Note that this article has been updated to also include some of the private discussions with thought leaders in the past. You can read my final overview of my research into the Millennial generation along with what I predicted and what happened as they matured at this link. While I still speak about Echo Boomers and iGenZ privately, I seldom add new articles to this specific blogspot site. If you're reaching out about a speaking engagement, you can contact me at the research firm SqlinSix.
After a few serious weeks covering Echo Boomers [updated link], it's time for a funny article about the Millennial generation.
For Generation Y, the internet ranks as most important, according to an article [Update: dead link removed], over things like partying, dating, going out with friends or even status symbols (like cars). Get this: over half of respondents - college students and young professionals - stated that they could not live without the internet. Obviously, every non-Millennial knows that we all can live without the internet and some older individuals spent most of their life without it.
Remember that Facebook will assimilate you:
More than one in four (27 per cent) college students will rather update their Facebook account than to hang out with friends.
Note that nine of 10 of these students have a Facebook account — of those, 81 per cent check it daily and 33 per cent at least five times a day.
Mark Zuckerberg must absolutely love this generation.
The funny thing about this is that I still recall the time when the internet was only for nerds. In high school, surfing the internet was "not cool," in the same way that having a website, knowing what "www" meant, or having an email account was "not cool." Yet now, 90% of students have Facebook accounts, and I'm sure that trend will continue to rise across the Millennial generation.
This isn't to say that Echo Boomers will always feel this way. They may look back at their time spent on the internet as waste in the future, but for now, they're obsessed. For iGenZ, they only know of a world with the internet and we'll see how that affects their mindset and activities.
