How Millennials Use Technology Differently Than Adults
In this paper, you will learn about how technology has varying effects on how millennials and adults use and view it. It will focus on specifically how millennials use social media platforms very differently than how they were intended on being used and why the younger generation feels so much stronger about technology and incorporates it into their everyday life, rather than using it to enhance the life they already have.
It is no surprise to anyone that technology has a stronger attraction and pull on the generation who has grown up living with it than the generation who are now just learning about it. The term millennials refers to a large subgroup of people, but this paper dives into the reasons and motives behind the social media platforms that claim they will connect us. In a rapidly changing world, technological advances come faster than most people can keep up with. While these technological advances keep breaking grounds, the most drastic change to society and communication has been the use of social media. For more than half of many adults lives, they have never had the option to use technology;however, millennials have been exposed to it since they have been born. This exposure has drastic effects on how millennials view and use technology not only in the workforce but also socially. This is a disconnect between the two generations that the younger generation struggles to understand.
Millennials use not only technology, but social media differently than adults by using social media platforms to compete for likes and followers and creating a facade for themselves of a different life on social media to present themselves as cool to their peers. In an article done by Forbes, they reference a study done by Schofields, where millennials are using social media to choose their next vacation spot. “Instagrammability” is now a leading factor in where millennials under the age of 33 are choosing to vacation. Instagramability is being considered over the price of the trip, access to alcohol, personal development, chances to experience local cuisine, and sightseeing.
Now it is important to understand why millennials find such importance in the accessibility for Instagram. Forbes makes a claim that “Another factor to consider is what likes actually mean. It’s not necessarily a popularity contest”. However, I would argue that it is, using the very next line in the article “For some, plenty of Instagram likes are an indication that a destination is simply visually pleasing and desirable. For example, if someone who is a travel writer or professional photographer gets plenty of likes on their Instagram photos of a destination, that’s a pretty good indicator that they’re in a pretty spectacular spot”. This is exactly why millennials use likes as a means of popularity and to create this facade about themselves online. They feel like they need to travel to these picture perfect locations in order to receive some acknowledgment based on the amount of likes they got to feel like they are in that “spectacular location”. They want to share the experience with their “fan base”. Now not everyone who has a social media account views their followers as their fans, but everyone cares about the amount of followers they have. Why? Because it’s fun to be able to share your experiences with others and feel like they care and approve. Outside of these picture perfect destinations, “everyone presents the very best versions of their lives. . . which makes you feel like your life, in comparison with all its messiness, probably isn't as good. Seeing the best version of everyone else's life makes you feel deprived. ”
Millennials constantly see the very best of everyone else’s life, so they try sharing the very best of their own. The reason why they do this is because “When someone likes an Instagram post, or any content that you share, it's a little bit like taking a drug. As far as your brain is concerned, it's a very similar experience. The minute you get a like on social media…the experience produces dopamine, which is a chemical that's associated with pleasure. ” In Forbes, they link another website, ADWEEK, with a claim that the millennial generation is known for trusting peers more than brands or celebrity endorsements. This statement directly correlates to the Forbes idea of how millennials want the approval of their peers. But because of this, it sadly takes away from their actual experience because they are worried about what their next Instagram post will be of and if others will like it. Adults and millennials are at different stages in their lives, obviously, each having their unique desires. Millennials seek desires that everyone else wants or has. Due to this, marketing strategies have changed to accommodate for the technological differences. Today, using celebrities to endorse products no longer is a valid way to gain the trust of your market. According to ADWEEK, “celebrity marketing is on the decline. In 2004, celebrities appeared in nearly 20 percent of all American ads. By 2012, that number dropped to 9 percent. ”
“The reason why shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, the millennial generation is known for trusting peers more so than brands or celebrity endorsements. ” Millennials want authenticity, but they also want exactly what everyone else does. Screen time for millennials is skyrocketing. Everything now-a-days requires the use of technology. Due to the dependency on our devices, we allow them to take over our daily lives. We spend so much more time and energy looking down and trying to live in this world of connection, more people now feel more individual and alone because of it. “Neurobiologists have found we are wired for intimacy. Yet genuine intimacy demands vulnerability and vulnerability requires courage. It requires that we lay down the masks we can so easily hide behind online, and reveal all of who we are with others. ”
We allow ourselves to care and work on our internet persona and character, that we lose our individual character. These social media platforms take the personality out of you online, and because of this, it causes people to change who they are in real life. “A recent study found that 48% of respondents only had one confidant compared to a similar study 25 years ago when people said they had about three people they could confide in. So as we have built expansive social networks online, the depth of our networks offline has decreased. ” People don’t feel like they can talk to another person because they have more followers on Instagram, they get more likes on their photos, or more people know who they are. It causes mental blocks that don’t actually exist. While our devices allow us to stay connected whenever we like through the touch of a few buttons, we lose the time we used to have for our self and the relationships around us. We don’t only start focusing on impressing others more, we forget to take care of who we are. Can you even call it alone time anymore, because unless you have your phone or computer turned off or away from you, you never are alone. Person to person contact is declining because everything can be done quicker through the use of technology. It saves time, sure, but what it ruins is the connection and desire we have as human beings to fit in and be social.
Today our world has greatly changed and developed, for the better and worse. Technology has come a long way since the idea has become a reality. Technology is a great way to enhance the way we live, make the world around us seem smaller, and makes tasks and projects easier to complete. However, the way we have allowed technology to take over our life cannot be seen as a positive. The way millennials use social media has become a negative thing. First off we have allowed it to change the way we act as individuals, putting on an act for those who see us through a screen. We compare ourselves to our peers, when it is totally unfair because everyone is special and unique. What people post on instagram is the best aspect of their live and it can allow us to seem like we are in disarray. Second, we are so set on the acceptance of our peers, business marketing strategies have spent millions researching how to offer a product we want. Finally, we used social media to stay connected 24/7, taking away our alone time and yet feeling less connected than ever before. Taking away from face to face conversations that being human being naturally makes us desire, and translating that to behind a screen. This may be because it’s hard to form a trusting true relationship behind a lit up piece of glass. For the older generation, technology only enhances the way they live, for millennials it is starting to become how they live and who they are.
