I’ve gotten very tired of hearing how Millenials (Gen Y) are needy and not as good as past generations. There’s a myth out there that these youngsters are not as good as the ones that came before. I hate to break it to everyone, it’s a myth because it isn’t true. How did it come about though? That’s a more interesting note.
I remember when Facebook debuted while I was at Georgia Tech. It was a fascinating application that allowed friends to communicate and share anything in the head with anyone else. I remember when it spread to high schools and suddenly siblings were on as well. I remember when suddenly parents and grandparents started using it. Over the course of a few years Facebook went from being the place where rowdy college students would post drunken messages in relative obscurity to suddenly being a place where you could be tracked and monitored by every person in your life.
Along the way Millenials (Gen Y) became used to the idea of putting their lives online. I knew plenty of friends in high school and college that used MySpace or LiveJournal with a type of online journal but as people became more familiar with the tools suddenly everything was going through them. Good thoughts, bad days, obscure thinking, spats with friends, break ups, frustrations, great jokes (awful jokes). Nothing was left out.
Now imagine the average 25 year old. Think back to yourself at 25 however long ago that was. I’m lucky, I am about as young as you can get without having Facebook in high school. When I hit 25 I wasn’t yet putting everything on the web. But today’s 18 to 25 year olds are putting everything online – because it is how they learned to use the internet. 25 year olds today are no different than they were 20 years ago or 40 years ago other than through the fact that each and every one of them have a global distribution network to post all of the things that are going on in their head and in their lives. We are essentially experiencing a collective brain fart from the 18 to 25 year olds in the world – because they are the single biggest users of these systems.
Millenials (Gen Y) are no different than any other generation, we just get the pleasure of seeing inside each and every one of their heads. Inside the head of an 18 to 25 year old is not the best place to be – again whether today, 20 years ago or 40 years ago. 18 to 25 year olds are still learning about the world, they haven’t had a full life of experiences, they are disgruntled, they can be angry – and now they can post about it online. But that doesn’t mean that offline they aren’t hard workers trying to do the best. It just means that they are exposing the hidden side of themselves to the world. Anyone older has already learned the lesson to hide anything a boss wouldn’t want to see because we’ve been burned by it. They don’t necessarily know that yet.
20 years from now the online dynamics will continue to change as Millenials (Gen Y) turn 45 and are still using these systems but also have their kids on. There will be a much broader balance of views. There will also be managers who grew up seeing inside of people’s heads and understanding that you can’t take Facebook posts at face value. Facebook is the place you vent – would you want anyone taken your bar conversations at face value?
All of this is because of Social Media and its influence on the world. Welcome to the new normal. It’s going to be painful as people continue to adjust.
PS – If I’m wrong and Millenials (Gen Y) are actually a bunch of selfish, no good, lazy workers then I fear for the future because they are going to be the bulk of the workforce in not long. But for some reason I have a feeling that they will be just like every generation before them once the history books are written – productive, innovative, creative and difference makers. I choose to not fear the future – I choose to believe that a bunch of people in the media are misunderstanding a situation. History backs my theory.