People around the world, no matter their generation, have always heard in their youth how older generations criticize the new ones. Typical phrases such “I used to be more responsible when I was your age”, “When I was young like you, I wouldn’t even imagine having all this stuff…” and so on, and so on. It’s not really that the new generations are disappointing or found wanting to previous ones, it’s just nostalgia talking. Anyway, if it were in fact true that new generations were worse than previous ones, progress and evolution would be impossible. So, don’t pay attention to older generations saying you’re not filling in their shoes, it’s just human nature to say so.
Furthermore, this particular generation of ours has marked an even bigger misunderstanding between the previous ones and us: millennial, Facebook generation or plain Generation Y. All previous generations feel as if this particular one is lazy, unemployed and utterly unproductive. That may seem so since mainly there has been a major change in lifestyle. For older generations, fun was separate from work. Today, these have come together to result in -yes, believe it or no- MORE productivity. How is this possible? Well, according to a whole bunch of research gathered in a single article in the New York Times, here are the main reasons:
While at work, the millennial will check Facebook, Twitter and any other technological gadget not only to take a tiny break now and then, but to stay connected. I’ve often talked about crow-sourcing: this is major team work with a big network of people. If you happen to have a question about work, tweet it or post it on your wall, you’ll have an answer in no time. And even if it’s not work related, you’ll keep yourself happy and thoroughly productive instead of feeling down or plain sick about your work day. Thus, having breaks actually make you MORE productive. Just look at Google’s campus. All that fun? Turns out that Google is indeed the tech King and the most valuable brand out there.
People work with music and/or ear buds. Why? It is not to isolate yourself from the rest, but to be motivated all the time. Just like when you go out for a run, you play your favorite music to keep the pace in your run. Same thing applies to work. (I know THAT for sure)
Unlike any other generation, we are the ones with the most team work hours penciled in on the chart. Why? Because just like crowd sourcing, it makes things quicker, easier and more accurate. “No man is an island” indeed. Cooperation leads people to a greater goal faster, than just focusing on self benefit. Plus, it adds up to happy hours in your life while you get to share things with other. Human beings are social beings, why bring them down from that?
In short, Generation Y has raised grade point average from 2.54 to 3.11 in less than 50 years, all because of greater access to information and other people. We may not do things just like older generations, but that’s just it. It’s because we changed the approach that we have more free time, and more production. Fancy, eh? Now imagine what will the next generations do. May be they’ll swoop in and take our jobs (that’s the general fear) may be there will too be a different approach. But with new generations, new changes come. What are today’s toddlers up to? Have you seen them handle an iPhone or a netbook? Watch out!
