The millennial generation consists of people who were born between 1980 and 2000, mostly being the children of baby boomers. Digital Natives, on the other hand, are also known as Generation Z which were the group to follow Millennials up until the early 2010s. Everyone prior to Gen Z are referred to as Digital Immigrants. Millennials are one of the most, if not the most, stereotyped generation. Some of the stereotypes that come with that title are lazy, unmotivated, technology obsessed, entitled, lacking social media etiquette. Some stereotypes of Gen Z are that they have short attention spans, they are multitaskers, technology addicted, and anti social.
As for all stereotypes, there are reasons that they are true. Many people see Millennials and Gen Zers this way because they have acted in this pattern in the past. That being said, stereotypes are always generalizations and never 100% truth. Each of these negative stereotypes that I listed have been researched and debunked by some, and proven to hold truth by others. In my opinion, I have seen the reasons that make these different stereotypes true when evaluating these generations. As I myself am a part of Gen Z I can see first hand the people and mannerisms that keep these stereotypes alive. On the other hand, I wouldn’t say that every single person that was born between 1996 and 2012 has a short attention span.
I thought that this tweet was interesting because it broke down Gen Z into important statistics. I found that it was interesting to see that many of us had a phone by age 10 and spend more than 5 hours a day online. I think that because of the way that technology use has shifted with Gen Z’s actions has sparked a lot of the stereotypes and negative opinions. This is where Millennials come in. They were the last of the old and some of the first in the new digital world. Because of this I think that they have the both the prior knowledge of the past and the total understanding of the now that many older generations do not. According to an article titled “Millenials, New Media and Social Change (Part One).” written by Henry Jenkins, “[Millennials] are also known as the most technologically savvy generation. Even though Generation X’ers were known to heavily consume electronic media because they were born when the Internet was in its infancy, the millennials were born into a media-saturated and consumer-driven culture. Moreover, unlike the members of the previous generations, they were surrounded by digital media technologies since they were infants. In a way, they live in a digital media ecology and in fact are known as “digital natives” [1]. The way that Jenkins explained the generations in relation to technology was well put. I had never thought of Millennials as being more tech savvy but I feel like they were the only generation that lived before the explosion of the Digital Era that truly had the upper hand in terms of technology.
“Since they live in digitalized platforms, millennials are often disconnected from the members of the previous generations. For the most part, rather than being community oriented, they are self-centered and self-absorbed. Perhaps, this why they are known as the “Generation Me”
Henry Jenkins
The fact that this quote, along any of the stereotypes that come along with Millennials, is so negative further emphasizes the struggle between the older and younger generations now. With Millennials right at the cusp of change and Gen Z leading the Web 2.0 era, those who are older have experienced a more drastic change. I think that change is sometimes the scariest thing for people to sit back and watch. Because of this, the older generations have turned their noses up at us younger with our technology use, thus creating the negativity.
This negativity is also highlighted in the article “The Millennial Muddle” by Eric Hoover: “Kids these days. Just look at them. They’ve got those headphones in their ears and a gadget in every hand. They speak in tongues and text in code. They wear flip flops everywhere. Does anyone really understand them?” [2]. It is clear that it is the inability to relate to the ways that children in the Digital Era act that creates the negativity and stereotypes. My grandparents lived in a time where they had a one radio and one television for entertainment at home. We have them in the palms of our hands everywhere we go. They had one landline phone in the house. We have it in our back pocket at all times. These differences are hard for them to picture the drastic difference that their lives would have been like if they were the same as the ones were living.
In the book Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky, he describes the reasons for some of these stereotypes: “Lest this perspective appear radical, rather than just descriptive, let me highlight some of the issues. Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel-process and multitask. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite” [3]. I think that the way that he explains Digital Natives was less biased than most. By highlighting these traits like wanting information fast, you can connect the reasons why. For instance, we are used to saying “Hey Siri, what’s the capital of India?” and receiving the answer in an instant. On the other hand, those who have seen the days before Google had a much harder and longer process to access facts. Yet again, I have found that it is our differences and misunderstandings that sprout negative stereotypes that don’t always hold complete truth.
Despite all of the negativity, I think that two of the positive perceptions of my generation are that we tend to be entrepreneurial and tech-savvy. For example, the video below shows a 12 year old app developer. On a less radical scale, I have found that the most simple things that I have done in technology, like creating my travel blog for instance, have amazed my family members senior to me. Overall, stereotypes are just that, stereotypes. They may hold truth in some and not in others. But at the end of the day I feel as though we should all come together as a society to embrace technological advances and change to continue growth.
Explain a positive perception of your generation in terms of new media literacies and participatory culture (use examples).
- Jenkins, Henry. “Millenials, New Media and Social Change (Part One).” Henry Jenkins, Henry Jenkins, 18 Jan. 2018, henryjenkins.org/blog/2017/12/19/millenials-new-media-and-social-change-part-one.
- Hoover, Eric. “The Millennial Muddle.” Chronicle.com, 11 Oct. 2009, http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Millennial-Muddle-How/48772.
- Prensky, Marc. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Marc Prensky, 2001.
Nicole Danigelis 