Saturday, February 27, 2016
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Millennial Trend on Twitter (Is It Overkill?)
So, I made a Twitter.
The other day in my pre-internship class,
I was told the statistics of employers who are likely to judge you based off of
your social media. I didn’t write down the percentages, but hey, they were
pretty high. Twitter was one of the top platforms that could likely be checked.
So, I made a Twitter.
Let us be honest though, is 60-ish followers really going to impress them in the communication industry. Maybe, but probably not.
After browsing through the Twittersphere (Side note: ‘Twittersphere’ was actually recognized as a real word by Microsoft Word) I noticed a common theme. It has gotten to the point where I actually distaste the word ‘millennial’ after seeing and hearing it so much. Maybe I should rename this blog My Take on Generation Y.
People left and right are claiming to be “Millennial Influencers”—what does that even mean? Claiming that they know millennials better than other people, by constantly reposting articles about the generation. These “influencers” have 100k+ followers on Twitter, and get an average of 10 likes on each post. You are not an influencer of an entire generation if you are only averaging 10 likes in a generation of billions. I get it. Millennials are trending, it is the new hot topic to talk about. But claiming to be a guru or understanding millennials is like saying men actually understand women.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Google pt. 1
Googling a
question is an interesting concept. I went to Google and typed in ‘why
millennials’ without submitting, and top
suggestions were listed below:
Why millennials are getting fired
Why millennials keep dumping you
Why millennials can’t grow up
Why millennials are leaving church
Why millennials will never be happy
Why millennials will save us all
Judging from the top suggestions, it seems like people have really been trying to wrap their heads around millennials.
So, I click the first suggestion, “why millennials are getting fired.” The top result was an article titled, “3 Reasons Millennials Are Getting Fired” by J.T. O’Donnell.
I went from hardly knowing how to boil water to cooking avocado stuffed paleo burgers.
Thank you, Pinterest.
Why millennials are getting fired
Why millennials keep dumping you
Why millennials can’t grow up
Why millennials are leaving church
Why millennials will never be happy
Why millennials will save us all
Judging from the top suggestions, it seems like people have really been trying to wrap their heads around millennials.
So, I click the first suggestion, “why millennials are getting fired.” The top result was an article titled, “3 Reasons Millennials Are Getting Fired” by J.T. O’Donnell.
— Lindsey Miller (@lcblue) February 15, 2016The article was published in August 2015, and ranted about how employers don’t want to be parents for millennials, how they can’t stand and/or tolerate their anti-work attitude, and how their happiness isn’t the employer’s responsibility. If you ask me, it sounded like a lot of hostility and generalizations. She explained that millennials have been coached their entire lives, so they expect their employers to coach them too.
Every
job I have ever taken, I have gone out of my way to teach myself the necessary
skills to understand how to accomplish it—and if I am unable to figure it out,
I GOOGLE it.
My
mom always cooked for me when I was growing up, and I had no desire to learn
how to cook. My parents were nervous when I moved out because they thought I
would starve to death not knowing how to cook. I had no desire to learn how to
cook, because I was never in a situation where I needed to know how to cook.
When I moved out, I started out with microwave meals and slowly leaned how to
make healthier meals. I came home over break, and cooked for my parents and
they were shocked. “Lindsey, how did you learn how to make this?” “Pinterest.” I went from hardly knowing how to boil water to cooking avocado stuffed paleo burgers.
Sunday, February 7, 2016
My Generation Y Theory
Generations are huge. Not only in size, but also the span of time that passes in a generation. Most people don’t realize that Generation Y, the Millennials, are people who were born in the years ranging from early 1980s to early 2000s. Which members can range anywhere from a few years to twenty years apart in age. Older members of Generation Y sometimes do not realize they are in the same generation as younger members of the generation, vise versa.
The other day, I was telling my 28-year-old friend about my blog. He told me if I needed any advice from an older generation he would be glad to help (insert grandpa emoji here). He had no idea that we were in the same generation.
The other day, I was telling my 28-year-old friend about my blog. He told me if I needed any advice from an older generation he would be glad to help (insert grandpa emoji here). He had no idea that we were in the same generation.
Then, I had a conversation with my mom. She was born on the cusp of being a Baby Boomer and Generation X. In that awkward in-between area. She expressed how she felt like she did not match the stereotypes of either generation, possessing traits from both but not leaning too far to one side. This got me thinking.
In my previous blog post, I explained how Generation Y had been stereotyped as being one of the laziest, most self-centered, overconfident generations yet. However, as the generation has begun to mature into its place in society, these stereotypes have transformed into more defining characteristics such as hopeful, meaningful work, diversity and change valued, and technology savvy. Just ask Google.
Why?
Did millennials have some big revelation after they realized how difficult it was to find a job after graduating college? Or after not graduating college? Or was the generation originally pegged with negative stereotypes because older generations were afraid of what millennials might become with all of these technological advancements?
I have this idea that within the span of a generation, there are multiple waves. Let’s say there are three waves. So, people born in 1980s possess different characteristics than those born in the 1990s and early 2000s. OK.
I have a few theories of my own. And I am sure this is partial because of the few older millennials that I personally knew (and know) that influenced this idea. I believe most people born in the 80s did possess the original negative stereotypes such as lazy, self-centered, and overconfident. The older millennials I know, goofed off in college and either did not finish, never did anything too significant with their careers, or they took their sweet time getting serious about their careers.
With the 90s babies, it seems like there has been a rebirth of drive to succeed. Maybe I am partial because I just surround myself with highly motivated people these days. But 90s kids were born in the heart of the generation, in between the oldest members and youngest members. After I witnessed how lazy the older generation seemed to be, I have been determined to do more with my life. Perhaps this second wave of millennials (90s children) all have felt the same way and it fueled the fire for all of us.
Of course, this is all a personal generalization and I couldn’t possibly say that all the older millennials were unsuccessful and that younger millennials will all be successful. This is just some observations I have collected over the years.
Either way, I decided to start some shallow digging by briefly interviewing a few older millennials. The purpose of the interview was to get an idea of how they felt about their high school graduating classmates. Here’s a bit of one interview.
Q: How would you describe the people you graduated with from high school?
A: A select few were very interesting and intelligent people, but the majority I found very complacent with where they were at… Super lame.
Q: What do you mean by complacent?
A: Happy with where they were at and didn’t make any moves towards making moves.
But as this interview proceeded, I uncovered something interesting.
Q: So you would say the majority were lazy?
A: Yes, there were some lazy ones but I feel like it’s only getting worse with the younger generations. Maybe not yourself.
Q: So you said your graduating class was lazy, but you think younger generations will be lazier. What qualifies them as lazy?
A: Just don’t seem to be as motivated. Things are easier to get. More money now maybe, things seem more developed at a young age.
A: Kids don’t work as hard it seems to me, maybe I’m just acting dick-ish and thinking of the stereotypical young rich kid.
This actually surprised me. I am now curious to see if this opinion about younger members of the generation is common among older millennials. BUT, I would like to point something out. After the interviewee said, “…I feel like it’s only getting worse with the younger generations.” He continued to say, “Maybe not yourself.” I was born in 1994 and he was born in 1989 (not even the oldest member of Generation Y), yet he thought I was in a separate generation.
If you thought I had a lot of questions before, imagine the amount of questions I have about the generation now. This is why I have decided to further pursue this research by interviewing all ages of millennials… Even the youngsters. It will be a process that I will work on over the next few months. So, we will see what happens.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
The "Lazy" Generation
What the world will be like when millennials are in charge? https://t.co/vLwuI88XXN pic.twitter.com/oY2momGidx— The Economist (@TheEconomist) January 22, 2016
Millennials—including
myself—are commonly stereotyped as one of the laziest, most self-centered,
overconfident generations yet. All of these accusations could entirely be true.
I speak for myself, but I know that I am perfectly capable of being lazy,
self-centered, and overconfident.
Maybe those qualities aren’t so terrible.
I never realized the extremity of these negative stereotypes until just recently I noticed the word ‘millennial’ surface in conversations. It's like when the word ‘surreal’ seemed to worm its way into every celebrity, TV host, and Bachelor contestants' mouth. Of course this millennial movement is of a much larger scale than the word 'surreal'. Lately the word ‘millennial’ has been tossed around in church services, school lectures, political debates and marketing pitches.
After some shallow digging, I was faced with the reality that after all the years my parents called me lazy and self-centered, the rest of my generation was being labeled just the same. Either we really suck as a generation, or we are being misjudged.
We were raised to believe that we could do anything or be anything we wanted. That we are all entitled to get what we want in life. And I will admit, I felt very entitled to a few participation trophies when I tried to play soccer or when I joined band in 7th grade. But I do believe we have access to the technology to seek out all of our available options in life. We were raised to believe that we are capable of anything, by the same generation that seeks to oppress us.
Unlike the last generation, our generation was bombarded by new technology at a young age.
When I was given my first smartphone, I was addicted. For years I was cursed with this constant fixation on my phone. Growing up, my dad introduced me to so many cool hobbies that I didn’t fully appreciate because I was more focused on what was going on with my phone. He would even tell me that, and I always denied it.
While I still sometimes find myself glued to my phone, it has become a much more reluctant activity. It has gotten to the point where I would rather talk on the phone than text—which that might be rare, because I am pretty sure most of my friends have a phone-call phobia. Either way, it’s real unfortunate when you are trying to hang out with someone and you can’t even have a conversation with them because they keep checking their phone like a nervous tick. Hopefully I am not the only one who has begun to feel this way.
But the choice to eliminate technology from our lives isn’t exactly an option, unless you want to alienate yourself from society.
We’re so lazy.
OK, maybe there are days when I don’t want to make my bed and clean my room. But, I wouldn’t call myself lazy, and definitely wouldn’t label an entire generation lazy. Maybe a few years ago college millennials did fall into a ‘lazy’ rut for a bit, but I believe millennials have initiated their comeback. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be such a hot topic of conversation right now.
Maybe there is some type of reverse psychology in categorizing a group with negative labels. Perhaps it created an entitled sense in millennials to step up and prove the stereotypes wrong. Being labeled overconfident and self-centered could be the misinterpretation of optimistic attitudes and millennials doing what they can to get by in a time where that can be very difficult.
Maybe those qualities aren’t so terrible.
I never realized the extremity of these negative stereotypes until just recently I noticed the word ‘millennial’ surface in conversations. It's like when the word ‘surreal’ seemed to worm its way into every celebrity, TV host, and Bachelor contestants' mouth. Of course this millennial movement is of a much larger scale than the word 'surreal'. Lately the word ‘millennial’ has been tossed around in church services, school lectures, political debates and marketing pitches.
After some shallow digging, I was faced with the reality that after all the years my parents called me lazy and self-centered, the rest of my generation was being labeled just the same. Either we really suck as a generation, or we are being misjudged.
We were raised to believe that we could do anything or be anything we wanted. That we are all entitled to get what we want in life. And I will admit, I felt very entitled to a few participation trophies when I tried to play soccer or when I joined band in 7th grade. But I do believe we have access to the technology to seek out all of our available options in life. We were raised to believe that we are capable of anything, by the same generation that seeks to oppress us.
Unlike the last generation, our generation was bombarded by new technology at a young age.
When I was given my first smartphone, I was addicted. For years I was cursed with this constant fixation on my phone. Growing up, my dad introduced me to so many cool hobbies that I didn’t fully appreciate because I was more focused on what was going on with my phone. He would even tell me that, and I always denied it.
While I still sometimes find myself glued to my phone, it has become a much more reluctant activity. It has gotten to the point where I would rather talk on the phone than text—which that might be rare, because I am pretty sure most of my friends have a phone-call phobia. Either way, it’s real unfortunate when you are trying to hang out with someone and you can’t even have a conversation with them because they keep checking their phone like a nervous tick. Hopefully I am not the only one who has begun to feel this way.
But the choice to eliminate technology from our lives isn’t exactly an option, unless you want to alienate yourself from society.
We’re so lazy.
OK, maybe there are days when I don’t want to make my bed and clean my room. But, I wouldn’t call myself lazy, and definitely wouldn’t label an entire generation lazy. Maybe a few years ago college millennials did fall into a ‘lazy’ rut for a bit, but I believe millennials have initiated their comeback. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be such a hot topic of conversation right now.
Maybe there is some type of reverse psychology in categorizing a group with negative labels. Perhaps it created an entitled sense in millennials to step up and prove the stereotypes wrong. Being labeled overconfident and self-centered could be the misinterpretation of optimistic attitudes and millennials doing what they can to get by in a time where that can be very difficult.
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