The Millennial Question

[GoldenRivet]

In the video, he breaks the "Millennial problem" down into four basic elements, they are; Parenting, Technology, Impatience and environment
He's absolutely right

From the Parenting Standpoint, for most of their lives, millennials have been lead to believe that they are special and unique and if they want something bad enough they can get it and received rewards simply for showing up (everyone gets a trophy). and when you take these people and put them into the real world they discover that they are in fact NOT special, and you are NOT rewarded just for showing up.

As for Technology, this one made the biggest impression on me.

I was born in 1979, and i have very early memories of 1982, 83, 84 having video games like atari and intellivision, but video game baseball and football etc sucked just enough to make you want to go outside and ride bikes or foot it from door to door throughout the neighborhood trying to get enough kids together so you could go outside and play actual sports.

and, as you know, we didn't have social media, we didn't have home electronics. If you asked a kid in 1984 to name off some home electronics in the house they likely would have thought ... washer, dryer, phone, tv and that would have been about it.

Kids now... hooked... always on Ipad, tablet, xbox one, Playstation, PC, iphone, Ipod, virtually every single toy on the shelf at toys r us... electronic in some way (hatchimals for example) but millennials who found themselves as young people in the late 80s and early 90s when technology was exploding, these are people who had it bad, and kids now have it even worse.

My stepdaughter, she gets in the car for a 25 minute drive to her grandmothers house and immediately upon buckling her seatbelt says "Mommy, can i play on your phone." and we aren't even out of the driveway yet! she takes her tablet with her to dinner whenever we go out to eat 95% of the time no matter where we go. Children in her age group are so self absorbed and so dismissive of everything that doesn't have an immediate impact on them. Today for example... she is on winter break. Her day, wake up, feed the cat, turn on the xbox and vegetate. I know personally that she has been up since 7:30am and has come out of her room to eat breakfast, get a snack, and eat lunch. If it weren't for her basic physiological needs... i could have easily been fooled into thinking i was home alone all day.

and its not just children, as a bit of an experiment, every time i went to get a haircut for about a 45 day period, i would people watch. everyone, every single person young, middle aged, old, retirement age across the board everyone sat in silence on their cell phones until their name was called to get a haircut.

and hes right about when people get lonely or down and out they bulk text message their friends just for the sake of striking up a conversation or getting a response. I'm guilty of it. I work out of town 200 days a year, sometimes straight through. When i find myself cooking dinner for the 50th time, and having a cold beer and thinking of how alone i am.. i will bulk text 4 or 5 friends - almost as if i am "fishing" just to get a nibble

When i was a kid, entertainment on a long drive was following an atlas trying to figure out where we are, how to get from there to where we needed to be. counting license plates that were not from the state we were in, playing "slug bug" or similar games. We built valuable relationships with our peers. i have friends in my life that have been there for me through thick and thin since 1988 for crying out loud, now days... kids move 10 minutes down the road from their good friend and never speak to them again.

a lot of the millennial problem has to do with this electronic device addiction and the dopamine released into the body by interacting with such devices.

Which brings us to impatience. why are Millennials so impatient? I was not familiar with the concept of "instant gratification" until i was 13 or 14 years old. the only means of instant gratification i had prior to that period of my life might have been the 90 seconds it took to make chicken nuggets in the microwave i guess?

Impatience comes to millennials so easily because - mostly - of the technology around them. overnight shipping, binge watching instantly available TV series that you dont have to wait a week for the next episode. instant gratification is such a real issue for millennials that they come to expect it with all aspects of life. patience eludes them and they focus more on the immediate, the short term and are often unable to see the big picture and focus on the long term.

Finally, the environment in which millennials live is counter to everything they have grown up expecting. the companies they work for, as companies always have been, are driven by a bottom line, goals, statistics, sales data, number crunching, technology further inhibits this because everyone is so engrossed in the social media, digital life, cell phones, texting etc that the little moments that inspire and innovate are essentially removed from the equation.

[Platapus]

Ah these wacky kids with their crazy rock and roll....

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

@GoldenRivet I agree with a lot of what you. I've seen plenty of it myself everywhere but no more so then at work. I had to tell on guy I work with about three times, "If you want to get out of here at 10 tonight put the phone away and pick up the pace." Then when he thought I wasn't looking he'd take the phone out and do it again, and that was just tonight. Another instance was when some family friends came down from the Northwest for a visit and one of the kids might of well had his face glued to the monitor of his cellphone, and rather would of played candy crush then go swimming in the pool. I could see that a couple of generations down the road will be called "Generation Duh" at the rate things are going.

[ikalugin]

I am a milennial (born in 1992) and at the moment I do not own a smart phone. And when I do have a smart phone I mostly use it for various services ie taxi order, camera, navigation, wifi-modem.

I do always take my laptop with me though.

[Jimbuna]

Both my kids were born in the eighties and I'm pleased to say that whilst they have smart phones, ipads and laptops etc. none play a major part in their daily routine, they don't have those items high on their list of priorities.

I have seen it differently in public settings on a daily basis elsewhere though.

[Platapus]

Seems like every generation feels that the following generation has problems.

My Great Grand Father's generation probably thought that my Grandfather's generation would not amount to anything because they spent their time reading trashy novels.

I imagine that my grandfather thought my father's generation would never amount to anything due to them because they spent their time staring at the radio.

Pretty sure that my father's generation thought that my generation would not amount to anything because we spent our days staring at the TV.

Now my generation, evidently, thinks that the younger generation won't amount to anything due to them staring at their smart phones.

But, ya know what? Every generation seems to do OK. Ya know what is also true? Every generation had its slackers.

I tend to reject these generational generalizations. At work we have some old codgers who are going fantastic work and other codgers that are "roadies". At the same time, we have fresh outs that are fantastic, and others just putting in the time for a paycheck.

My father has some stories about slackers in the "Greatest Generation".


Kids!
I don't know what's wrong with these kids today!
Kids!
Who can understand anything they say?
Kids!
They a disobedient, disrespectful oafs!
Noisy, crazy, dirty, lazy, loafers!
While we're on the subject:
Kids!
You can talk and talk till your face is blue!
Kids!
But they still just do what they want to do!
Why can't they be like we were,
Perfect in every way?
What's the matter with kids today?
Kids!
I've tried to raise him the best I could
Kids! Kids!
Laughing, singing, dancing, grinning, morons!
And while we're on the subject!
Kids! They are just impossible to control!
Kids! With their awful clothes and their rock an' roll!
Why can't they dance like we did
What's wrong with Sammy Kaye?
What's the matter with kids today!


It is the person, not the generation... but would it kill them to get a haircut once in a while?

[Von Due]

Trust the source as much as you feel like but the youth of today has indeed been a worry since the dawn of time
http://mentalfloss.com/article/52209...ing-everything

[Sailor Steve]

I watched the video when GR posted it on FaceBook, and was quite impressed. His comments about board meetings and interaction made me think, as did the comment about waking up and checking your phone before saying good morning to your significant other. He makes a lot of good points.

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

I was born in 1979...

Now I feel old. My older daughter was born in 1979.

[Von Due]

A couple more found on this widest of webs

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato, according to William L.
Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277
(1953)."

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on
frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond
words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and
respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise
[disrespectful] and impatient of restraint" (Hesiod, 8th century BC).

[August]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Seems like every generation feels that the following generation has problems.

While that may be true it does not mean that there aren't actual issues and problems created by the way these people were raised.

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Both my kids were born in the eighties and I'm pleased to say that whilst they have smart phones, ipads and laptops etc. none play a major part in their daily routine, they don't have those items high on their list of priorities.

I have seen it differently in public settings on a daily basis elsewhere though.

I have gone to restaurants and have seen children and adults alike, seated together and not talking with one another but rather have their faces buried in their phones. The phone themselves can be dangerous from the microwave radiation they emit. Further, I have seen people almost get hit by cars because they walked through a busy intersection and never looked up from their phones.

Like John / Golden Rivet said, technology has a way of connecting people and is also ironically creating a class of people disconnected from society and one another.


Good article John.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

I have seen people almost get hit by cars because they walked through a busy intersection and never looked up from their phones.

Those are known as smombies...smartphone zombies...

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

The phone themselves can be dangerous from the microwave radiation they emit.

?????

I am confused. What exactly is dangerous about non-ionizing radio frequency radiation?

Other than heating, which cell phones simply don't have the power, what are the risks? We are hit with a lot more non-ionizing radiation for much longer periods of time than any cell phone and we do just fine.

It is ionizing radiation that we need to worry about.

[ikalugin]

I do get a problem with my eyes being strained by the constant use of my laptop though.

[vienna]

I'm sorry, did somebody say something? I was busy checking my phone messages...



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