The "Millennials"

The Millennials -- 

So much changing in our society from the work force to family structure and technology. We hear of the changes in our youth, the adjustments to upbringing and generally how things are different today.  This is an echo of past generations, but it is more pronounced today for good reason. The way our children learn and experience, the mentors in their lives and the tools of technology have changed the paradigm. There has been a resulting change of authority and influences and with it behavior. Every generation has this adjustment but this one in particular has seen the influence of the family structure and technology as particularly instrumental.

To some extent this has created a virtual replacement of voids left by many of the legacy figures of authority. Now movie stars and athletes are viewed by many as living dream lives and the limelight is viewed with some degree of jealousy and envy. Media has transformed many in public lives as authorities with no experience, knowledge or even wisdom. Teachers and parents still have a profound impact as well, but the result is an unusual distrust of many in authority. Confirmation and support of peers has an increasing influence on the young as the mass channels now create the information flow and promote conformity.

With this morphing of guidance and influences, one of the inevitable results is an acceptance of lower thresholds of results and expectations. Virtualization has caused less direct influence of teachers, mentors and parents. Lack of proximity and time comes less accountability. Increasingly as a society we are willing to accept a “cheaper” product due to price or materials or a job not done to specs but “close enough”. Skilled craftsmen in so many trades have simply gone. The results are that discipline and adherence to detail have suffered and accountability as well. “Taking ownership” is increasingly a deferred behavior. It is not conscious but as a result of societal shifts it is an unintended consequence.

Digestion of Information in the 21st Century

Digestion of information in the 21^st Century-- 

It is quite remarkable to think that only a decade or two ago a thank you note was sent via the mail system. Even more mind boggling is the disappearance of the public phone. Progress has taken so many forms and the media industry is probably the most profound. The mediums of communication have changed so dramatically in a half generation and rarely do we stop to recognize how the baby went out with the bath water.

Newspapers, magazines and television created a measured digestion of news for multiple generations. Still these mediums were changes only developed in the last two centuries. The media could produce news in a comprehensive manner and the user could digest news at their own pace. Literally (sorry for the pun) both production and intake thru these conduits is digested at measured rates. As social media has proliferated, both production and velocity of information and receipt has become exaggerated and more anonymous. The sheer volume increase caused is changing attention spans globally. Now a pen and a fact is morphed to the internet and an opinion. Mobility has increased velocity taking the spread of information to staggering levels. There is simply no way to digest information anymore without changing filters. Filters differ due to biases and experience. Thus the new world of social media creates the Trump/Sanders phenomenon. Headlines become dominant, facts become increasingly scarce and attention spans shorten. The mediums of news for those growing up without legacy news sources is dominated by 142 character bursts. In some cases, authorship is not even known. In other cases, the author has no expertise or experience but opinion is the sole content.

The social media phenomenon allows for opinion and news to be driven by authors with no consistent agenda. The audience can go viral with no notice. To some this is their nemesis. To others their intent. It acts as a megaphone for opinion that previously was not available and limited to smaller social circles. It is both an efficient system and an abused system. It has changed communication eternally. Communications skills developed solely in this era and younger generations are dramatically impacted. Conflict resolution and dealing with contrasting opinion is filtered totally differently. Filters are now established totally differently, shutting out selected forums totally and creating an impatience and intolerance of differing opinions.  

Social media and its inherent universality is in the fourth inning in a game destined to go extra innings. It will change politics, social norms and blur cultural lines at a faster pace than ever before. Hopefully facts won’t be totally lost and our digestion of information will allow us to cut thru all the chatter and develop filters for this new age. Another result of unintended consequences of enhanced technology on our lives.      

Information Overload

Information Overload --

With all the changes in technology today, a major influence in society is mobile and information access. The flow of information has changed our culture in the last two decades. Phones, laptop computers as well as digital mediums progressing throughout the world are revolutionizing the speed with which everything occurs.  Communication cannot be compared any longer to past practices. The concept of the pony express less than 150 years ago or the fax and hard wired telephones just 20 years ago as industry standards are hard to conceptualize.

With this progress of the velocity of information flow, there has to be a recognition that the human mind simply cannot digest information the way we did in the past. Attention spans with such an increase in input have shortened. The filters of information flow have had to adapt to the mediums delivering such greater volume. The result is a search for better ways to comprehend and manage information.

The channels we use with computers and mobile devices today are dominated by media and now social media connections. Broadcasters of the last century have morphed to media channels of the 21st century and now simple mobility gives anybody with a device the means to broadcast. This effects both volume and quality. The combination results in a competition for mind share primarily influenced by speed and sensationalism. Lead-ins of all mediums are targeted to shortened attention spans.

These trends of volume of information flow, expanded access and shortened attention spans, have led to a blurring of the need for factual content and the speed to access and being first to publish. Facts have increasing become irrelevant and the loudest voice become more prevalent. Manipulation and bias changes the filters as sources become blurred. Society has now reached such “Google” proportions that sources of information are lost in search only to be replaced by first to market and search prioritization. Facts matter less. Simplification to 142 characters and first in search rules the informational world. Unintended consequences of increased technology and changes in media.

Education Paradigm Shifts

Education Paradigm Shifts --

Originally the education systems of the world were structured for the elite. It created an opportunity for an exclusive group to think, strategize and explore. Mass education came about as a result of the industrial revolution and the need for more skilled craftsmen. The education industry thus was tied to a basic educational mix to broadly prepare the population for basic literacy and math skills, to onboard immigrants and to teach common language and to integrate cultural history and values.

In the 1960’s educational institutions went thru a variety of changes as generational values adjusted to cultural changes. An unpopular war, increasing influence of pop culture and a coincidental drug and “liberal” ideology fundamentally changed the “campus” definition. Faculty tenure systems became prevalent and politics came out of the closet. There were many social changes from women entering the workforce in greater volume to the Great Society social programs. Campuses became the hot bed for open and diverse discussion of issues. Concurrent with the “open” culture there was an attraction to the career academic for many of those with an ideology of pushing back against violations of personal freedoms from human rights to legalization of drugs to a wartime draft. A career in academia (staying in school) gave both a respite from the draft as well as an audience for non-conforming ideas and freedom of speech.

This changed the world of academia. Tenure and other employment strategies created a lack of accountability among other results. This was not an overnight phenomenon. By the turn of the century this renaissance in academia did not any longer address the needs of a technologically changed employer appetite. Skill sets were no longer matching many employer needs. Increasingly the need for ‘greater education” was necessary. The value of a college degree was increasingly the ticket to greater opportunity and increased compensation. The problem was the skill sets learned in college increasingly were a mismatch for employers’ needs. Combined with increasing two earner households (see last blog repercussions) more people were graduating with degrees. There was an increasing lack of accountability of universities to adjust their curriculum to employer needs. The perseverance of faculty to adhere to traditional academia prevailed. Concurrent government policy of financial aid and access programs made college demand accelerate and tuition costs skyrocket.

Today over 80% of employers feel students do not possess the skills needed for career entry. Over 90% of academic leaders feel students are prepared for careers (The Lumina Foundation). Only 22% of students feel they are prepared. To say there is a disconnect is an understatement. Colleges are trying to ramp up career service programs and best practices. The problem is the lack of accountability to change. Colleges are rewarded on pushing student to graduate. No matter what the financial cost the incentive is not career placement. The education industry is in conflict of whether career preparation trumps” academic integrity”. There is an ideological disconnect with parents and students paying for their” ticket” in the college degree and campuses not accountable to successful job placement. There is a monumental need to change this paradigm of unintentional consequences.   

Changing Family Dynamics

Changing Family Dynamics --

In the last generations, first out of wartime necessity and subsequently as women found increasing parity and opportunity, we have become a society where 60% of households have dual earners. Interestingly, in 40% of these households the woman is the leading earner and increasingly the more educated. This trend had led to a change in family roles and combined with a 50%+ divorce rate increasingly undefined and non-traditional roles in the household. After multiple generations of consistency, the family unit has restructured with no clear model.

This has certainly opened many new doors and created higher family incomes. Concurrent with this rise over the last few decades of family wealth, has come a significant increase of debt as well a new blend of roles for mothers, fathers, other family members and support structures. Parents spending 40 hours away from children modifies the father's role and redefines motherhood. In many regions there are social consequences both spoken and unspoken.

Under any measurement, for decades this trend allowed for more homes and cars to be bought and a generally higher standard of living. As veterans returned from the World Wars to "improve society for the next generation," the baby boomers worked specifically to make life easier for their children and the family unit. Family activities with more limited parent availability moved to increased concentration of family time spent focused on the children. Increased media exposure to previously nonpublic stories of child molestation in churches to teen kidnapping and gang involvement (just to name a few threats amplified by media attention) has led to increased supervision and control by parents. Increasing fuel to this trend is the guilt by both parents torn between their breadwinner role and their parental responsibility. Although, frequently defined as issues of one gender or the other, the result is a change in roles in the household and behavior changes.

The family dinner is increasingly impacted as time limitations don't allow for food prep and increasingly children activities are concentrated into parental available times in the evening and weekends. Time management becomes conflicting. Role management results in guilt. The family dinner becomes take out and parental time is increasingly spent behind the steering wheel, not looking their children in the eye.

This has changed discipline. This has changed conflict management as parents want to solve their children's problems. Parents don't want to be the disciplinarian and have their children resent their authority. For generations these roles were clear. Right or wrong roles were defined in a family unit. Today responsibility is less defined, roles are fuzzy and single parenting increasingly a commonality. Unintended consequences.  

Mobility in Technology

Our mission at TrustNavigator is to bring a life launching experience to our youth as they prepare to enter employment in the work force. So much has changed in recent generations. This blog will look at the cultural changes in our society that have led to new expectations of our youth and an increasing disconnect this creates with employers and educational institutions.  The lack of accountability concurrent with some of these changes is causing a profound change in the way many of our institutions operate today.  The result is unintended consequences.

There is no doubt that technology progress has changed every facet of our society. The momentum of these paradigm shifts has impacted labor markets and world trade in every way. The result has created many positive results and allowed societies throughout the world to benefit as well as gain access to products and services.

The progress has also led to society shifts that are not necessarily planned and where the repercussions are subtler. With the best of intents mobility in technology access parallels the enormous supply in information flow. We now have instantaneous search and access. We simply don’t have to remember facts we can easily Google.

It has changed our knowledge basis, and with the broadness of access and sources comes volume. With the volume comes a need to shorten “the story”. Inevitably by shortening the message, we eliminate facts and the emphasis becomes the headline. An insatiable appetite to sensationalize titles grabs attention and feeds social media growth. That attention (not necessarily for profit) now motivates much of all our media, deemphasizes fact and gives everybody a potential audience.   

Is it any wonder why a 142-character appetite is now all most of our youth can digest? No prior generations grew up with this information overload. Reading newspapers or access to only 3 television networks controlled the input for the last two generations acting to filter and slow the flow. Today we all are learning the effects of technology and mobility in our communication. It is different and will have major changes in world cultures. Unintended consequences.