The impact of Generation Z

By Simon Horniblow, Managing Director, Campuslife  

We are in the middle of a technological revolution, and we’re not far off a time where people will laugh and joke about how the students of 2015 had to use keycards and keyfobs to unlock doors, or close their curtains by hand.

Technology is set to revolutionise every part of our day-to-day lives and with ‘Generation Z’ ready to move onto our campuses from 2018, it’s time we got our heads round what future tech we might want to consider adopting to ensure these digital natives feel right at home.  

Here are four tech trends to watch out for over the coming years… and many are coming much sooner than you might expect.

1. Wearable Technology

The Apple Watch is the most recent example of how wearable tech is set to become bigger and bigger over the coming years. Google’s wearable computer ‘Google Glass’ made a big impression when it launched it’s explorer programme a couple of years ago with other manufacturers promising to pick up where Google left off. The opportunities for wearable tech on campus to help with orientation as well as hopefully providing a more useful way of receiving those all-important Facebook and Snapchat notifications rather than students sat in communal areas glued to their mobile phones can only be welcomed! 

2. Screenless Displays

The need for a dedicated display/monitor are numbered. The number of devices that don’t require a screen are set to increase. Perhaps our bathroom mirrors will connect to our smartphones and provide us with the weather forecast as well as todays lectures and social events and even a preview of what tonight’s outfit will look like before you’ve tried it on! All this and more could become a reality much sooner than any of us expected. 

3. Virtual Reality

A company called Oculus Rift is leading the charge in bringing back virtual reality. VR has moved on massively since the crude iterations of the 1980’s and with Facebook recently purchasing Oculus for $2 billion you can see why it’s not only the gaming world that’s taking it seriously. Imagine being able to let prospective students visit your accommodation from the comfort of their living room, or study with students across the world all via a virtual reality headset. 

4. The Internet of Things

Broadband Internet is now widely available and more devices are being created with Wi-Fi capabilities, imagine every device you own talking to the Internet and/or each other. Your alarm clock could tell your kettle to switch on in the morning, your printer could automatically order a new cartridge or when you walk into your bedroom and take off your headphones, your speaker system could automatically start playing the song you were listening to from where you left off. The Internet of things is coming and our student customers will be those leading the charge. 

It’s exciting to think about what the student accommodation of the future will be like and this is just a taste of the sensational future tech that will no doubt become commonplace for Generation Z.