Will Millennials Be First to Let Go Technology?

"A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world." --John le Carré, former British spy and English author

John le Carre is one of my favorite authors. His ability to weave a story and evoke a character with just a few details is remarkable. He didn't get that from sitting at a typewriter all day. If he were still alive, he might say the same thing about Google. As a portal on the world, it has both disadvantages and advantages.

There are growing indications that people are realizing media saturation is leading to media-induced stress, that activity is not the same as productivity and that technology can be a hindrance as well as a help. Millennials, as the most connected generation, may be among the first to put technology in its place in favor of simpler pleasures.

Two articles last week alone about Millennials and 'nostalgia' seem to support my premise. Last week, an article titled, "Everything old is new again to Internet Weary Young Adults" appeared in the Australian. Judging by the discussion and number of Re-Tweets it generated on Twitter, the article seems to have hit a nerve. The article reports on a study of young adult culture and concluded 16-30 year olds "pine for a less complex time."

"Communicating with friends online has lost some of its lustre even from as recently as a year ago and they now want to have more face-to-face time. And they increasingly prefer to do that at home rather than going out to noisy, potentially dangerous pubs and nightclubs. ....those still living with their parents (about half) have noticed the global financial crisis's impact on the family and pared back their lifestyle in response. It also shows their love affair with technology is heading for a break-up, with time spent online down 30 minutes a week from last year, while their consumption of newspapers increased by the same amount. Facebook and Twitter are also still on the rise, but losing some of their cachet. "

Likewise the NYT this week made a stir July 23 with an article, "Harry Potter is Their Peter Pan" describing the new nostalgia among Millennials in the U.S. The NYT attributes the longing for the comforts of their childhood to the uncertainties of life today.

“Millennials see the world before Sept. 11 as a period of innocence. Our biggest worry was the Y2K bug. That all seems a world away now.” Jeff Gordinier, the author of “X Saves the World,” a book last year that looked back at the early-90s formative years of Generation X, said, “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Generation Y is burrowing into nostalgia in the middle of a severe recession. “Nostalgia comforts people and the Millennials are probably craving comfort right now.”

The research reported by the Australian article attributes the change in behavior and attitudes less to a longing for a simpler time than a desire for more immediate person-to person connection:

"And they want more connections with their friends that aren't digital, that are tangible. They're starting to question the authenticity of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. They want technology to assist rather than dominate the way they communicate."

I tend to agree with the Australian article. The driver is a desire for authenticity, not a return to safer more secure time. Millennials long to get out into the world and make a difference, or simply get out into the world. A newly released study by Timex on American Life and the Outdoors shows many feel trapped indoors, and struggle to find time to enjoy the outdoors. According to this study, "More than half of American adults (56%) fantasize about breaking free from their homes and offices to be outdoors, and that more than one-third expect the economy will negatively impact the time they spend outside this summer." Millennials appear to be especially affected. "Millennials (ages 18-24) spend almost 10 hours per day on the computer and socializing with friends, yet less than two hours outdoors."

As the most connected generation, I think it will be easiest for Millennials to put technology in its place. It may not be wholesale technology backlash, but longing for a simpler time and more genuine relationships may eventually diminish time spent online. Here's Melbourne clothing designer Clea Garrick, 27, on her pursuit of simpler pleasures:

"We've definitely had more dinners at our house than we normally would, including a fondue party, would you believe it?" said Ms Garrick, who is married with no children. She agreed there was now a greater emphasis among her peers for human contact rather than online connections than a year ago. "Facebook, for sure, we've dropped our usage," she said. "It's just a time-commitment issue: how do you want to be spending your time?"

Engaging Millennials in the Classroom

If you think engaging Millennials in marketing is hard, try engaging them in discussions about marketing in the classroom. Not only are they accomplished multi-taskers accustomed to high levels of visual stimulation, most are incredibly tired from their 24/7 lives.

Since I began teaching at Notre Dame in 2003, I've moved steadily from the traditional read/lecture approach I knew in the 70's to a more interactive classroom format. After all, in an era when top lecturers are posted online there needs to be more than a talking head to justify coming to class. This sounds easier than it is. Many students don't want to talk in class, and others (shockingly) are not always prepared to contribute. Fortunately, technology offers new ways to coax participation from sophotmores -- threaded conversations, online quizzes, extra posted material, and blogs have all helped enhance my 'pedagogy'.

Sidney Eve Matrix, Assistant Professor in the Department of Film and Media at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario Canada, takes technology in the class to new heights. @sidneyeve has brought many new ideas to my attention. To see the future of technology in the classroom, check out this slide share presentation, "Lectures That Stick: Digital Tools You can Use to Encourage Engagement and Retention." Even if you have no intention of stepping foot into a classroom soon, it's brimming with ideas for engaging Millennials that you may find useful in Millennial Marketing.

It helps of course, that her area of content, technology and culture, is well-suited to using technology to teach. Sydney Eve's blog, cyberpop is filled with great insights on mobile media use and gaming. Someday I want to take her course, FILM240: Mass Media & Pop Culture! It really sounds like it belongs in the marketing department:

"This course considers a variety of media and genres (including film, TV, gaming, music, magazines, advertising, news media, and online technologies). We study popculture productions, consumptions, and representations in order to better understand the importance of mass media in shaping our identities, choices, and imaginations."

Technology Frustration: It's Not Generational

>"The real-world interaction of the internet and the 'long tail' of the Semantic Web will enable everyone to find the perfect job for them, the right opportunity, so that people in general are happier, healthier, and more productive." - Anonymous respondent

>"The result may be longer, less-efficient working hours and more stressful home life." - Victoria Nash, director of graduate studies and policy and research officer, the Oxford Internet Institute

Which of these two views I agree with depends on whether my Comcast connection happens to be working that day. One of my 15-year old son's friends shared that he wants to have a job like mine someday. From his vantage point, I suppose it looks pretty cushy -- I work for myself, teach 2 days a week (and prepare 2 more), and pretty much work at my own pace. Problem is most of the time 'my own pace' is 24/7. That's okay --- most of the time. The exception is when I encounter a technology glitch that drains productivity and leaves me in a state of frustration. My friends and family are tired of hearing me whine about the many ways AT&T, Comcast, Sony, HP, Apple, Linksys, Netgear and more conspire against me.

So I was heartened to learn that my issues are not generational. According to the Pew Research Center, Millennials have just as much trouble with their technology as those of us who learned computer-ese as a second language. 18-29 year olds experience failures of their Internet, cell phones and computers at a rate roughly comparable to their elders. As I sit here contemplating shifting my digital life over to a new, as yet unfamiliar laptop, I am reflecting on our digital dependency. Our lives and livelihoods are increasingly dependent on touch screens, touch pads and touchy software. I can only hope that there will be a parallel growth in services that make them all play nicely together.

Millennial Target: Microsoft

Apparently Microsoft does have a clue. I found this video on Jeff Taylor's blog, Millennial Marketer. (Definitely worth checking out for a Millennial's view of ZipCar, Nokia and more). According to Jeff, "this video shows Microsoft’s vision for their future in the youth market. It is a perfect example of how Millennials want technology to fit seamlessly into their lives. The title is fitting: it is called “Your Digital Lifestyle.” High praise.

What I find interesting about the video is that it tells a wordless story where the technology enables the action, rather than is the action. It makes Microsoft's various platforms and products appealing and actually seem related. It also takes them well beyond PPT and Word and puts them squarely in Apple territory, a part of your, well, digital life. According to other blogs, the video has been shown internally to a good response, but has not aired commercially. If this video is any indication of where Microsoft is headed, it is definitely encouraging--and likely to be relevant to Millennials.

Millennials & iPhones: Where are the Advertisers?

The impact of the iPhone on the way Millennials communicate with each other and with commercial media is hard to overstate. Yet advertisers appear to be slow to catch on.

Here is some data for perspective:

1. iPhone users represent just 1% of the world's 2.7 Billion mobile devices, but iPhone users completely eclipse those using any other mobile device in their data use -- 95% of those who own an iphone regularly surf the Internet, and 65% of those browsing on mobile devices are using iphones.
2. Google sees 50 times the number of searches from iPhones than from any other mobile device!
3. iPhone owners are young. According to a March 2008 Rubicon study, half are under 30 and 15% are students.
4. iPhones account for up to 75 percent of the video impressions in recent advertising campaigns.
5. According to Simmons New Media Study, many consumers say they are ready for mobile advertising. Over a third of consumers who are online for at least one hour a week rate themselves as being interested in receiving ads via their mobile, provided there is a tangible incentive.

With such a young, video-enabled, advertising-tolerant target, one would think advertisers would be clamoring to develop campaigns just for Millennials and their iPhones, if not for the entire mobile market. This is in fact the opinion of Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO. He believes the iPhone will be responsible for exponential growth in the mobile advertising market:

"The iPhone was the first mobile device with a good Web browser, and more such devices will follow. Advertising will then become very personal. In a few years, mobile advertising will generate more revenue than advertising on the normal Web."

Yet from the cases available, it doesn't appear that more than a handful of advertisers -- Zagat and the Weather Channel come to mind -- share Schmidt's enthusiasm. Why aren't advertisers viewing the web-enabled mobile phone as a separate category of advertising, along with the PC, Radio and TV? I really have no idea.