We’ve all heard it before, the whispers from our older relatives or people passing by on the street complaining about generalizations of millennials and gen Z. “They are so lazy, they are glued to their phones, they are so selfish,” they’ll say. I know when I hear statements like that it bothers me. While yes, our generation is different than baby boomers, that doesn’t make all the differences bad. I think a lot of the times people from older generations just don’t always understand all the differences and what they mean for us as a generation.
One of the first “myths” about gen Z I’d like to address is that we are always on our phones. Okay, yes, I will admit I am on my phone a lot, however not always in the way people may think and not in a way that that should invite sneers from baby boomers. Cell phones do a lot. Almost everything, in fact. So, when I am on my phone it is not always to constantly check social media and talk to my friends. I use my phone as a clock, calendar, notepad, search engine, work device, camera, and much more. However, on the topic of social media through phones, yes, I do use it for that, too, but I don’t think its necessarily a generational thing. I fall victim to occasionally scrolling through Instagram and Twitter for hours on end some days, but honestly, the time I spend on all my social media platforms combined does not rival the amount of time my grandma spends on Facebook. Even at family diners I catch her glancing at her phone more than I do. This instance is not unordinary, either. According to Forbes, “in the U.S., there are more Facebook users from the 65 and above age group than those in the 13- to 17-year-old group.”
Another common misconception about millennials and gen Z is that we don’t care about privacy. In an article by Henry Jenkins, “Millennials, New Media, and Social Change,” Jenkins chimes in stating:
It’s a bit of a myth that this current generation doesn’t care about privacy. Most contemporary research in the U.S. indicates quite the opposite – that young people are deeply concerned about privacy and control over information, but they don’t always understand the mechanisms by which their privacy is being violated and they don’t often feel that they have any means of altering trends in the society
– Henry Jenkins
It is terrifying to think about how much companies know about our personal lives. With every box checked that acknowledges that I’ve “read and agreed to terms and conditions” is me signing away my own exclusive access to my data, photos, microphone, name, etc. These are things that I have been made aware of through courses like Journalism, Social Media, and Communication. However, if I wasn’t in an of these classes, and not everyone is, I would have no idea that so much of my private data could be accessed. Additionally, even while I am aware of some of the privacy violations, it doesn’t defer me from using certain apps. I need to allow apps access to my microphone for videos, I need them to have my location for apps, I need to allow them to use my images if I want to continue using social media apps. It is not worth giving up my entire virtual life to worry about the small risk that allowing access to any of my data will actually hurt me somehow in the future. Sure, its creepy, but most millennials would agree, not detrimental.
https://tegnamarketingsolutions.com/5-myths-you-should-stop-believing-about-millennials/
Finally, I would like to look at some of the truths about media use in millennials and gen Z. As much as I hate to admit it, there is some form of truth in almost all of the “myths” about our generation. It is like stereotypes. They usually come about because a few people in a demographic act a certain way, but not everyone. There is truth in saying SOME millennials are on their phones too much, and SOME millennials are completely unconcerned about privacy. While gen Z uses social media and the internet often, we do it in ways that can be beneficial to society and help build communities. Cultural anthropologist Mimi Ito writes, “I am constantly amazed by young people’s unexpected variety of interests, subcultures, and ways of communicating and mobilizing that are supported by today’s digital media.” By offering a world at our fingertips, generation Z is pulling away from the “self-centeredness” of millennials and using the availability of connections to form community and find themselves through others.
2. Henry Jenkins, “Millennials, New Media, and Social Change,” Confessions of an Aca Fan, January 22, 2018.
1. Irfan Jafrey, “Social Media Matters for Baby Boomers,” Forbes, March 6, 2018
3. Mimi Ito, “GENERATION Z ISN’T DEFINED BY TECHNOLOGY,” Pacific Standard, May 6, 2019.
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