Part 3: How Millennials and Gen Z Express Themselves

written by 10702 Kim Min Joo, 10801 Kang Seo Rin,

20121 Lee Go Eun, 20321 Yim Tae Hee

& 20720 Jeong Da Eun

Here is part three of the five-part series on the virtual world being a blessing or a curse. 

These days, Millennials and Gen Z constantly use social media (SNS) and utilize various information that they can get on the Internet. Their use of the Internet has made virtual technology fully operational.

Many enterprises have created virtual influencers (VI) and some unique programs that are virtual-designed. With the emergence of these things, our lives have become different a lot.

Who Are They?

Millennials are people born between the years 1980 and 1995. Gen Zs are people who were born between 1996 and 2012. These generations are often tech-savvy and tend to accept scientific developments like SNS easily. What new thing do they go crazy over?

One of the most famous VIs in the world is Lil Miquela from the U.S. She has three million followers on Instagram — most of whom are MZ generation.

British e-commerce company Onbay said Lil Miquela's profits in 2019 amounted to about ten million dollars.

Miquela has a personality. She is a 19-year-old Brazilian-American. And she likes to voice support for society such as Black Lives Matter and reproductive rights.

The reason why she has a “personality” is that Gen Z is the main target of virtual marketing.

Millennials and Gen Z are a digital generation, so they naturally accept VI’s presence. Therefore, the characteristics of the virtual human being reflect the culture of the teenagers. That’s why people don’t reject VIs.

VIs are heavily advertising products to Gen MZ. Lil Miquela mentioned earlier, is also working as a model for luxury fashion brands such as Calvin Klein and Prada. With VI being shown to people a lot, people are more accepting of the virtual world. This is an example of the exposure effect, a theory established by American social psychologist Robert Zajonc.

In connection with this effect, Zajonc experimented on university students. Findings of the test show that people who like things interact with them frequently. This logic suggests that the more interactions with VI, the more people will favor them. That is why people can get interested in virtual worlds.

Every VI is created by humans. Therefore, VI naturally follows the needs and intentions of the person or corporation that made it. And in many cases, these needs and intentions are built on trends.

In other words, Virtual reality techniques like VI reflect the immediate thoughts and feelings of Millennials and Gen Z. Of course, they are more likely to pay attention to VI than human influencers. That’s why most young people welcome VI.

According to the BBC, a popular virtual idol contest show called Dimension Nova from the Chinese streaming platform iQYI. It combines original talent shows and anime-styled virtual contests with narrative elements of contestants — they have different personalities. The show has targeted Millennials and Gen Z, most of whom are fans of anime, comics and games.

Producer, Liu Jia Chao says, “Virtual idol is not a foreign concept to Gen-Zers.”

Virtual technology isn’t difficult to accept for Millennials and Gen Z because of familiarity. It results in the virtual world being a place where Millennials and Gen Z can effectively express themselves and create their own cultures.

In the future, the development of virtual content will become another means of expressing oneself for the Millennials and Gen Z. These generations will develop their own worlds by connecting, immersing, and experiencing things that cannot be experienced in the real world easily.

The case of Dimension Nova is also a program that allows adolescents to share and express their opinions and feelings in the virtual world. So, the virtual world is expected to become a new media platform for Millennials and Gen Z.

My Opinion

VI and virtual idol contests are new enough to be interested in and familiar enough to be accepted by me. Also, I think virtual things are the peak of technological development, so it looks eye-catching. Because of these things, I believe virtual technology can tend to be well-liked by the MZ generation. Indeed, while researching virtual reality, I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all; instead, I felt that it was marvelous. It means virtual technologies are already familiar with my conception and recognition of the physical world and can attract my interest using novelty or originality. It’s not just for me. Therefore, the virtual place can embody the ego of future generations and be a new form of culture.


I think the Millennials and Gen Z are generations symbolized by diversity and inclusion. The space for these people is the virtual world. This is because it is a space where they can easily reveal their opinion. I think the virtual world is a space that’s a new means of communication for the MZ generation. This place will help them realize their values. I have no resistance to the virtual world since I’m Gen Z. In reality, my peers also like and enjoy virtual content. As such, the virtual world is a space that our generation feels comfortable and familiar with. In the future, the virtual world will develop at a remarkable pace with the acceleration of technology. So then, I think the Millennials and Gen Z will keep up with its pace. They will be with the future of the virtual world.