, a quarter jobs currently available will be replaced by either smart software or robots.

Similarly, a study by Oxford University, UK, predicts that as much as 35 percent of existing jobs is at risk of automation in the next 20 years. For example, my job as a journalist is already being threatened as computers that have been programmed to automatically write news stories faster and less error free than I can.

As technology gets more intertwined with the society and humans, some skills become high in demand while others fall out of favour and this is happening at such a fast pace that only continuous learning and relearning can keep you competitive. Only those with adaptable skills in a fast changing world will survive. Those that cannot adapt, will go the way of the dinosaurs.

Steve Jobs, I assume everyone in this room knows him ended a 2005 graduation speech thus, and that was a few months to his death. “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.” I wish you the same because in being “foolish” you will never loose the hunger to learn and in learning, you will be wise and in being wise, you can conquer the world if you remain “foolish.”

 

Anthony Osae Brown