The Class of 2029 Isn’t Just Digital Natives, They’re Convenience Natives

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By this point, nearly every school across the country has welcomed its fall classes. Young minds are entering university for the first time as the class of 2029, while even younger minds are embarking on their education journey, starting kindergarten as the high school graduating class of 2038. These are all members of the Gen Alpha cohort.

If those class years don’t already make you feel a bit old, let’s take a deeper look at the class of 2029 (college freshman) and see 29 things they’ve always known or never experienced:

The Class of 2029: 29 Things They’ve Always Known or Never Experienced

1. iPhone launch (June 29, 2007) - They’ve never known a world without smartphones.

   1. …and apps. - Apple’s App Store opened July 10, 2008 with ~500 apps. This class’s entire life, there has been “an app for that.”

2. Facebook Opened to Everyone (September 26, 2006) - Back in the early days of THE Facebook, you had to be a registered college student with a .edu email address. But as long as the class of 2029 has been alive, Facebook has been open to everyone.

3. Google Bought YouTube (November 13, 2006) - The already dominant online video platform accelerated to new levels when Google acquired it, cementing the always-available web video and unleashing a new type of social content.

4. Network TV moved online (October 2007) - Hulu’s private beta began October 2007; it opened to the public March 2008. The Office, 30 Rock, and 24 all had new episodes that were dropping online, available for streaming.

5. Most Never Heard Dial-up - Pew and Nielsen data shows that sometime between 2004 and 2006, Broadband surpassed Dial-up in popularity and Dial-up began disappearing at a rapid pace

6. So-long Netscape, hello Chrome - Google launched its browser, Chrome, on September 2, 2008, just a few short months after Netscape stopped supporting its browser.

7. Google Street View (May 2007) - Want to know what Time Square Looks like as if you were standing there, but from the comfort of your own home? Google Street-level maps were announced, and this generation doesn’t know life without them.

8. Turn-by-turn directions on demand (October 28, 2009) - Remember Tom-Tom and Garmin? Well, Google Maps Navigation beta shipped in 2009 and soon thereafter became a free staple for everyone, no more CD updates for your Car GPS.

9. 4G began before grade school - Verizon launched U.S. LTE on December 5, 2010 (38 metros, 60+ airports). No longer were the internet and Wi-Fi tied to a building or a cord. It was available in the palm of your hand.

   

10. Tablets were normal kid-tech - The first iPad was released on April 3, 2010. Just in time for these kiddos to be watching TV non-stop from restaurants to the car to the airplane to everywhere that these kids went. Cocomelon, the popular YouTube channel that exploded beyond YouTube came at just the right time in 2006. They leveraged YouTube, 4G, Tablets, and more, to become the children’s songs of the generation.

11. Chromebooks showed up as school laptops (June 15, 2011) - The Chromebook entered schools when the class of 2029 was in Pre-Kindergarten. Many did not know school without a personal computer.

12. Docs always lived in the cloud - Google Docs went public (as “Google documents & spreadsheets”) October 10, 2006. By the time they were typing papers, cloud-based documents had eclipsed traditional word processing software.

13. E-books went mainstream (November 19, 2007) - Amazon Kindle debuted just in time for the highly anticipated release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as well as other notable best-sellers The Shack and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

    1. Also worth noting, with the release of this Harry Potter novel, the entire series had been released, meaning this class is younger than the entire Harry Potter series.

14. Sharing Photos with the World Became Normal - Instagram launched October 6, 2010, with an iPhone app, rocketing it to popularity and making the iPhone extra sticky to its customers.

15. Uber was launched (2010) - While most of this class was still in rear-facing carseats, Uber launched and quickly redefined mobility and transit in cities.

    1. In fact, car seat safety laws are tightening around this time, making rear-facing seats for infants mandatory when they are babies.

    2. And simultaneously, in 2007, it became mandatory for cars to have a rear center seat shoulder belt.

16. Music = streaming - Spotify launched in the U.S. July 14, 2011, though it was preceded by Pandora in 2005.

17. Carry-on liquids limits always existed (2006) - The TSA 3-1-1 rule (3.4 oz / 100 ml in a quart bag) was introduced in 2006 and still governs U.S. flights.

18. Body scanners were standard - By the time this class could walk through security checkpoints without being held, they would usually find themselves walking through a body scanner. The TSA deployed them widely through 2010–2011.

19. PreCheck has “always” been an option for adults around them. TSA PreCheck launched in October 2011.

    

20. Smoky restaurants? - Mostly gone by 2010. By December 31, 2010, 26 states had comprehensive smoke-free laws; nearly half the U.S. population was covered.

21. “Don’t text and drive” (2007) - This catchy phrase moved from being a lecture from mom on your way out the door and moved to becoming a law. Washington became the first state to ban texting while driving in 2007; others followed quickly.

22. Bye-Bye Bunny Ears (2009) - Analog TVs including those dials, disappeared before these kids would remember. The U.S. digital-TV transition was completed on June 12, 2009. Flat panels and digital tuners are all they’ve known.

23. Blockbuster was a myth (2010) - The video-rental store era was already collapsing and RedBox and Netflix were quickly filling the void. Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 23, 2010.

24. Big bookstores were shrinking - Brick and mortar video stores were not the only traditional storefronts to face pressure. Chain bookstores like Borders began liquidation in July 2011. Similarly big-box eletronics stores like CompUSA began shuddering their doors throughout the mid-to-late 2000s, closing their final location in 2012.

25. Forget VHS, it was Blu-ray (2008) - Remember staring at the DVD player section in CompUSA trying to decide whether you would get the Blu-ray or HD-DVD player? Well, Blu-ray won the disc wars when they were babies. Toshiba killed HD-DVD on February 19, 2008.

26. There have always been Electric Vehicles - EVs went from novelty to normal right as they started school. Mass-market electrics launched in late 2010 (Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt deliveries in the U.S.) and more niche products, like the original Tesla Roadster launched in 2008.

27. Forget Clunky Desktops, Hello Modern Laptops - Laptops got ultrathin and ditch-the-drives. MacBook Air’s January 15, 2008, debut kicked off the ultrathin era they grew up with.

28. The Death of the Floppy Disk (March 2011) - Believe it or not, those beloved floppy disks hung around for some time. However, Floppies truly died in their preschool years. Sony ended floppy-disk production/sales by March 2011.

29. Amazon Prime and 2-Day Shipping (2005) - By the time this class was born, their parents did not even have to leave the house to get diapers and wipes, they would arrive for free in only 2 days via Amazon Prime, guaranteed.

Leadership Takeaway

If this list feels jarring, that’s the point.

For most of us, the world described here wasn’t just new, it was unimaginable when we were kids. But for the Class of 2029, it’s all they’ve ever known. They are not just digital natives. They are streaming natives, raised in a world of infinite options, hyper-curated content, and complete control over what they consume and when. Actually, let’s take that up a notch—they are convenience natives. Ubers on-demand. Music on demand. Shows on demand. Shipping products and shopping on demand.

But that comes with a subtle cost: In a world where you can swipe away boredom, awkwardness, or even disagreement, many never had to sit with discomfort, wait through delay, or read a room. I discussed that in the Gen Z Stare article a few weeks ago. Being constantly plugged in has made them fast and fluent, but it hasn’t necessarily made them present.

Ironically, early data shows they want presence. Yes, they want to be with other human beings. They crave human connection more than the generations who came just before them. But their instincts were shaped by a world that rewards speed, autonomy, and self-curation. It’s no wonder many of them struggle with nuance, nonverbal cues, or collaborative tension. Streaming doesn’t require eye contact.

So as we prepare for this generation to get their 4-year education and then enter our workforce in 2029, we should begin understanding how they see the world and what that means for our workforce.

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