Be very very afraid

You probably already read this NYTimes.com article (reg. req'd)  about how millennials (aka Gen Y) are using channels. It's being blogged about in a lot of places - because it's really interesting stuff.

Click the visual at left and a full-sized version will pop up - and get ready to be shocked. It's a sampler of how one millennial (Karell Roxas, 24, a senior editor at Gurl.com) uses channels throughout her day.

A few interesting points:

• while she's at work, she's simultaneously using email, IM, the web, online music/podcast as well as mobile music (how she avoids a migraine is beyond me; my assumption is that she is only barely paying attention to each)
• she jump starts her day with a broad but shallow channel smorgasboard - quickly snacking from broadcast TV, radio, magazines and online to see what's new in her world - grazing from media like it's a food bar she passes en route to the office

So what do we do with this? It's certainly no surprise that folks are more comfortable with the barrage of information and channels we marketers throw their way - and that folks surf the web while watching TV. One expert interviewed for the article explains that for the millennials, "reliance and trust in nontraditional sources - meaning everyday people, their friends, their networks, the network they've created around them - has a much greater influence on their behaviors than traditional advertising." Which we also already knew.

What seems different to me is how empowerment and access might be changing how these people think of themselves and relate to others - starting with how critical "being connected" is to these people's self-concept and sense of happiness and fulfillment. Karrel says "to really unplug, while an attractive idea in theory, she said, would be to risk being swept aside by a virtual torrent of information - or, worse, being forgotten." The very act of being connected is now a social value of sorts.

Another wrinkle - too much groupthink? "You've got a group of kids who are unbelievably, incredibly loyal to each other," another expert observes in the article. "They are very bound to ethics and values. But in a funny sort of way, it prevents some of them from developing as individuals." The same expert said he had "encountered concerns that some young people lacked the ability to think and plan for the long term, that they withered without immediate feedback and that the machinery of groupthink had bred a generation flush with loyal comrades but potentially weak on leaders."

Is it possible that the lasting effect of all this wondeful empowering technology will be turning the empowered into lemmings? It's interesting to consider the positioning implications of this idea - e.g., for a brand to offer this audience the ability to break free from connectedness's shackles and think as individuals for a change.

Thoughts? Reactions?

Comments

[klusk]

Reminds me of Trendwatching's reporting on the aptly "online oxygen" trend they noticed among Gen Y. To many of them, losing one's connectedness is literally like losing our vital air supply.

Groupthink doesn't worry me as much - that always been a given with the younger generation, and tends to change as they enter the workplace and real life experiences help draw out the differing attitudes and beliefs among them. I'm more worried about the thought of folks who "whither" when they don't get real-time feedback/corroboration/virtual back-slapping. At least their limited attention span means they'll likely just move on to the next task/IM/email....

[Jeff Flemings]

Great thought Tina - I agree! Will be interesting to see which brand has the guts and imagination to break out and be this generation's Apple. : ) JF

[tina b]

I might argue that being connected has always been important to people when they're young, regardless of their demographic title. We used to hang out at the mall and talk on the phone incessently (albeit a landline phone!) Our parents parked their cars in drive-ins and went out for pizza (or whatever they did...) Maybe it's the degree of connectedness that is currently enabled that seems so different.

When you wrote: "for a brand to offer this audience the ability to break free from connectedness's shackles and think as individuals for a change" I immediately flashed to what Apple did in 1984.

Good stuff, Jeff.