Who are the Millennials – Part 1

by Maria Pineda 21 March 2017

I remember a decade ago when I started doing my own research to profile a generation of university students in Manila that had been accustomed to the push-pull modality of getting information. It seemed premature then of what is the right label for them. I encountered then the researches of Edward Dieterle (and Chris Dede and Karen Schrier) that I decided to adopt the term “millennials”. My Swede friend and colleague at some point was in a similar study and was caught between the labels “digital natives” and “digital migrants”. So after doing related studies on this cohort of individuals, I can comfortably talk about them.

Many teachers are still in confusion when we talk of the millennials even here in Vietnam or in the region. So I am making this post to shed more insight on this topic.

Millennials are the individuals born after 1980 up to 1999. These persons had very early exposure to different media even at age 0. While in the wombs of their mothers, they had heard music or sound from the stereo or the television. Most of them at the age of 8 would have exposure to mobile technologies such as Nintendo, Gameboy, a music player like the Sony Walkman or Sony Discman. Most of them would have used a Nokia or Motorola mobile phone too.

They grew up with the privilege of having access to a desktop computer and later their computers hooked up to the internet. This meant growing up exposed to a variety of conversation formats such as the email, the yahoo messenger, the e-groups, Friendster or Myspace, early versions of Blackboard and Moodle. These circumstances also gave rise to the word “friending“.

So when Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Skype were born between 2000-2010, assimilation to these social media was natural for the millennials. They don’t have a dysfunctional or confusing view of what is online and offline. Both of these modalities are true realities for them. Expressing themselves using different convo formats are the same.

It is very much unlike to individuals who were born from the 1960s to 1979. These individuals sometimes get confused on the virtual norm of communications. On many occasions, they perceive it as a separate or different world, more of a pseudo-reality. But along the way, for those who continued to be adept on technologies and continued to assimilate, they were able to adapt to this online reality.

Photo shows Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak with the millennial executives at the ASEAN CEO Summit in Kuala Lumpur, held last Feb. 2015.

Going back on the topic of millennials, these individuals who are very comfortable with using technologies, have developed skills such as “self-service learning“. Self-service learning is the term I have used back in 2009 when I uncovered how these individuals would push or pull information anytime, anywhere, just as they need it. The technological environment permitted it. The presence of the pioneer websites such as Howstuffworks.com or About.com or Youtube complemented the self-service learning styles of the millennials.

So inevitably, this self-service learning style evolved into a more empowered digitally influenced do-it-yourself (DIY) learning style. Apart from the ability to find the information they need, they are able to perform efficient and/or effective searching and studying or learning new things on their own. Along the way, in the process of getting their information or learning on their own or having an online convo, acquainting themselves or friending somebody is not difficult or extraordinary. It is again, natural for them.

There are many studies about the millennials even as they have reached their 20s. My interactions with them proved that– they need to be challenged or be exposed to new learning situations. Five years after their first job, they would have landed to two or three jobs. They are continuously involved in the technological developments. Their situation that provided many information and a great deal of knowledge at their disposal made them more cognitively analytical.

So I hope this article would help the teachers and academics in our region. As a teacher, you should be in the position to profile them and not to make judgment and assumptions based on your world-view.

Who are the Millennials – Part 2 Introducing the Google Generation

Who are the Millennials – Part 2

Introducing the Google Generation

by Maria Pineda 21 March 2017

Continuing the discussion on the Millennials, there is a need to look at the profile of the pre-Millennials and the post-Millennial.

Those who were born around World War II until 1959 are considered the Baby Boomers. The term baby boomer was used in America to refer to a stage of recovery after the war and most people were optimistic in their views of raising a family. It was a period when most individuals decide to marry earlier at the same that the economy was becoming stronger and stable.

So those who were born around 1940s-1959 are considered Baby Boomers. From 1960-1979, they are considered as the Generation X. Those who were born from 1980-1999 are the Millennials and some call it the Generation Y. But as I mention in my earlier article, I prefer to call them millennials.

 

IMO, the millennials and the post-millennials are very different from the earlier generations because they grew up having immensely influenced by computing and technologies in their day-to-day routine and communications, in their schooling, in their personal interests, in their jobs or profession. Technology is at every fabric of their lives, online or offline.

The decade of 2000 until 2010 may be considered as the tipping point of the internet.This was when Web 2.0 was introduced by Tim O’Reilly. Web 2.0 was intended to turn around the way of doing business on the internet. The turnaround went beyond commerce and made an impact to all types of industries. It was a rebirth for the internet or most comfortably labeled now as the web.

The decade also witnessed the birth of Google, Youtube, Twitter, Wikipedia, and Facebook.

Hence, post-Millennial generation, some call it Generation Z or Post-Millennials, I label them as the Google Generation or the G-generation, those individuals who were born from 2000 and beyond or maybe until 2019. They were born in the same decade when  Web 2.0 became a tipping point. 

Image source: Supreet Jossan Slideshare, https://www.slideshare.net/supreetjossan/strategic-management-google-case

So why not call them the “Web generation”? Can be.. but I prefer to call them the Google Generation or the G-Generation. It was in 2000 when Google became the world’s largest search engine and it is still continuously growing. Google links every web application and every piece of information available that Google has become the postmodern demigod and everyone depends on it.

As Google has become globally needed, let me profile the G-Generation.

These individuals grew up with the web at their fingertips. At the age of 3, they can operate the computer or the laptop by being accustomed to the icons of the applications. The icon-based interface works well with them.

At the age of 4 or 5, even before they can read well, they can access online games. If “friending” was advanced by the millennials, “gaming” came forth to a web of progression and evolution. Every G-gen would have an affiliation to two or three games at a given stage of her or his life. This situation warranted to advance the computer gaming industry.

At the age of 8, they can search game cheat codes. This means their intelligent search capabilities are more advanced than the millennials.

At the same time, their exposure to all kinds of digital media and technologies and new facets of multimedia make them multi-sensory skilled. If the appropriate schooling methods are provided, they do not have issues dealing with multi-function tasks in the future.

The G-Gen does not require a learning phase to use online learning resources or a learning management system. They grew up with a web-connected environment wherein the resources are organized and prepared and they can talk ubiquitously to their peers, teachers or mentors.

This is a partial profiling and is based on my observations as an academic of being exposed to university students for many years.