it's Josip not joseph

Over the last few days, I attended and presented at the Digital Behaviour Conference in Toronto. Simply put, the topics were based on an assortment of varying opinions and viewpoints on digital usage of the young, which are the Millennials, versus the old, the Boomers in this case.

On my way home from the conference last night, I had more than a few thoughts floating around in my head. But one thought in particular had my creative juices flowing. Something which was brought up in my presentation with Carol Phillips. And something that also came up during Sidneyeve Matrix’s presentation. And particularly due to the fact it’s something I’ve written about before.

One of the defining pillars behind everything social has been the notion of updating everyone to what has been occurring in your life. It spans from the thoughts we have, to the things we buy and the places we go. But, it even goes beyond that. Status updates are hardly a random occurrence. They are definitely one of the most strategically acted upon occurrences we all take place in.

The idea itself is something I’ve brought up before. It was something I originally guest blogged about on idaconpts.com, an awesome blog run by Damian Davila, in a post called “How to Market to Millennials”. And it’s something that I’ve brought up in various blog posts on my blog here. It’s also something that I think many people take for granted or quite don’t understand.

The prominence of status updates is often overlooked and under-analyzed. It is undeniably one of the elements every social platform is founded on. Equally, it is one of the most crucial aspects every user embraces. In a world built on on-going live update feeds and one combined with specific and strategic updating, social media and social networking have become imperative touchpoints for everybody.

Whether it be Twitter’s “What’s happening?”, Facebook’s “What’s on your mind?” or LinkedIn’s “Share an update”, the essence of the status update has come to represent something that is personally valuable. The tricky part here is knowing that status updates are not always necessarily worthy or valued in the same way. It’s a combination of what value the updater will receive both in the update and it’s potential value gained from everyone else.

Though each social network seems to have its own established social paradigm, much of what is updated across all platforms falls into one of these four categories:

Declaration: The “I found it, got it, had it, knew it first” syndrome is quite prevalent. Especially when value is being applied to and received by others for being the first to have shared the story, song, brand-new gadget and experience. What’s interesting is that they might necessarily be the first but they perceive themselves to be the first within the group they are reacting to.

Attention: Don’t be mistaken, everything we update on is intended to entice a response. From the subject matter of the update to how it’s written is all meant to generate attention. It can be anything from the vacation you’re going on, to an aspect of life we can all resonate with, to a poetic and beautiful quote. We want to be noticed and we want people to notice us.

Relevance: We want provide information, thoughts, feelings and insights that we believe to be relevant to everyone else. It’s why we share the links, the news and anything else we believe that should be known. We would never tell you something we knew you were already aware of.

The cool, the funny, the honest and the weird: Nothing beats a good laugh, seeing something awesome, knowing that there is something real behind it and just experiencing something strange. Anything that is a little different but in a good way.

These categories are more than often significant factors when deciding if something is status update worthy. It’s all done with purpose. For these reasons, marketers and causes shouldn’t necessarily focus on the numbers game. Your first priority should be on whether or not you can actually make something worthy of a status update. Your first question should be the same question we ask ourselves, is it status update worthy?

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Over the last 2 weeks or so, twentysomthings, Millennials and all those Gen-Y have found themselves on the other side of some harsh rhetoric. As often as it is with younger generations, there is a constant need for talking down to youth. And whether that be for the best of intentions or for the fear of kids going wrong, our older counterparts have some serious beefs with us.

After all we’ve never fought a great war. We’re taking to long to grow-up. Our parents have treated as too well. We’re too dreamy, extremely connected, spent years as students, and so on. The dialogue has been a one-way conversation. A conversation that has targeted the Millennials and everything they do.

The last 2 weeks or so…

What’s even more disconcerting is the anti-Millennial language has come from major media publications. From Fox’s article “Can Generation Y Keep America Great?” to the New York Times’ article “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” and Harvard Business Review’s “Two Common Mistakes of Millennials at Work”, there is a strong sense of negative sentiment towards us.

Though not all is lost. There are more than a few individuals that have a great understanding of who the Millennials are. From Rosetta Thurman’s “Is It Time for Generation Y to ‘Grow Up?’”, the Huffington Post’s “How to Manage Me: Millennials and Communication”, and Millennial Expert, Carol Phillips’ “Why Many Find Millennials Puzzling” and her most recent article “The Generational Culture Gap”, the picture of Millennials is not only clearer but vividly different, positive and encouraging.

How did all the Millennial bashing even start?

A generation that approximately begins around 1980 and spans to about 2000, puts it’s oldest members at 30 years old. Few hardly remember the Cold War, dial-up internet and wood-paneled tv’s. Most have spent time in school until past their early 20’s. And many have had significant encouragement from their parents. Don’t we all want the best for our children?

So, alright, we’ve grown up as one of the most privileged set of youths. Possibly the most privileged ever in human history. But is this really our fault?

As children, teenagers and graduates, should we have hoped for a darker, dimmer and hopeless future? Are we too optimistic for everyone else’s sake?

Or is it all a sense of jealously? From those that had a more difficult time growing up, let me rephrase that, a different time growing up?

The questions are endless. And we’re still left wondering. How could things possibly be the same for Millennials when times are so obviously different? Different has always been a problem. And different has always been challenging.

Understandably, keeping everything the same would be the best possible solution for all our current societal structures. After all, they’ve been taking shape and moulded over the last half century. And now the Millennials have come in with their social media and smart phones and are ready to take-over one update, tweet and text at a time.

So we must be a societal threat? There is no doubt in my mind we’ll change the world everyone currently sees. And Facebook is the simplest, most obvious and perfect example since a set of Millennials founded it. Not only are we products of an existing environment, we’re continually redefining it.

Maybe, at a time when so much is going wrong – something of which Millennial’s are in no way responsible for – it’s easiest to blame the “new guy”. The oldest of us is only 30. We’ve hardly had the time to make real problems. If productivity is down, it must be because we’ve been Facebooking and texting all day, since the internet, other distractions or phones were non-existent before us.

The Millennials are the perfect societal scapegoat. At 19.5% unemployment, it must be because about 15 million of us refuse to work. Not because there actually is 15 million jobs waiting for us. Our longer stays in education are not only costing more but student debt is growing exponentially. So forgive us if we choose to live at home longer, get married later and wait to have children.

The recap

By the standards of the New York Times article, Boomers themselves would’ve have been in our position if you compared them to previous generations before. As times change, people change. It’s been an ongoing cycle throughout time. The Boomer standard will ultimately change too.

Fox’s article would suggest we need another great war, because that’s what makes a great generation. Trust me, I thank all those before us and what they’ve done to get us here. But wars are so passé. Should another “Great War” arise, it won’t be pretty. So let’s just avoid that standard. Greatness is not set or encompassed by a single group of people. Give the Millennials a chance first. Then we’ll make the comparisons.

And lastly, the Harvard Business Review article. Millennials acting like Millennials is hardly a mistake in any scenario. That would suggest no one should act like themselves. And it makes me wonder what kind of world everyone has grown up in before us. Even with all our technology and web-savvyness, our human element is strongest of any generation. I’m not suggesting we simply do what we like. But we’ll figure out a way to do it all. Whether you agree with our processes or not.

Where’s the toleration, human understanding and ability to work together? We are all part of the same society aren’t we? Why all the dictating, blaming and finger pointing? Though I must admit that the current culture of the Millennials was highly the result of Boomers and Gen-Xers, I’d hardly play the blame game with them. If I wanted to do that I’d bring up the economic crisis, the environmental crisis and all other crises we, the Millennials, will have to take care of in the future.

Even with all this, I’ve hardly answered my question. But wasn’t that obvious. I’m a Millennial. What do I know about anything.

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