Millenials, or Generation Y as they are sometime refered to, are people born between 1985 and 2001. They are a generation explosion brought on by the grown Generation X, the children of the Baby Boomers. This generation is identified primarily by their ease with technology, primarily with peer-networking.
Something Millenials have grown up with is the rapidly developing medium of video games. Video games are at a point now where they can be anything from entertainment, to broader thing like communication tools and businesses.
Millenials have grown up during an 'everyone wins' movement in sports, where you get a trophy just for participating. This is now a common feature with games. X-boxes have a'Gamer Score' awarded to players for completing specific tasks, and the Playstation 3 has 'Trophies' for the same purpose. These provide longterm proof of achievment for many gamers as these awards are on display.
A poll done in 2007 found that 90% of the young workforce listed 'fun' as one of the top five most important aspects of a workplace. Businesses are recognizing this, and many are adapting their workplace to better hold this new wave of workers, mostly in ways that cater to people with longterm goals, but with a desire for immediate reward. This structure is found in all games; A final goal with several smaller goals leading up to it.
Essentially, Millenials tend to be people with short term desire, but have an eye on some distant prize.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y
http://modite.com/blog/2007/08/07/how-video-games-can-show-us-how-to-engage-generation-y-or-anyone/
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Interesting blog, but it’s missing an important part of the equation: Generation Jones (between the Boomers and Generation X). Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten lots of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) now specifically use this term. In fact, the Associated Press' annual Trend Report chose the Rise of Generation Jones as the #1 trend of 2009. Here's a page with a good overview of recent media interest in GenJones: http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html
ReplyDeleteIt is important to distinguish between the post-WWII demographic boom in births vs. the cultural generations born during that era. Generations are a function of the common formative experiences of its members, not the fertility rates of its parents. And most analysts now see generations as getting shorter (usually 10-15 years now), partly because of the acceleration of culture. Many experts now believe it breaks down more or less this way:
DEMOGRAPHIC boom in babies: 1946-1964
Baby Boom GENERATION: 1942-1953
Generation Jones: 1954-1965
Generation X: 1966-1978
Generation Y: 1979-1993