Millennials or Generation Y as many refer to them represent a demographic which grew up alongside changing technology, impacting their skill set, approach to life and even the workplace. This group is essential to understanding because their growth coincides with many changes over the years making them a vital focal point.
Understanding Millennials
Millenials are identified as those born between the early 1980’s through to mid-1990s. Having become the most substantial demographic in modern society it’s important to take an analytical approach. As such the views of different media outlets and educational institutions shed light on their diverse characteristics, trends, behaviors and impacts on various areas of culture and society.
Generations Defined
There are different groups that surround Millennials including Baby Boomers who were born from 1946 to 1964. Generation X spans from 1965 to 1980 with those experiencing difficult times as children as well as young adults. Generation Z follows those born from 1997 and 2009 with them as “digital natives” which is noted as making many aspects different than generations past. And Generation Alpha those after Gen Z from 2010 -2024 who is the current youngest generation. This look gives a clearer picture on where Millennials fit in to history as one group among many different views and needs that should be understood.
Millennials and the Workforce
Millennials hold large significance as they constitute the main group currently working in all industries. As more of them become leaders they may drastically change workplace cultures.
Influence on Business
Millennials are expected to comprise up to 75% of the workforce by the year 2025 globally making their characteristics incredibly important for businesses. Due to growing up with technology they bring in an aspect of new viewpoints in workflow, leadership skills along with communication that creates new challenges for the traditional method of running operations and many times have changed their perspective in how tasks are handled in contrast to their predecessors.
Skills and Challenges
Though educated and highly skilled in using technology they have found challenges in basic “soft skills” like communication interpersonal relations , multitasking as well as emotional intelligence. Experts have noticed that with a heavy use of digital technology they have lost the abilities to perform basic tasks. Even basic life skills are areas that are more difficult for them .
The Impact of Technology on Millennials
A unique attribute of this generation is their relation with technology. Growing up at a time that technological evolution took great steps made this group very close with devices but there are some downfalls related to those habits.
Digital Native Paradox
While labelled digital natives, some studies show Millennials have a surprisingly lower level of literacy , mathematical skill along with ability to problem solve than prior generations despite always having some form of device in their hands since childhood. There was research performed showing US Millennials lack in abilities versus many international counterparts who did not grow up with same forms of tech.
Human Interaction and Emotional Intelligence
Many experts have said that over reliance on digital communication has had negative consequences, hindering many skills in making deeper connections. This dependence may affect things like basic verbal communication skills, deep relationships or conflict resolution. These new traits have now made it to be a job for companies to train new comers and all staff to understand better methods for dealing with other people face to face.
The Role of Handwriting
This also has shown up in a decline of handwriting which some may argue as being not as important while studies show how handwriting allows better cognitive and memorization in various settings that technology has difficulty accessing.
Impact on Learning
Research shows a different impact on brains while doing handwriting rather than typing and that handwriting promotes memorization. While in schools curriculums have started moving away from focusing on handwriting as digital media and devices become more common those using traditional method may benefit greatly due to brain development with memory processing that the new age has yet to see. This creates unique challenges for Gen Z and how they will work into society.
Effects on Communication
Digital communications have made it more common for using short sentences and brief slang terms that may impact overall written skills with long form essays. As tools like ChatGPT can now do these forms of writing more skills that are used to communicate uniquely must be taught.
Key Takeaways
- Millennials born between the early 80’s to mid 90’s are currently the largest group in the global workforce impacting many industries.
- These Millennials possess a strong technical aptitude yet also face many challenges with interpersonal skills and basic life task.
- The heavy reliance of digital media from an early age has created a mix of strong skills and unexpected gaps in cognitive and emotional skills.
- Handwriting a basic human action has shown to be declining due to an increase in the focus of touch screens and devices instead of pen and paper.
- As millennials become leaders it’s likely we will see new styles of business operations that reflect those differences they experienced over time.