Love and Life

"My generation is going to be high-maintenance."

The conversation of my Generation (which is Gen Y for those of you who aren't familiar with the term are people who are ages 6-25) used to be taken with a grain of salt; until I realized how true our Generations' culture was. We are first generation to use e-mail, instant messaging (IM) (which I have always attributed my amazing typing skills to) and cell phones since childhood and adolescence.

According to a recent article:
"At 11 years old, Kate Achille had a pager for her parents to reach her when necessary. At 13, she had a cell phone. Now 22 and working for a school, she e-mails her mother as many as five times a day and calls her on the cell phone several times a week...

Many millennials may lack basic spelling and writing skills because they have come to rely on spell check (I can only think of roommates that constantly ask me, "how do you spell "definitely"?). Moreover, some millennials have become so accustomed to using IM abbreviations, such as “b/c” for “because,” that some don’t know how to spell it correctly. In addition, millennials need to learn how to conduct old-fashioned research in books and other primary sources. “It doesn’t occur to them to go to the library, but there’s a whole bunch of stuff not on the web,” says Wendover. (Soo true).

Millennial Bramlett agrees. “New college grads strongly believe all Internet information is valid, and if it’s not available on the Internet, then it doesn’t exist. This can create problems in work quality if someone is relying 100 percent on Internet resources.”


Wait...so is this a bad thing? The funny thing is, while reading this article my parents called me 3 times. When I didn't answer the first time, they called again. Coincidence? I think not. They may be hovering just a little.

(To read the full article: http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0507/0507cover.asp)