How technology defines the millennial generation

Every generation gets its label, and no single person can truly speak for a very large number of people. However, we can look through a particular lens to make inferences that prove enlightening.

You can use when you were born, in which country, in light of which historical shifts, or popular culture, to examine certain patterns of meaning.

In social theory, you’ve got the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y – or, millennials – and Generation Z.

I would like to discuss being a millennial in 2016.

Defining millennials

There is some dispute about what being a millennial actually means, but typically it refers to someone born roughly between the years 1980 to 2000, or a spread of about 20 years at the end of the twentieth century.

Millennials are sandwiched between Generation X, and Generation Z, which presents some interesting points.

What many people try to do is apply broad sweeping characteristics to each generation, which I think is wrong because you can only ever look at a particular cross-section of people. This approach will generally reflect the dominant culture in society – white, middle-class and male.

A better approach is to examine social consciousness through the view of significant cultural or historical events as one approaches adulthood.

In the modern age, adulthood is anywhere between 16 – 35.

If that sounds extreme, consider a definition of adulthood where one becomes independent of their parents. Many people in their late twenties and beyond are still being funded by their parents, whether that’s living at home or being bought their own house.

Defining moments of consciousness

My defining moments of cultural and historical experience as a British millennial have been the 9/11 terrorists attacks in New York and the invasion of Iraq.

There was the economic recession and financial crisis, election of a coalition government, and ongoing political betrayals, from expenses scandals to trebling the price of university tuition fees.

Finally, there was Brexit – the decision to leave the EU, and the collapse of government under David Cameron and the conservative party.

As a millennial, my experiences have resulted in a loss of faith in institutions, our government, distrust of the media, and a sense that I am completely on my own in the world.

The rise of the internet

I remember a world that was relatively disconnected.

As someone born in 1989, I remember my dad buying our first computer in the 1990s. I remember dial-up internet connection, and sharing the computer with my sisters. I played on websites like Neopets, Habbo Hotel, and Myspace.
I even remember going to an internet cafe.

Now I carry around a smartphone with an internet connection, and sit all day at my office computer. I am constantly connected to the internet, and the speed at which technology has infiltrated my life has been phenomenal. In just a few short years, a digital revolution has taken place.

I have grown up in a digital age, and the rise of the internet has been the most transformative force in my life.

Now, I must continually mediate between direct, concrete experience of the world in real-time, and a hyper-dramatic, spider-webbed, abstract experience of the world as presented by the media. And it’s hard to tell which one is more real.

The difference between television and internet media is the overwhelming, splintering amount of choice involved in the latter.

Seismic political shifts are reported 24/7 by the digital media. Newspapers are slowly learning that to survive the death of print, they have to manipulate our addiction to continuous connection to world events through online news.

Brexit and technology

Brexit unfolded in real-time, both as our country voted to leave the EU by walking to the ballot boxes and chatting nervously at our desks, and in our imaginations as the news media cranked out article after article – all the while, saying not very much, and often full of lies or misdirection.

And that defines the millennial generation – a demographic of society drugged by the media, fuelled by social media. Charlie Brooker puts it so well in his TV programmes Screenwipe and Newswipe, as he criticises the media’s manipulation of audiences through television.

By the media, I mean those institutions controlled by Generation X, of course. This is the same generation that taught us buying a finite number of properties should be our primary source of wealth.

They sought after big business, and inadvertently engineered the biggest financial collapse since the Great Depression. They have also corrupted politics by turning it into a sideshow of self-promotion, evasion and game-playing.

Now, that generation has played with technology like Faustus by making a deal with the devil. For short-term gain, our political leaders, members of Generation X, have succumbed to greed and self-interest and created a national crisis.

The solution to the crisis

The cause of the problem is the same as the solution. Technology has the potential to be both our downfall and our saving grace. It presents significant opportunities as well as problems.

Before we become distracted again when the smoke has cleared, we must use the societal outrage produced by the crisis of Brexit to campaign for real change. We must dig in our heels to stop the slide into apathy and delusion again.

Millennials need to see that we must not blame our parents’ generation for voting Brexit, but the people in power who have manipulated technology for their own ends.

As Marx said, religion is the opium of the people – except in our case, you can replace religion with technology.

Instead of being passive consumers of the news media through technology, we all need to become makers of technology, of media and news, to ensure that our voices are not lost in the swell.

Image: Unsplash.com