The attention and drive of people, especially young people and Millennials (born from 1980 to 2000) is said to be getting worse. It is said that Millennials (I am a Xennial as I was born between 1977 and 1984 but am often grouped with Millennials) suffer from nomophobia (fear of being without a mobile phone or WiFi) and that we lack commitment to work and are too sensitive or 'snowflakes'.
I've listened quietly and calmly to the constant 'Millennial bashing' and the apologists in their patronising 'the kids are alright' videos and articles and it got me thinking... The older generation looking down upon the new emerging generation has a long and well-worn history.
In the 18th century the novel was said to be corrupting the minds of innocents, especially young girls who it was thought were easily corruptable. Moll Flanders has a preface about this written by the author, Daniel Defoe. Later on the tabloid newspapers came along and were accused of the same thing; it's penny dreadful attention grabbing headlines drew peoples attention and was said to be worsening society, or so stated the pearl clutching older generation. In the 1940/50s Comics were said to be damaging the fabric of society and corrupting innocent minds, this led to the founding of the Comic Books Code, which only ended in 2011. Then came television, which was accused of making us mindless zombies, or Marilyn Manson was bringing Satanism to the masses… but it’s not true... none of these statements are! There is always a “moral panic” when a society experiences highly revelatory technological advances—specifically, ones which interfere with or alter our relationships with time, space, and each other.
Whenever a new piece of technology, be it books, newspapers, radio, comics or television come into being it is seen as a distraction that degrades society but it doesn't and hasn’t… until now that is. The Internet may be the game changer. App and tech creators have produced something that truly gets under our skin; the reward schedule. This is the ritual of checking your phone or apps or social media profiles to check if you've got a like, share, retweet or whatever--it produces a small dopamine hit that give us pleasure, it affects our biology and tech companies have designed their apps to maximise this. I'm not talking out of my hat, there has been research done by B.F. Skinner that unexpected 'rewards' mean that people will check more frequently and more often if they have received a reward or ‘like’ etc... These are schedules of reinforcement.
The fact that Bill Gates doesn't allow much screen time for his children, Mark Zuckerberg covers the camera on his iPad and former VP of Facebook, Chamath Palihapitiya has said that they have altered society for the worse is testament that something is going wrong with our use of technology. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, where people’s personal information was sold and then adverts and articles targeted to crate a filter bubble all point towards one thing, a fragmented and uneducated society at a time when more people are 'woke' and have access to the biggest store of information that has ever existed. Instead of nuances or balanced arguments you get the extreme views or 'hot takes' on both sides of the spectrum that get the most views, likes etc... When it's hard to be noticed when you are balanced you say the loudest shrillest thing to garnet the attention you think you deserve.
I'm all for technology, looking through my blog will show you that, but we have to prepare children (and to be honest, many adults) to be more discerning and investigative of the information they are presented with. Fake news is prevalent more than ever and we have to research and find out more about the facts, sift through the clickbait and 'truthiness' to get to the 'truth' not just things that sound true but rather objective truth. Is objective truth even possible? Well, that's a whoooole 'nother ballgame. We need a counter-culture but a real counter-culture, not one manufactured by the industry. When Richard Branson gets on his band wagon about climate change yet he owns a train and airline company, he sounds insincere and yes, a little psychotic.
We need to adapt and as we adopt the new technology, we know it's there and what it's doing to us so we need to adapt our behaviour accordingly, me, I'm hoping to put the phone down between 6 and 8:30 to spend quality time with my wife and daughters and then use 8:30 to 9:30pm as social media/ blog update/ catchup on Watsapp time.
‘Night in the Woods’ looks at the myriad of issues Millennials face rather eloquently.
So this brings us to the Millennial Question? Are they 'woke' snowflakes with poor concentration and a lack of drive? No, and the reason is down to one major thing: economics. Specifically the recession of 2008, which was a key ‘anchor moment’ - moments that may have a long-term and lasting impact. The fallout from this financial crisis has had a huge impact as most Millennials can't afford to get on the housing market, get pay rises or even save with the hope of buying in the future. There is a gig economy, which over 5 million people in the UK are in. Whilst it offers flexibility it doesn't have perks like pensions, pay rises due to a job well done etc... Through no fault of their own they've had to adapt.
They don't trust CEO’s who many see as still receiving bonuses even when everyone else suffers, for the most egregious example look no further than Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, who even after a record breaking year for the company, made 900 staff members redundant whilst giving himself a huge pay bonus and the shareholders a large dividend.
For many Millennial there’s no hope of getting on the property ladder or getting a pay-rise in real world terms, so many are multi-tasking, taking on more than 1 main job, in fact 19% of Millennial have 2 or more jobs and this is set to rise. In fact, as a whole 57% of the 13 million households living in poverty in the UK have at least one person working in a job- they are the working poor.
So there you have it, Millennial aren't entitled or lazy (although some are, but give me a generation which doesn't have a few of those) but they are swimming against a current that they have no chance of beating. The old Protestant Work Ethic of 'Work sets you free' is no longer applicable in many cases, for those who do want to go to work but have children the prohibitive cost of childcare makes it financially unfeasible to go back to or find work. Those who can find work find that there is very little chance of saving for the future and live hand to mouth often.
The media will tell you its benefit scroungers with multiple kids who are screwing the system but I can say that as a part of a teaching couple with over 30 years experience between us, the cost of childcare for our two children means we can't afford it- and we have lived frugally. Now in a traditionally 'middle class' job and well regarded profession such as education that can't be right, and we live well within our means.
Anyways, as a Xennial I have to say, the situation is not clear cut, very few things are so can people stop reducing arguments back to basics, it’s unedifying.
As for the upcoming election, I’ll just leave this here.