To better understand the communications gap between Millenials and Boomers, I asked a few Millenials for their perspective. Here is some of what I heard:
How do you feel about being grouped as Millenials?
Using a general term to describe anyone is frustrating. Millenials have been painted too negatively in the media, as people that live at home until they’re 27, and things like that.
I would prefer to be considered as myself, as an individual person, and not as an entity of an age group or of this entire population.
I don’t think of my parents as “old” – I mean I don’t think of them as being just old people, and I think that would be considered rude, right? If you were to see a senior citizen and say, "Well, they’re a senior, and that’s who they are, they eat dinner at 5pm and they like Jell-O." So why is it okay to say, “Well, he’s a millennial, he probably doesn’t care about much, apathetic to politics and everything, how do you market to him?”
--Nolan, 25, Market Research Analyst
I feel a little offended, because I feel like most of the time the Millennials are looked at as bratty and maybe not hard-working, whereas I think the Baby Boomers see us as not hard-working because we’re not following their steps that they saw as successful. Now we’re doing our own thing, and it’s being deemed as not hardworking, not successful, but we’re working differently than they did.
–Amanda, 25, Marketing Professional
Honestly, I hadn't given it much thought until recently. In the last three months I've heard more negative words, opinions and stats correlated with my generation than any other generation currently being discussed. It's odd to me, too, that prior to all the recent publicity, I'd never really heard anything about my generation. I don't feel offended to be grouped as a generation because that is the standard. Being grouped allows for many benefits in terms of identifying how our needs and wants differ from the generations before us and, additionally, how we have to go about "creatively" fulfilling those needs and wants may also differ.
I am not sure it's that we dislike being grouped, but more the negative words the group is being labeled with. However, the negative criticism we are receiving as a whole instead of on an individual basis is very offensive. No one of any generation would be okay with this. People in my generation enjoy finding themselves and finding out how to differentiate themselves. Grouping us can misinform people with the idea that we are all a bunch of sheep running around doing/being the exact same thing. Obviously this can be the case with any type of group.
--Nicole, 29, Entrepreneur and owner of The Site Edge
How do you think Millenials and Boomers differ?
I see the Baby Boomers wanting structure; they need tangible things to make everything seem real and legit. Whereas my generation is a little more loose, like all these online businesses that are worth millions of dollars, where they’re not really doing anything, there’s no ads on them or anything, and they’re like worth millions of dollars and people are working from home and everything’s kind of like fluid. Whereas the older generation is kind of like, “I need like this much money, I have to go to college, college has to be at a university . . .” I think everything’s a lot more fluid.
The people [at my most recent corporate job] who are in leadership positions are Baby Boomers. So although it may seem like a young company, the rules and the guardrails are very “Baby Boomer.” They’re very strict, there are steps you have to take to get to the next level in the career path and making decisions. While at [the ad agency] where my manager who was right below the director was like 32. And she was like, “you make up the rules, you do what you have to do to get the work done,” there’s no set path you have to take, you do whatever makes it easiest to get the job done to get there.
It’s kind of like a river vs a sailboat. Where like you go straight down the river to get to the other side, where my generation is like a sailboat that can take different paths to get somewhere.
–Amanda,25, marketing professional
… Three huge buzz topics surrounding our generation are housing, marriage and kids. We are straying from broken cycles, traditions and other expectations generations before us had that might leave our generation in a place of unhealthiness. We may not be buying houses as early as the generation before us but we're renting, traveling and living as though the sky is the limit! We are choosing to be intentional about children and what it really means to each of us individually to be a great parent. We have raised the standards on who we partner with in life because we aren't interested in becoming another divorce statistic. We are drinking and smoking less.
Where is all the publicity on these facts? Where are all the stats and labels on all the positives our generation is bringing to the table?
--Nicole, 29, Entrepreneur and owner of The Site Edge
Comments on technology, the media, and their parents' generation
Technology
Thinking of like my family and work too, the BB generation is just not willing to step into technology as much as they need to to stay successful. My dad just retired, but he’s just like “I hate technology” and he’s just given up. And even like my director at work was like – I’m really good at Excel, and I came up with this spreadsheet that was filterable and you could do anything you need to do in it, and she was like, “I need a printed copy.” And I was like, “You can’t analyze anything with the printed copy because all you can see is just that little bit, and she was like,“I don’t know how to work that,” and it’s like ARRGGGHH – Amanda, 25, marketing professional
I feel like the gap is closing. Older generations are utilizing more and more technology to help fulfill more of their needs and wants. The Millennial generation is learning more and more that relationships cannot be obsolete and that strong face to face communication is necessary. I see people who are Boomer's, Xer's, and Millennials trying to find a balance with technology and face to face communication. I can't speak for everyone in this area or any area for that matter, but personally, I strive to find a balance for myself between technology and face to face communication because I value them both--Nicole, 29, Entrepreneur and owner of The Site Edge
Media
I think it’s less about trying to figure out the Millenials and more about trying to figure out how to market in the environment that we’re in right now. So things are different – you don’t have cable television, you don’t have commercials like that – people get things through Netflix. So how do you market through those surroundings?
Everybody I know in my age groups comes home and they don’t sit down in front of the TV, they sit down in front of their laptop. So how do you market to that, what do you do? It’s just different, so I think maybe it’s more about medium than people--Nolan, 25, Market Research Analyst
What do you think is unique about your age now that people your parents’ age don’t understand?
I think it’s just a generational thing. I think that it’s every generation feels this way, right? My parents’ parents didn’t understand my parents at all, right? So I don’t think it’s this newfound, “Well, we don’t understand the Millenials because they are so different from any other generation. I think that it’s just been painted a little differently, and I think that combined with the media changing a little bit, how we interact with products is creating this false buzz about who Millenials are and what they are and things like that.
I shouldn’t say false, but maybe exaggerated–Nolan, 25, Market Research Analyst