Generation Y: 3 Social Shifts In Perception

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.

Column Quick Summary:
Echo Boomers define themselves through their relationships. Echo Boomers value time over money. Echo Boomers buy products based on peer tips.

Echo Boomers see high value in their peers, whether that's in the form of personal relationships or peer suggestions. Facebook, MySpace and social media in general have contributed to a world where it's easy for Echo Boomers to engage their peers. For instance, the Millennial generation uses these social media at work, whether employers like this or not. Therefore, employers should note a few trends concerning Generation Y.

1. Echo Boomers define themselves through their relationships. Not only can you see this through social media, Echo Boomers also place a high value on personal interactions outside of work. In fact, the phrase "I have a life" came up a lot while talking with Echo Boomers when they mentioned that they disliked their current job.

I've constantly cautioned thought leaders that Echo Boomers perceive value through others, not through their own critical thought. Note that this is a result of people who define themselves and their lives through others. "Others think" means "I think."

But there's another point that thought leaders should consider. Because of social media's rise, Echo Boomers don't allow many of their relationships to end. For instance, Echo Boomers could never relate to this song. Why would a chapter of your life be through when you can just stay connected on Facebook?

In the past, part of growth and maturity meant letting go of relationships - and not for a negative reason. As life changed, people's presence with who they were around changed. Think of a young man hanging out with his player friends, but after becoming a father, spending time with other dads. Echo Boomers aren't like this: they'll be dads, but also still stay in touch with those player friends of theirs. (You can sense the tension this will create, even if Echo Boomers don't realize this.)

2. Echo Boomers value time over money. Note [Update: dead link removed]:

And time is more valued than money. Millennials want flexible schedules and may prefer additional vacation days to cash bonuses.

In other words, offering more money to Echo Boomers to complete extra tasks per week may be the most ineffective strategy. A company could possibly approach this generation with the idea of once you finish your work for the week, you're done regardless of how little time it took you and succeed. However, this would require a clear definition of success along with self-honesty about what the company actually needs.

3. Echo Boomers buy products based on what their friends or other peers mention [Update: dead link removed]:

Millennials are more likely to buy based on peer recommendations.

As I frequently tell thought leaders, Echo Boomers determine value through others. They don't stop and consider their vision, then determine what connects them to their vision in the most effective way. This is a mission-driven person. Echo Boomers determine what to do by asking their peers. They determine value based on their peers.

What this means is that social media and social avenues might be the most effective way to market to the Millennial generation, whereas normal advertising might indicate that your company sells poor quality products. This also means that your "normal" advertising should have a social element to it.

Note and update: I get asked about this point a lot from company leaders because, to quote them, "don't we all determine value because of others" (ie: keeping up with the Jones')?

No. Baby Boomers, as an example, wanted to get away from members of their generation. Generation Xers more than any generation up to this point valued self-reliance. If other members of both generations didn't value those things, it didn't change the pattern. Echo Boomers are not like this (for now and this could change over time). They determine value on the basis of what others think. You will determine very early when you speak with Echo Boomers that they have no mission; their mission is built from what others do.

As a generation, they spend hours looking at what others are doing (social media being a popular example of this). A mission driven person would prefer staring at the wall and coming up with ideas than looking at Facebook.

Is part of this youth? Yes. But this is also an effect of believing that you should always stay in touch with friends that you knew 20 years ago. And as you have a mixture of people with different agendas, you spoil your growth because of inconsistent input (think about the parable of the sower and the seeds).

Generation Y Wants Multi-Tasking Freedom

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.

An article [Update: dead link removed] highlights that among Echo Boomers pay does not always mean a better job. For instance:

[M]ore than two of five would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard to device choice, social media access, and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility

In other words, if you believe that focus is superior to multi-tasking, Generation Y will challenge your views: they enjoy multi-tasking.

Pertinent Side Note:

The very nature of a cell phone and social media, like Facebook, allow for multi-tasking to occur. In fact, a study counting the number of hours that workers spend on their cell phone, social networks, or doing other non-work related things would be quite fascinating (one radio talking head mentioned that it was 60% of workers' time, but failed to mention the study).

The corporate world, in general, has failed in this area. They still operate on the fallacy of the 40-hour work week, instead of the getting things done efficiently and quickly assumption. A company could easily arrange a policy where once you're done with work, you're done. Not only would work be accomplished quicker, but employees wouldn't feel trapped in a certain time frame - why be productive if you're stuck at the office for a minimum of 8 hours anyway?

On top of that, jobs which require creativity, need more time away from the office anyway. An employees' best ideas don't come when they're at work, but when they're away from work (ie: the shower, an afternoon walk, Archimedes' famous bath, et cetera).

In other words, set your goals, distribute the work, and when employees finish their job, let them go (even if that takes them 2 hours). Not only would employees save time and be motivated, companies could avoid the numerous costs that come when employees try to "fill their day" with something to do (all at company costs, of course).

Basic Human Incentives - School

All humans will consume the maximum amount of time allowed for a task, if completing the task early equals freedom to come up with their own work. I've seen this countless times in research. The exceptions we observe in corporate America occur because the person has other work they need done.

Growing up, I saw this with Echo Boomers and school as well. Unlike many Echo Boomers, my parents home-schooled me for a period of time, I attended private school and I attended public school. In comparing all three, only home-schooling allowed rewards for getting work done early.

For instance, in mathematics:

• When I was home-schooled, I had to complete 2 mathematics lesson per day. Once I finished mathematics, I could complete all my other work and once done, I had the rest of the day to spend with friends who often had finished their work. Most of the time, I finished all my school by 10 or 11AM. Yes, I had over 5 hours a day while most kids were in school to spend time with friends.

• In private school, if I finished mathematics early, they required that we move onto the next lesson. What was the reward for finishing the mathematics book early? We would start studying the next year's mathematics. While we always finished our mathematics' textbooks in private school, we had no incentive to finish our work early.

• In public school, if I finished my mathematics work early, I had to tutor other students. I absolutely hated this. Usually, I would finish my work early and start journaling.

Other generations may have had different experiences, but these patterns show what Echo Boomers experienced. What was the incentive for finishing work early? None, unless you were home-schooled. Obviously, we all valued playing with friends, but school environments prevented this and punished those of us who finished our work early.

Corporate America Is Exactly the Same

If you finish your work early in corporate America, you often get assigned more work. You seldom get a promotion or raise for doing this. (This explains why Echo Boomers are much more interested in entrepreneurship; this does not happen when you help your clients succeed.)

If you want focused employees who do their work well and fast, reward it.

Interview: Susan Walsh of Hooking Up Smart

The responses to the interview questions may not represent the views of The Echo Boom Bomb's author. These interviews are provided to inform readers of information from experts and provide these experts with a medium where they can answer questions without any content changes. All linked material to products in interviews such as books or videos are affiliated with the supported platforms, such as Amazon or others. To see the full list of interviews related to Echo Boomers, iGenZ or Automons, see the ending acknowledgements on this post.

In the past, I was asked about hooking up and I wrote a short post, Generation Y and the Hook Up Culture. However, I got in touch with Susan Walsh, who writes Hooking Up Smart [Update: dead link removed]. A quick introduction from her site [Update: dead link removed] :

Since earning my MBA in 1983 from The Wharton School, I have worked with companies and non-profit organizations to identify key challenges and opportunities, and formulate winning strategies. Launched in November, 2008, Hooking Up Smart brings together my passion and concern for young women with a professional, practical and systematic problem-solving approach.

[She also describes herself as a "cool mom" which is awesome.]

In other words, she understands the hook up culture.

1. People have expressed interest in learning about the current hook up culture that's popular among Echo Boomers, and a few other generations. Given that you counsel young women (and it seems, young men too) on the hook up culture and hooking up smart, could you give a brief explanation of what the hook up culture is?.

• Hooking up is a term to describe a sexual encounter between two people. It is a deliberately vague expression (providing plausible deniability), and can mean making out, having intercourse, or anything in between.

• Hooking up has replaced traditional dating on college campuses, and has also become prevalent in the general population and culture. The hallmark of hooking up is the clear understanding between both parties that the encounter will be free from any expectations for further contact. It is designed to avoid the possibility of commitment. However, hooking up is still the primary pathway to a potential romantic relationship, although only 12% of hookups eventually lead to relationships.

• The hookup script reverses the sexual norm; the pair becomes sexual first, before emotional intimacy or a relationship is established.

• Hooking up is awkward for both sexes. Most students get drunk to relax inhibition about getting naked with a stranger. Research shows that hooking up is not something unplanned that happens when people drink. Rather, young people drink heavily with the full intention of hooking up later in the evening.

2. It seems like there's a lot of pressure on young women to "be like men" in any and all ways. What - if any - are the potential consequences and/or benefits to this pressure? And why does Western culture assume that it's a "man's world" (being a man, I hardly feel like it's our world 96.7% of the time)?

First, hookup culture is the consequence of the Sexual Revolution, which occurred as a result of the Women’s Movement and the introduction of the Pill. Once women were able to have sex without fear of pregnancy, and with the blessing of Second Wave Feminists, they set out to have sex without restraint, much in the way that men did. When colleges stopped acting in loco parentis, the stage was set with coed dorms, and the hookup became the prevalent mode of male-female sexual interaction.

What happened over a period of 50 years is the loss of assortive mating. That is, it used to be the case that sex was tied to commitment, and people often married their first sexual partners. People generally married a mate with similar characteristics – education, intelligence, socioeconomic background and physical attractiveness.

As casual sex became more prevalent, and the Women’s Movement provided opportunities for women to pursue more education and professional careers, the average age at marriage increased significantly. In the meantime, both men and women seek sex, whether casual or in long-term relationships. However, they no longer limit themselves to people of similar traits.

[Some of what Susan Walsh mentions here may come in the form of serial monogamy, which is growing in popularity as well.]

As the gatekeepers of sex, women soon learned that while they might not hope to marry a man significantly more attractive or higher status than themselves, it is quite possible to command his attention in the short-term – often just for one night. This has led to a sexual “wealth gap” in the population, in accordance with the Pareto Principle. That is, 20% of the men are deemed highly desirable by women. They have the most options for sex, and as a result are the least likely to form committed relationships, especially at a young age. The other 80% struggle to find mates of similar traits, even if they’re willing to offer commitment. I’ve also estimated that about 20% of women are highly promiscuous. They seek short-term male attention. The other 80% recognize that they are unlikely to garner much male attention without offering casual hookups.

In this way, the idea that it’s a “man’s world” or that men have it made is misleading. A small percentage of men have it made. I don’t see any real winners among the women, frankly. Some women do enjoy no-strings sex, and are not seeking a relationship, but many struggle with feelings of regret, depression and low self-esteem.

3. I've heard two basic theories about the future of anything: the pendulum analogy, where things go back and forth from one extreme to the other, and the slippery slope analogy, where once things go downhill, they never return (note to readers: both of these are fallacies in logic). But based on your interaction with people involved in the hook up culture and dating, experience in the pros and cons of each, and knowledge of Western culture, what do you see for the future in terms of (dating/hooking up/seeing each other) interactions between men and women?

That’s a very interesting question, and we debate it at Hooking Up Smart [Update: dead link removed] all the time. Personally, I subscribe more to the pendulum theory. History is characterized by large swings in morality, with periods of extreme hedonism followed by more disciplined or restrictive norms. I see hookup culture sticking around for a long while, but there is some backlash already occurring. In the three years I’ve been blogging, college student newspapers have been printing a greater number of editorials by students opposing the culture. One thing that’s interesting to note is that while most students believe it’s common, and that many other students are hooking up regularly, 90% of college students have only 0-5 sexual partners during their four years. So the culture doesn’t really reflect the reality, but it dominates nonetheless.

Another possibility is a crisis in sexual health. STDs continue to spread rapidly, and are becoming increasingly resistant to treatment. HPV is causing cancers in both sexes, and there is a strain of gonorrhea in the UK, which is now considered untreatable. Of course, there’s the very real possibility of a new, opportunistic virus, much as we saw with AIDS in the early 80s. A worsening of the outlook in this area could create behavioral changes.

We’re in uncharted territory, and the Sexual Marketplace feels hostile to most people. My own view is that regardless of what is happening in the culture at large, each individual has the agency to formulate and implement a strategy that is most likely to help them meet their personal mating objectives. At HookingUpSmart.com [Update: dead link removed], I’m working on the margins. There are always opportunities in chaos, and hookup culture is no exception.

Interview: Sander Daniels of Thumbtack

The responses to the interview questions may not represent the views of The Echo Boom Bomb's author. These interviews are provided to inform readers of information from experts and provide these experts with a medium where they can answer questions without any content changes. All linked material to products in interviews such as books or videos are affiliated with the supported platforms, such as Amazon or others. To see the full list of interviews related to Echo Boomers, iGenZ or Automons, see the ending acknowledgements on this post.

After my recent article on Forbes, When Will the Education Bubble Explode, I had an email exchange with Sander Daniels of Thumbtack, who had some fascinating information to share about student loans, especially regarding liberal arts versus technical degrees.

Anyone Considering Education: Pay Attention To This Interview

This could end up saving you a huge amount of time and money and provide you with many more opportunities than those who went to a "traditional" school. Or if you know anyone who's considering college, forward/email/Facebook/Tweet this to them immediately.

1. You recently released data "showing that service professionals with a bachelor's degree earn no more than those with a technical college degree." For readers, explain the details and finding of these data and what this means for people considering a bachelor's versus a technical degree..

Thumbtack is an online marketplace for local services. So anyone who offers any kind of local service - from a contractor in Los Angeles, to a portrait photographer in Minneapolis, to an ice cream truck in Houston, etc. - can list themselves on our site. More than 225,000 independent professionals have listed themselves on Thumbtack since 2009.

We surveyed these professionals and asked "What is the highest level of education you have reached?" A little more than 11,000 people responded, with answers ranging from "high school degree" to "doctoral degree".

Since these professionals advertise their services on Thumbtack, they frequently list the price at which they offer their service. For example, this photographer offers her service at $95-195 per hour.

We found something very surprising when we mapped average hourly rate against educational achievement. We expected to see hourly rates rise with a higher level of education, and that's exactly what we found - except that the hourly rate for those with technical degrees and those with undergraduate degrees was exactly the same.

These findings aren't conclusive - perhaps Thumbtack members with technical degrees and undergraduate degrees aren't representative of all people with technical degrees and undergraduate degrees. And there are certainly advantages to getting a broad education at a four-year college over getting a vocational education at a two-year school.

But if I could go back in time and choose between a four-year liberal arts degree and a two-year technical degree, these data would make me think twice. These data at least make it clear that more education doesn't always mean a higher income.

2. You mentioned that you work with a team of Echo Boomers at Thumbtack. What things do you do there at Thumbtack and how can readers, who may be business owners or local merchants, use your services?

Thumbtack is a relatively young company. We're a company of 12 people based in San Francisco. We're all between 25 and 33.

It's a fun place to work - not only do we have an open working environment with a private chef who cooks meals every day, but we also feel like we're creating something truly innovative - and helping out small businesses in doing so.

Thumbtack offers small businesses and independent professionals a home online. It's free to list yourself and advertise your services on our site. In general, people really like the look of their profile - some people spend hours setting it up, filling it out, and making it look nice.

We also bring work to you. If someone comes to our site looking for a caterer for their holiday barbeque, we'll email that job to those in the area who can do that service. This is how we make our money - it costs a bit of money to respond to that client and pitch your services.

In general, the response to Thumbtack has been overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to coming to work every day. More than 4,000 small businesses list themselves on Thumbtack every week, and a new user signs up on our site every minute of every day.

We love what we do, and encourage you to check us out!

Tesla Motors' Other Vehicle

The other Tesla car that will come out: Tesla Model S. See, no one killed the electric car.

Who Killed the Electric Car? No One.

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.

Some already out, and more coming during 2012, these 3 electric cars should be top sellers and expect more electric cars to come.

The Coming Electric Car Boom: 3 Hot Electric Cars

Tesla Roadster: the expensive electric car that's already in the market. But Tesla Motors is already creating other electric cars that will appeal to average consumers. What's more interesting than Tesla Motors? Their CEO: Elon Musk. The next Henry Ford or John D. Rockefeller, anyone?

Nissan Leaf: an expensive electric car, but one that will appeal to some middle-class environmentalists.

Mitsubishi i [Update: dead link removed]: remember that Mitsubishi is number 2 in car sales to Echo Boomers, and this addition will help seal their top position for the next generation.

Trust me, there will be naysayers: "Oh those are just TOO expensive" which will easily fall to pieces when gas prices rise above $4 a gallon (and they will in the long run). Also, recall that all new technology costs a lot of money in the beginning, but becomes cheaper in time (see the below video of Bill Gates talking about energy).

Starting around 1:20

Now the price of energy has come down over time [see graph in video to see how far its fallen]. Really advanced civilization is really based on advances in energy.

...

Even in the 1900s we've seen a very rapid decline of the price of electricity.

Video link (video embedding is no longer supported).

(I wrote this post in honor of my dad, who said that electric cars would never succeed because oil companies would stop them. I think they will succeed.)