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+, Samir Kasim

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The word "addiction" brings to mind alcohol and drugs. Yet, over the past 20 years, a new type of addiction has emerged: addiction to social media. It may not cause physical harms, such as those caused by tobacco and alcohol, but it has the potential to cause long-term damage to our emotions, behaviour and relationships.

While the older generation - those born in the baby boom period shortly after World War II - had alcohol and drugs as their vice, the younger generation - the so-called millenials - have social media as theirs. The millennials, born between 1984 and 2005, have embraced the digital age, using technology to relax and interact with others. Social media is a big deal for them; it is a lifeline to the outside world.

Although people of all ages use social media, it is more harmful for younger users than it is for older people.

All consuming

Addiction may seem a bit of a strong word to use in the context of social media, but addiction refers to any behaviour that is pleasurable and is the only reason to get through the day. Everything else pales into insignificance. Millennials may not get liver damage or lung cancer from social media, but it can be damaging nonetheless.

The harm lies in their change in behaviour. Their addiction means spending increasing amount of time online to produce the same pleasurable effect, and it means social media is the main activity they engage in above all others. It also means taking away attention from other tasks, experiencing unpleasant feelings from reducing or stopping interaction with social media and restarting the activity very soon after stopping completely.

We should also be concerned about the effect of social media on sleep and doing less "offline", such as making time for work responsibilities and direct face-to-face social interaction. It has also been linked to depression and loneliness, both of which may be the cause or the effect of social media addiction.

Millennials report compulsively checking social network proﬁles and updates. They can make riskier decisions and be open to online exploitation. They often mistakenly believe that, if things go wrong, they will get help from their online community, even if this community consists of relative strangers.

Ollyy/Shutterstock

Lacking self-reflection

Most of us rely partly on the ability to reflect on our thinking, feeling and behaving to form our own self-image. The problem with social media is that self-image relies mainly on others and their opinions. A recent study found higher narcissism (an exaggerated self-image of intelligence, academic reputation or attractiveness) in millennial college students, compared with previous generations. This does not bode well for a society where self-reflection is key to making informed and balanced decisions.

The digital age has changed the nature of addictions in millennials, who have replaced one maladaptive behaviour with another. Social media certainly looks as if it has replaced alcohol as a way of social interaction with others. It is perhaps no surprise that, over the past ten years, there has been a 20% rise in the proportion of 16 to 24-year-olds who are teetotal. Ten years ago it was 17%. It is now 24%. Spending time online now seems more desirable than spending time in a pub with friends.

There is no recognised treatment for social media addiction. Although we are starting to become aware of the problem, there is no classification of social media addiction as a mental disorder in the same way as substance misuse. If we want this to happen, there needs to be a clearer definition of the symptoms and progression over time. We will need to answer some key questions, such as: does it run in families? Are there blood tests that can distinguish it from other mental disorders? And will it respond to drugs or psychological therapies? We still have more questions than answers.

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Social media is as harmful as alcohol and drugs for millennials

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The word "addiction" brings to mind alcohol and drugs. Yet, over the past 20 years, a new type of addiction has emerged: addiction to social media. It may not cause physical harms, such as those caused by tobacco and alcohol, but it has the potential to cause long-term damage to our emotions, behaviour and relationships.

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Growing up with technology: the millennial's changing business - Brintia

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Millennials start and end the day with technology. They have grown up in an artificial world, in a time of rapid and unexpected change where the future is a question mark and the constant use of digital devices is normal

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https://www.matrixres.com/blog/millennials-technology-good-bad-and-awkward

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Millennials + Technology: The Good, the Bad and the Awkward

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Lily Van discusses the mix of millennials and technology in the workplace.

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How Are Tech-Savvy Millennials Shaping The Workplace? -

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Millennials are largely considered to be the most tech-savvy generation in today's workplace. This group of people born between 1981 to 1997 grew up with technology. Technology continues to play a huge role in their daily lives, and they do not expect the workplace to be any different.

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https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/amid-the-march-of-technology/article24541938.ece/amp/

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https://www.bentley.edu/prepared/is-social-media-making-millennials-stupid

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Social media is everything these days. It's rare to see someone not have a least one form of social media platform that they are using. When it comes to millennials, this is our life (for most I should say). Millennials use social media constantly throughout the day. Whether it is for their job, for fun or to connect with people. In today's world you are seeing more and more people addicted to social media. When I say addicted I mean it would be very difficult for one to not look at their social media throughtout the day. You check it even if you just checked it a couple minutes ago. We don't really think about that we might actually be addicted to it, but it's so easy to do and I'm hear to tell you why millennials are addicted to social media.

1. We love to share, inspire and entertain

Our generation: we enjoy to share our lives with friends and family. We love to inspire others with the things we do in life. We love to entertain by what we post, what we do and who we are. We are in a world where we love to show everyone what we are doing. Even if its on Facebook and sharing what restaurant we are at. We love to share our lives with people.

We express who we are through photos, posts, shares, retweets, and stories. Whether that is posting a selfie in our favorite outfit or posting a picture hiking up Mount Everest. It doesn't matter what we post we are expressing our personality and identity for everyone to see.

3. We want to show off the things we are doing

We want people to know that we are doing something fun or doing something that others would want to do. We want people to know that have a fun life, even if it's just a 'normal' life. We enjoy sharing things that we do, but sometimes we do things just to post it on social media. Which sounds kind of silly, but our generation wants people to know that we have a fun and interesting life.

4. We get excited and feel good when we receive comments

This is not only millennials, but everyone loves to get comments on something they are proud of or something they enjoy. When posting a photo we check our phones constantly seeing how many likes we get or what comments we are getting. We love when someone compliments us. We need to feel secure in ourselves, so it reassures our self-esteem when people comment or complement our posts. Which is not healthy, we should feel good about ourselves regardless of what we are posting on social media.

5. We 'like' to connect with people and build relationships

When we like other people's posts we want them to notice or want them to know what we enjoy what they are posting. Getting their attention is a way of connecting with that person. It is also a great way to gesture friends or family. We are a generation of building relationships. We want to have many relationships and a lot of people that we can call our "friends" or someone that we know.

6. We are afraid of missing out on information

We don't like missing out on seeing things that people are doing. Whether it is someone famous or a friend or even someone that we don't know, but we want to know. We check our media platforms constantly thoughtout the day to see if someone has posted something fun and interesting. We enjoy seeing what our friends and others are doing in their lives.

7. We envy someone who ''has it all"

We look up to people and envy people that have more than us or quote one quote 'has it all.' We see that person that has over a thousand or a million followers and want to be just like them. We try to mimic things they do to be like them. That is not only with social media, but with clothing, lifestyle, you name it. When you envy someone or want be like a particular person. You do things that they do. We often times obsess over trying to be like someone else. We need to be our own person.

8. We love to be inspired and entertained

A lot of times we love being entertained by others and love when we see fun and things that spark our interest. We are also a generation that has big dreams and aspirations. We want to be inspired, we follow people that we look up to and drive to do things to get us where they are.

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8 Reasons Why Millennials Are Addicted to Social Media

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Social media is everything these days. It's rare to see someone not have a least one form of social media platform that they are using. When it comes to millennials, this is our life (for most I should say). Millennials use social media constantly throughout the day.

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He said when most people think of the term millennials, they think of affluent, educated young people. But there is also a big pool of less wealthy, less educated young adults who are struggling to find their path in a world that is increasingly reliant on technology.

That world has fewer well-paying, low-skill jobs their parents and grandparents held, and millennials may well have seen people in their family lose a job to technological change.

( Read More: Searching for the Next Great Start-Up at Colleges)

At the same time, they have seen that some of the world's wealthiest and most successful people, such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, got there by being at the forefront of technology.

Howe said some of the youngest people also may not be getting access to the right kind of technology to help them get ahead. He said some experts have now started talking about a "reverse digital divide," in which kids from less educated and affluent families spend more time doing things like playing video games, while kids from more educated and wealthy families are being exposed to more educational technology and other developmentally appropriate activities.

Kristen Purcell, director of research for the Pew Internet and American Life Project, found a similar disparity by income when she surveyed advanced placement and National Writing Project teachers about access to technology and learning.

The survey found that teachers in the lowest income schools were least likely to say that their students had access to necessary technology, either in the classroom or at home.

In addition, more than eight in 10 of the teachers said they thought technology was leading to greater disparity between affluent and disadvantaged schools.

( Read More: Millennials Want to Donate, Save the World, Really)

Purcell said it stands to reason that such a disparity would persist as those students got older and entered the working world.

"We've consistently found in our research on technology use, just in general among adults, that yes millennials are heavy tech users. They lead the way. They've always lead the way," Purcell said. "But there are still income differences. ... Usually (it's) the most educated, most affluent adults who are leading the way in technology adoption."
- By CNBC's Allison Linn. Reach her by email or follow her on Twitter, @AllisonDLinn.

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Millennials See Technology's Benefits, Dark Side

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A survey found that 83 percent of millennials said technology makes it easier to get a job, and 69 percent said it creates more opportunities for all. But 62 percent said the advent of technology has widened the gap between rich and poor.

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Your Technology Use Is Making You Stupid-Here's How

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We love our technology! It makes life easier and helps us work smarter, right? Um, durr, uhh, actually, they really, really don't.

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In the recent years, we have seen a vast enhancement in the field of technology. It has become an important part of our lives. With the introduction of Smartphones, no one seems to be unaware of technology.

There have been speculations that technology has resulted in social isolation. This is not the case always. Things are sometimes different from what they appear.

According to a Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey, which polled 2,512 adults, the dawn of new technology and the Internet has not caused people to withdraw from society. In fact, the study found that "the extent of social isolation has hardly changed since 1985, contrary to concerns that the prevalence of severe isolation has tripled since then."

Instruments that enable interaction in ways that just weren't possible before, connecting us with people all around the world, via Twitter, instant messaging or other services. People say that if you want to interact with people, you should interact with the ones around you, and that is probably true on certain occasions. Except for that, should be able to interact with whomever they please without being judged by people for using a smartphone to do so.

Let's not fool ourselves. People, in general, do not like to interact with strangers in these contexts. The picture above clearly explains the point. It was the time when smartphones were far from existing; they just used another object instead, like a newspaper.

The diversity of people's core networks also tends to be wider for IT-friendly individuals, according to a survey.

Social networks tend to be 25 percent larger among mobile phone users than non-users, 15 percent wider for basic Internet users and even larger for frequent Internet users, instant messengers and those sharing photos online.

Internet users were as likely as anyone else to visit their neighbours and take part in local community activities, the results showed.

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Stop Saying Technology is Causing Social Isolation - Peep India

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In the recent years, we have seen a vast enhancement in the field of technology. It has become an important part of our lives. With the introduction of Smartphones, no one seems to be unaware of technology. There have been speculations that technology has resulted in social isolation.

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About a month ago, a friend sent me an article by Sandy Hingston, from Philadelphia magazine called, "Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?" The main point of the article will be familiar to anyone old enough to remember non-ironic disco and to not really know, or care, who Lady Gaga is: Kids these days!

But Hingston isn't just griping; she's concerned at what these technocreatures are missing in old-fashioned pleasure. Like the pleasure of reading The Great Gatsby, rather than watching the movie (while updating one's Twitter account every twenty seconds, no doubt). I recommend you read the entire article, but this final paragraph will give you a sense of where she's coming from:
In our rush to respond to the chime, the chirp, the bouncing icon, in our eagerness to prove ourselves multitaskers par excellence, in our willingness to sit alone at home and count our "friends," ironically enough, we're overlooking solitude's real advantage: the opportunity it provides to develop what essayist Sven Birkerts describes in The Gutenberg Elegies as "our inwardness, our self-reflectiveness, our orientation to the unknown." In other words: a soul.
And, of course, to bring that solitude-cultivated soul into play with other people.

I forwarded the article along to a few friends, including Thomas Finsterbusch, a young guy I met recently who seems to be a glaring counter-example to everything Hingston decries in her article. He's very smart, thoughtful, reads books (including Sex at Dawn-smart dude!), knows how to interact with other human beings and, when we met for a beer a few weeks ago, didn't look at his cell phone even once. But Thomas is no hippie Luddite. He's fully plugged-in to the technological world Hingston fears is corroding the brains of America's youth. He's working on his Ph.D. in Computer Science, in fact.

Here's Thomas' response to the article, and my response to him (posted with his permission). If our dialogue continues, I'll post further installments here. Meanwhile, let us know what you think about this. Is there something to worry about, or are the young-uns just being young-uns?

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Chris,

I hear what she's worried about, and I share a lot of the same concerns. However, one of the fundamental assumptions she's making is that a "real-life" connection or activity is inherently more worthwhile than a "virtual" one. At first blush I would agree: of course having beers with a buddy in a bar is richer than sending an SMS to a friend. But digging deeper, I struggle to really defend this hunch. A few thoughts:

* if you view the human brain as a pure input/output machinery, then is there a real distinction between light waves bouncing off a flying bird and light waves being emitted from an LED TV depicting that very same scene? Is one better or more real than the other?

* I have some issues with Kurzweil's writings, but his description of blending the human brain with computer technology will definitely happen, in my opinion. We're already using technology to enhance vision (glasses) and hearing (hearing aids), and it's not that much of a stretch that we'll be able to enhance our cognition as well. Yet I'm positive we'll see the usual Luddites who decry the ability to instantaneously upload new knowledge (say, the Spanish language or the complete chronology of WWII) and instead insist that it's much more "natural", thus better, to do it the old-fashioned way: repeating things over and over again until it finally sticks in your brain. Never mind that this is horribly inefficient.

* people seem to confuse genuineness with amount of effort expended. Is my email any less valuable than a hand-written letter, just because it's not written with ink on tree pulp and arrives in less than a second? By that logic, the most sincere and worthwhile form of expressing yourself is to chisel your message into a tablet of rock.

* regarding the short attention spans: I've never been more deeply concentrated on a single activity than during intense 10 hour computer gaming sessions when I was a teenager.

But the article's "our next generation is a mess, we're all doomed" vibe also reminds me of this quote:

"Our youthnow love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers."

- Socrates, 400 BC

Thomas

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Thomas,

So in defending the corruption of today's youth, you quote Socrates, who was condemned to death for corrupting the youth of his day? Talk about a sympathetic witness!

Seriously, you raise some fascinating issues here (which is why I'm milking it for a blog post). In fact, I suspect Socrates will come back to bite you on this one, as Plato's parable of the cave (in which Socrates plays a major role) is probably the best expression of the role of technology in the lives of many young people today. Quoting Wikipedia:
Socrates describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.
The distinction between "light waves being emitted from an LED TV" depicting a bird in flight and an actual bird in flight seems to be like that between shadows on a wall and reality. One is a depiction of reality while the other is "real" and exists whether or not it is perceived by the input/output machinery of the brain.

Of course, this requires me to say what I mean by "reality."

I think it was William Gibson who said, "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't disappear." To paraphrase, Reality is that which doesn't cease to exist if the lights go out. A bird in the bush, in other words, is worth a whole flock of them on TV.

While I admire the audacity leading you to question whether there's really any qualitative difference between a depiction of something and the thing itself, I'm gonna have to go with reality on this one. After all, in theory, at least, you could throw a rock at a bird in flight and end up with dinner. If you do the same with your "bird," you'll just end up with a broken TV. Even when the placebo works, it's still a placebo.

* I'm with you on uploading languages. The sooner, the better. As you say, we're already using technology to enhance our bodies in many ways, ranging from hearing aids to breast implants to knee replacements. Why not implant a language? Just last week, I saw that there's already something along these lines for the iPhone: the Word Lens.

* You ask, "Is my email any less valuable than a hand-written letter, just because it's not written with ink on tree pulp and arrives in less than a second? By that logic, the most sincere and worthwhile form of expressing yourself is to chisel your message into a tablet of rock."

Yes, I think emails are inherently less valuable that the same message written on paper, although I can't help feeling I'm on less solid ground here. (And there's a reason tombstones are made of granite.) For me, it's partly a function of the time required. I can tell you, when it took me an hour to write a letter and then go stand in the post office to send it off, I wrote far fewer letters than I do emails today. I'm not saying life was better, necessarily, but that I paid more attention to each letter and was more selective about who I wrote to. It would be meaningless for me to go back to writing paper-and-envelope letters now because the world has changed and my refusal to accommodate those changes would have no effect.

Similarly, I often think about the first time I went to India in the late '80s. I took a portable short-wave radio with me, so I could tune into the BBC or Voice of America at night and hear some news from my side of the world. Once a month or so, I'd go to a call center at the post office of a big city and try to reserve a line to call my parents in America. It took hours and the connection was horrible, but for better or worse, it made me feel very far away. Now, I go to India and take my laptop and/or iPhone and I'm in constant contact with whomever, wherever, whenever ... whatever.

My point isn't just that my experience has changed. After all, I could take a steamship to India (theoretically) and leave my computer at home. But India has changed radically in the twenty years since I first visited, so my choosing to engage with it in some old-fashioned way won't change my experience of the place.

* At 48, I've felt the erosion of my own attention span as I've become more and more plugged into the shadows on the cave wall. If I'm not careful, I spend so much time tending my little Facebook and Twitter gardens, keeping up with my RSS feeds, and trying to respond to emails, that I don't "do" anything at all! I sometimes find myself semi-consciously wishing I could fast-forward through the less fascinating parts of life, the way I automatically look for the instant-replay when I'm watching live sports in the stadium-only to be reminded, disappointingly, that real life offers no instant-replay.

Nicholas Carr put it well in his recent piece in The Atlantic, Is Google Making Us Stupid?:
[Media] supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.
I can't help feeling that the more I fast-forward through my life, the shorter it becomes. I've gone through this acceleration in my 30s and 40s. I wonder how short life must be for people born into this rushing stream. I wonder about why depression is the malady of our age, why suicide rates keep climbing, why life itself seems to be too much trouble for more and more young people. The shadows on the wall may seem like real life, but they don't nourish, and leave too many of us empty and hopeless.

CPR

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Is Technology Making Young People Stupid?

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About a month ago, a friend sent me an article by Sandy Hingston, from Philadelphia magazine called, "Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid?" The main point of the article will be familiar to anyone old enough to remember non-ironic disco and to not really know, or care, who Lady Gaga is: Kids these days!

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It's 2017, and it's nearly impossible to do anything without the use of technology. You can talk to people who are miles away, you can pay bills and manage bank accounts. But is the use of technology decreasing person to person interaction with each other?

An article in New York Times written by the founder of an online dating site www.datemyschool.com summed up the problem of his generation by saying that, "People in the 21st century are alone. We have so many new ways of communicating, yet we are so alone."

Instead of meeting someone in person and hanging out with them more, people tend to text or use smartphones to talk to people.

Technology makes you more alone because we are always depending on our phones and other technology; when you start to get too attached to your technology, you start to compare your life with the lives of others, and you just yourself with the amount likes and followers someone else has.

And being lonely is a big deal. Research revealed that being lonely is even more dangerous to your health than being overweight. Loneliness can increase your risk of dying by 26%.

According to T he I ndependent, "Recent research indicates that this may be the next biggest public health issue on par with obesity and substance abuse."

Technology is great if you use it correctly with a certain limit, if you don't it's going to tear your life apart if you become too attached to it. We are more focused on talking to someone thousands of miles away rather than someone who is right next to you.

When you use technology constantly it makes it harder for you to interact with people in real life. The more time you spent on your phones and tv the harder it will be for you to interact and talk to people. Research has shown that people who have lots of friends tend to be happier, healthier and they live longer than the ones who don't have many or any friends in real life.

Many people build relationships online and for a while they won't feel lonely but over time you will feel frustrated because you can't interact with the other person face to face.

You scroll through your Instagram in silence when you're in the car with your family. You text your friend instead of meeting them in person. It's easier for you to make friends virtually than in real life. This shows how attached we are to technology.

Being too focused on a screen makes you forget the difference between being alone and being lonely. Technology negatively influences our social interaction, it makes people more socially awkward and lonely.

In fact a study by greater good suggests that "smartphone use may be taking a toll on our biological capacity to connect with other people."

Technology is affecting our society in a negative way, but that doesn't mean that we are going to stop using technology, it has come to stay. But it is up to you to decide how much we let technology dominate our lives. At the end its always our decision if you want to see the world through a screen or your own eyes.

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It's 2017, and it's nearly impossible to do anything without the use of technology. You can talk to people who are miles away, you can pay bills and manage bank accounts. But is the use of technology decreasing person to person interaction with each other? An article in New York Times written by the founder...

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JavaScript is disabled on your browser. Please enable JavaScript to use all the features on this page.

Highlights

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Technology has affected how millennials will lead and expect to be led in organisations.

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Millennials want to be taught both about authentic and autocratic leadership.

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Millennials want to be taught lessons in class as close to real life as possible.

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Millennials believe in the power of motivation.

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Some millennials are concerned with their motivation levels and want to keep them high.

Abstract

Millennials interact with technology like no other generation before them and this is affecting how they want to be taught in higher education and how they want to lead and expect to be led in organizations, after graduating. Though stating that they want to be enlightened in academia, some qualitative comments from millennials indicate the opposite, namely that they want to be prepared but also to be kept naïve as to what business really entails. This is expected to help keep motivation levels high, as motivation is seen to be the key element to success in life. Millennials expect also to be led authentically and to be treated as valued human beings. This is in contrast to the current autocratic leadership profile found predominantly in Portuguese organizations, at the time of writing. This study had a sample of one hundred and eleven millennial students who answered a survey on attitudes towards leadership and their desired approach to higher education. Three interviews with seasoned executives were also performed, to establish a contrast and see other perspectives.

With this research, we conclude that we may be in the presence of a hard working millennial generation, contrary to previous research findings which has indicated that they are lazy. Finally, information technology (IT) is a precious partner in class, in particular Padlet.com, Moodle, and online News Forums, as well as the challenge to create original videos about course content. Future research should focus on how technology has made society more transparent with employees wanting more democratic leaders in times when hierarchies are seen to hinder rather than aid productivity levels.

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The social impact of technology on millennials and consequences for higher education and leadership

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JavaScript is disabled on your browser. Please enable JavaScript to use all the features on this page. * Technology has affected how millennials will lead and expect to be led in organisations. * Millennials want to be taught both about authentic and autocratic leadership.

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Millennials and their romance with technology

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The world can sometimes feel as if its pretty annoyed about millennials. A quick Google search will return over 400,000 articles on the annoyance of people born roughly between the late '70's and early '90s .

The blowback is understandable: we are on the cusp of magnificent societal change. Humanity is closing a chapter of our story that focused on a century of industrial prosperity. We are now in the first few pages of a chapter that will propel us deeper into a digital-centric and ever connected global civilization, and that rapid transformation is feared by many. Change is difficult and overwhelming to grasp, and it results in bitterness between the people that got us here and the people who will carry the torch forward.

One place where this friction has been most visible is in the workplace. The slowed transition of older workers into retirement has resulted in a culture clash. You've got two generations vying for the same prosperity, but conflict over how to share the opportunity.

Let's take a look at some annoying arguments that are frequently thrown at millennials, and what's really going on behind those comments:
1. "You should have gotten a degree that actually pays"
It's incredibly unfair to force the population onto one school of thought. What would the world be if everyone was a banker? What would the world be if everyone was a lawyer? We embrace diversity because different schools of thought result in a collage of ideas that slowly move us forward. We failed ourselves when we hammered in the idea that all degrees should correlate directly to a line of work. And although that may apply to technical fields--engineering, medicine, and other sciences--not everyone is cut out for that subject matter. There's still plenty of work to be done on the part of academic institutions, governments, and companies to refocus how to attract young people into STEM streams . Liberal arts degrees have just as much purpose in the world , but institutions have to do a better job at training students to navigate a job market that may need their skills, but not necessarily one associated directly to the accreditation earned at school. A philosophy degree may not result in work as a philosopher, but there are soft skills students can transfer into other streams of service or knowledge oriented work--we just have to show them what those skills are and how to use them.
2. "Young workers are entitled"
Every successive generation has encountered an entitlement problem. It's what happens when we progress because the hard work of the previous generation results in prosperity for the next. Throughout history, technology has enabled us and made us wealthier. The lives of our parents were remarkably different from our grandparents, and their parents before them . To gripe at the prosperity we hoped for contradicts our desire of wanting a better life for others. Do young workers expect more? Absolutely. But we are all responsible for the attitudes and mindsets that have resulted from an abundance of convenience. In addition, overall cost of living continues to rise, even though wages stagnate . The safety nets, legislation, and organizations that were constructed two or three generations ago worked well for a time when economic transformation was less dynamic. Those programs and policies are outdated for the current economic climate, where decades of transformation can now take place in a handful of years. Our social services have not yet caught up or transformed to the reality of today's workforce environment ; and because the system has been slow to change, young workers are saddled with figuring out what their safety net will be when they can no longer work.
3. "Millennials hop from job-to-job"
Economic transformation takes place in much faster cycles than ever before and that transformation forces businesses in all sectors to constantly reinvent in order to survive. It's a challenging environment that hits workers hard. As a result, younger workers no longer see a viable path to employment that lasts in one organization for the entirety of their working lives. Perhaps we will see certain environments where the workforce can move up in a single organization, but the"decade" long notion of a professional career is over. Older generations are hanging around the workplace longer (again, because of economic needs), which means that young workers are less likely to be promoted into the roles being held by incumbent workers. Rather than wait it out for people to leave, young workers see better opportunities in other organizations (especially if it means they can get a pay bump). The rise of casual work is just the beginning of workplace flexibility, but the concept still has to be improved if we want individuals to ensure regular employment and a decent living while moving from gig to gig. If you're going to argue that young workers aren't loyal, you might want to also think about the neglect they feel in the workplace .
4. "Young workers are lazy"
If you're going to argue that today's workers are lazy, then you're probably ignoring the fact that all of us know someone (young or old) that is lazy. Do young workers have access to technology that makes life less arduous? Yes. The current generation enjoys far more convenience at the tap of a button. But that's what we all dreamed about in our science fiction novels and world fairs, didn't we? The other reality is that we are increasingly moving away from menial or manual labour and toward a service economy . We may not be using our hands as often, but we are still using our minds. And where we once toiled in the fields and mines and factories as our only source of viable work, we now toil away in massive corporate campuses in front of bright screens. If you think knowledge work has made us lazy, look to the cultures of South Korea , India, or Japan where workers across all age spectrums are overworked and overwhelmed. Now, the onset of automation will rid the economy of millions of jobs, and that reality has brought back to the limelight almost five centuries of thought on never having to work again . So if you thought young people are lazy, history is a good indicator that we've been trying to do as little as possible for a long time.
5. "Millennials are know it alls"
When the printing press was created back in 1440, the world was thrusted into a whole new generation of know-it-alls. Millennials still remember a time when research and fact finding meant spending hours at the local library navigating rows of books and periodicals. The invention of the Internet catapulted our ability to absorb knowledge even faster. Access to information ever at the swipe of a screen has made us more informed, but it's also meant that we have become radicalized in our perspectives and opinions to the point that we ignore facts and context (hence this post). So do young people think they know more and better than previous generations? Yes and no. Every young ambitious person is eager to show off and prove that they bring value to the table. That brash "I can do it attitude" evolves as experience sets in, and great leaders will harness that energy and mentor new generations . Younger generations will always question the underlying habits and structures of the cultures they move into, especially in the workplace. Let's use that perspective to transform work environments for the better and ask ourselves "why?".
Cross-generational grief
Look at those common grievances again, and you notice that with historical context, the arguments could be transposed to any succeeding generation. At the end of the day, no generation is perfect. These growing pains are normal for any society that faces such large scale change especially in smaller and rapid cycles. If we can accept that we've been fighting these same battles with each other over how we conduct work for hundreds of years, then we can move on from the friction and start working on solutions that create value for everyone.
Want to collaborate on the next generation of employment? Add yourself to my Future of Work list Continue the conversation with me here: @kaviguppta. here.

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5 Annoying Arguments About Millennials In The Workforce

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The world can sometimes feel as if its pretty annoyed about millennials. A quick Google search will return over 400,000 articles on the annoyance of people born roughly between the late '70's and early '90s . The blowback is understandable: we are on the cusp of magnificent societal change.

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During the past month, several individuals sent me the YouTube video of Simon Sinek discussing Millennials in the workplace. The interview is conducted by Inside Quest. The first time I watched it, I thought there were some valid points, but other elements didn't sit well. After watching it several times, it became more clear that Simon Sinek got many things wrong about Millennials.

What Simon Sinek Got Right about Millennials

Before delving into what Simon Sinek got wrong about Millennials, the thing he got right is there is broader context to this generation. Many societal and technological trends impact this generation. Parenting approaches changed. Social media and digital devices emerged quickly. Each of these elements change people and how they live and work.

I would add in several other contextual elements. Millennials entered the workforce during one of the most challenging economic times since the Great Depression. Corporate and leadership trust continues to decline, and Millennials saw the impact of this on their parents through layoffs and corporate greed.

Context matters, especially as it shapes society and each generation.

What Simon Sinek Got Wrong about Millennials

Surprisingly, many of Simon Sinek's comments are big generalizations including:

Millennial traits: Lower self-esteem, highly self-absorbed, narcissist, and entitled

Social media addictions

Imbalanced relationships

Job hopping, lack of patience

He often says "through no fault of their own." After several repetitions, Simon Sinek's rhetoric becomes condescending. Let's look at each key area.

Millennial Traits: Self-Esteem, Narcissism, Entitlement, and Self-Absorption

Millennials are self-critical, more than other generations. As a Guardian article points out, "Millennials 'stand out in their willingness to ascribe negative stereotypes to their own generation' the study said. The older the group, the more positively they saw themselves, the Pew study found."

Part of the reasoning can be that Millennials have accepted what Boomers and Generation Xers have been saying negatively about them. Another view can be they are more self-aware. The reality is likely in between the two.

All of these topics are difficult to nail down in any definitive way. Even narcissism carries different definitions, and the generational trends are unclear. According to the American Psychiatric Association, only one percent of the population would meet the textbook definition of narcissism. The surveys done are unreliable, leaving much up to interpretation.

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a professor of psychology at Clark University, states that it is "incredibly unfair to call Millennials narcissistic, or to say they're more so than previous generations." The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) attempts to measure narcissism, yet the results leave a lot up for interpretation. "For example, does agreement with statements like 'I am assertive' or 'I wish I were more assertive' measure narcissism, self-esteem, or leadership?"

The point is that generalizations can lead to inappropriate and inaccurate conclusions.

Social Media Addictions

Social media did not exist during the early years of a Boomer or Generation Xer. Mobile digital devices did not either. Today new technology trends and impacts exist, and digital devices are always on and ready. A fact evident as various generations participate in Facebook, Twitter, and other social channels.

Do we need to unplug? Yes. Do we need to prohibit digital devices from meetings? Absolutely. The same goes for the dinner table.

Millennials are more familiar with digital devices and social channels than older generations. No different than other emerging technologies during the 1970s, for example. One study puts the digital device usage as:

Millennials - 77 percent

Generation Xers - 60 percent

Boomers - 42 percent

These percentages probably have changed since the survey.

As for the added social element, time may change how many hours are spent on social media. Millennials get it, maybe because of their inclination to be self-critical, and they are unplugging. Millennials are even leading other generations in unplugging during vacations. In a survey conducted by Intel Security, "49% of American millennials said they were 'willing to unplug on vacation,' but only 37% of people between the ages of 40 and 50 were willing to do so." With mindfulness adoption and effectiveness, I expect to see more unplugging and smarter use of social media.

One final point. Let's remember how social media is changing other interactions, including how and where purchases are made and how customer support is requested and received. We are going to be more active on social media because of how the platforms build B2B and B2C interactions and community. All the more reason to be mindful in our usage but also view and understand the use of social media as more than spurious friendships or dopamine addictions.

Imbalanced Relationships

Is Facebook making Millennials depressed? Essentially, this is the question. Again, the data is not definitive.

"Ethan Kross, the director of the Emotion & Self Control Lab at the University of Michigan, who has co-authored several papers about Facebook, says the early research was 'all over the place' as to whether using the site boosted or depressed a person's mental state."

The survey many focus on is this: "University of Pittsburgh researchers surveyed 1,787 U.S. adults, ages 19 through 32, and found three times the incidence of depression among the most active users of sites like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit than among those who used them the least."

However, the study does not say that Facebook causes depression. As acknowledged by the University of Pittsburgh researchers, "It may be that people who already are depressed are turning to social media to fill a void."

Can extreme use of social media cause problems such as depression? The answer is yes. Most extreme uses of virtually anything can produce problems.

We need to develop real life relationships in our families, workplaces, and communities. A fact we need to act upon. Social media can help make some of these connections, but it cannot be our only connection. Again, a fact for Millennials, just as it is a fact for other generations. If most of our relationships are online, then we have a problem. We need in-person relationships to develop our compassion, empathy, and other social leadership skills.

As a side note, I see this today in Millennials. They want to connect with people in the communities in which they live. They are getting involved in charitable activities, industry groups, meetups, and other activities outside of work. We need to encourage and support these activities across the generations.

Millennial Job Hopping

Should Millennials be patient? Yes, but being patient is not waiting your turn. Being patient means doing the work to solve problems, collaborate on plans, and convert plans to action. Do Millennials change jobs? Of course. When I was a 20-something, I changed jobs. I had more than four job changes before 32. No different than a Millennial today.

Some of the Millennial surveys on job hopping border on the ridiculous. I remember one that had a 50+ percentage of Millennials changing jobs between 18 and 24. Think about it. Between 18 and 24, individuals are in college or trade school, and they are changing jobs - internships, summer employment, etc.

For me, the most relevant missed element is the economic crisis many Millennials faced coming into the workplace. To this day, many Millennials have a long way to go to make up for the economic impact of lower paying jobs, unfulfilling jobs, and unavailable jobs. If a Millennial takes a new job because of a decent pay raise and a better culture, of course they will take it. Most people would.

What may keep one at their current workplace is a supportive, challenging boss, trustworthy leadership, and an activating culture. Let's measure how many of these organizations exist for Millennials.

Many statistics exist. If you want to use one, use this: "49% of millennials in our research say they would like to stay with an organization for more than 10 years." Ten years cannot be considered job hopping.

The Millennial Point

Simon Sinek does good work, and he has helped change leadership for the better. I guess it surprised me that he fell into vague generalizations. I know it is easy to do, and some may say I did the same thing in my above points.

What I know is we need to let this generation develop. I dislike the negative comments made by "leaders" about Millennials. The fact remains - Millennials are the next generation of leaders. Boomers and Generation Xers will not live forever. Instead of degrading a generation, let's support and challenge them. More than this, let's have a meaningful two-way conversation. Let's be open to learn and grow, no matter our generation.

The other thing I know is the data will change. Millennials are still a relatively young generation. Many are in their late twenties and early thirties now. As more Millennials age, the data will change with them, just as it has with other generations. Sharing what older generations learned through traditional and contemporary means is important. Sharing what younger generations learn through new societal and technological changes is important, too. In the middle, we find lessons to learn and mindsets to shift.

We should be concerned about the future of our leadership talent, but we need to do it in a way to set higher standards and goals. I hope the Millennial sense of purpose is real, and I see it often in my interactions with them. The challenge for older generations is to find ways to encourage and protect this sense of purpose. If we do, Millennials will be a great generation, and we can all be proud of our role in developing this generation.

My Millennial point is simple. Let's make fewer generalizations and engage in more meaningful conversations between generations.

What actions and conversations are you having to guide and challenge the next generation of leaders?

What are you learning from the younger generations?

What are you learning from older generations?

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What Simon Sinek Got Wrong about Millennials in the Workplace

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During the past month, several individuals sent me the YouTube video of Simon Sinek discussing Millennials in the workplace. The interview is conducted by Inside Quest. The first time I watched it, I thought there were some valid points, but other elements didn't sit well.

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Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace