Millenialism

The Millenials are back in the news again. For those of you keeping track at home, the Millenials are the tech-obsessed brats to my anti-establishment angst; they're one of the big generational waves, like Gen-Xers or you aging hippies, the Boomers. (Not to get on a tangent, but you know that if you throw a Boomer off a cliff, they 'thud' just like anyone else.)

If you strip the article to its core, it points out that the twentysomething Millenials use technology to engage in nearly constant communication with a wide-circle of friends and acquaintances. They excel at group-consensus and team-based decision making. Millenials also multi-task instinctively.

If I were to pull some of my 'Global Marketing' memories from deep storage I'd call them high-context, polychronic and relationship-oriented. (And that's oriented, not orientated; I'd no sooner name somebody orientated than I would label them an octoroon.)

'Context' refers to how much of the meaning of a message is contained in the message. Low-context cultures invest their messages will all of the meaning that is intended while high-context cultures immerse their messages in a sea of allusions, metaphors and references to past interactions. (Watch some Japanese commercials: you'll see toilet cleaner ads that consist of images of sunlight, a sea breeze and a baby's smile. But I digress.)

Polychronic people multitask effectively - they'll talk on the phone, email, edit and update and slug coffee all at once. Conversely, monochronic people prefer to do those things one at a time.

Americans, and Northern Europeans in general, are historically low-context, monochronic and 'deal-oriented' with a concept of a wide personal space. Thus our traditional affinity for solitary offices, extensive legal agreements and moody alcoholism.

Millenials are, in short, different than the generations that preceded them. They seem to have much more in common, culturally, with certain Mediterranean, South American or Asian societies. This has resulted in a significant generational divide, with major differences in how we communicate and interact with other people.

Do the Millenials mark a permanent sea change in american society or will come back to the farm?

Looking back, at the time the 'Summer of Love' was heralded as being Year 1 of an entirely new way to live. Lord love rock'n'roll, open marriages, nudity and the destruction of hierarchy! ('Lord' meaning either God, the local Yogi or the chapter leader of the local Hell's Angels.) Of course, the summer eventually ended and, the majority (Tommy Chong, where are you?) left the commune, got a shave and went back to life with nothing but some fond memories and a persistent rash or two.

My money is that it'll be somewhere between the two. When the Millenials start getting married, having kids and settling down there will be a little retrenchment...after all, responsibilities suck but there you are. However, to claim that Millenials will be 'just like us' is to be blind to the reality. And then there's the young evangelicals...