Millennials & Digital Media
eMarketer
91% of American Millennials aged 18-34 use the Internet.
86% of them use a social network.
84% watch online video.
62% are mobile Internet users.
THOUGHT: I use the term Millennials to refer to those born roughly between 1982 and 2002 rather than the more popular moniker, Gen Y.
Calling them Gen Y implies that they are simply a younger version of Gen X, which they are not. It’s a trap marketers tend to fall into each generation because they fail to understand how generations are shaped.
Generations are not simply a group of people happen to share the same bracket of time. When we think of generations, we think of them having distinct traits and characteristics.
There’s a reason for that. Generations share common cultural and historical experiences that shape their attitudes and view of the world. Those attitudes and views in turn shape the next generation as they raise their own children.
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The GI Generation was shaped by the Great Depression and World War II; the Silent generation was shaped by World War II and the post-war prosperity that followed; Baby Boomers were shaped by the JFK assassination and the social upheaval of the 60s; Gen Xers were shaped by the Cold War, the challenger disaster, the fall of the Berlin Wall and recessions; and Millennials have been shaped by helicopter parents, 9/11, and economic distress.
The short lesson here is study the generations you’re trying to reach. I can recommend no better book on the subject of generational dynamics than Generations
MORE of my thoughts on Generations in general and Millennials in particular.
KEYWORD WEDNESDAY: Hipster America – BuzzFeed proclaims Minnesota the hippest state in the union by virtue of the fact that we search for the word “hipster” more frequently than any other state.
Far be it from this Minnesotan to disagree with any ranking putting my great state first, but allow me to play Devil’s Advocate (or, as we at the office like to call it, Mitch) for a moment: It is conceivable, is it not, that more Minnesotans search for the word Hipster because we want to know what it means?
Thank you experimentation.
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