The video above gives a brief insight into the perceptions of Millennial. Perceived as being underachieving, lazy, and unfocused, my generation faces an uphill battle to win respect in the mind of the older Gen X and Baby boomers.
It's no secret that Millenials love technology. We grew up with the internet and cell phones and for many of us it is hard to remember a world without these conveniences. Don't know something? Google it. Want to read up on something you heard in a conversation? Wikipedia my friend. In some ways we might just end up being the smartest generations ever, or maybe the dumbest- it just depends on the way you look at it. We have all this information literally at our fingertips 24/7 a phenomenon the world has never known before.
If I had a nickle for every time a classmate proclaimed tests were stupid because 'in the real world I could just Google it' I would have a large pile of nickels. While that is certainly true for facts and formulas which some classes are based upon, concepts and ideas require abstract thought processes which some Millenials tend to push to the wayside. Thus is the first woe of our generation. Just because we have the ability to know everything, that doesn't mean we actually have any knowledge.
We live in an always on always connected time. I only know a few people my age that do not own a smartphone. These devices can seemingly take over our lives. We live for the likes and the favorites that give a sense of achievement or belonging. The apex of this would be the app Yik Yak. Think of Yik Yak as being Twitter, but no one knows who tweeted what and you don't know who favorited your tweet. The App is literally about winning meaningless points from strangers, kind of like Reddit. The app has taken over college campuses and because of its anonymity and self-moderated community has lead to several cases of cyber bullying and race issues. Girls are judged by how many likes they receive on the their Instagram selfies, guys are called gay for tweeting song lyrics, and then you see everyone tagged in a photo of a party you weren't invited to.
The solution seems easy enough. Don't engage in these social activities; delete your Twitter, deactivate Facebook and Instagram and you're free. But we live in a time where these medias make up such a large chunk of Millennial communication that unless your group of friends all take the plunge and cleanse themselves of those bastardly Social Media sites, you would be stuck on in the cold, forever out of the proverbial loop.
Its that fear of missing out that drives our obsession with social media and causing us to be glued to our screens. With everyones opinions and criticisms out there for everyone to read, Millennials need to have a tough skin, which can often come off as a 'I don't care about anything or anyone' or 'nothing matters' disposition to older generations.
Technology will forever define our generation and those to come, but being first we going to endure the rough edges and hopefully make the path smoother for those to come.
--Technical Scott
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