As the generation of millennials grows older and sets out to find careers, there is a pattern forming. Many young, hip millennials are looking for a fairly different gratification in all areas of their lives.
To one degree, this generation, my generation, is looking for fulfillment from technology. We are used to instant gratification from our phones and laptops— pages and apps load in fractions of a second. Everything we could ever think of is accessible at the click of a button or the touch of a finger. While this phenomenon is not necessarily specific to millennials, we are the generation to receive the most flack about it.
Millennials watch their parents join Facebook, learn how to use their smartphones and operate a computer fairly proficiently. However, millennials are the generation that grew up beginning to use social media and got smartphones at somewhat young ages. Therefore, older generations pin the idea that this generation specifically is one that is unable to unglue themselves from technology.
In a study by the Ball State University Center for Media Design, it was found that people ages 18 to 24 spend less time online than any other age group except those older than 65. Similarly, the biggest computer users are 25-64, especially the 25-44 subgroup. Basically, this means millennials are not as plugged in as we are accused of being.
To a related extent, millennials are looking for gratification with technology in their careers in a different way from their parents. Creative money is now the name of the game. It’s about creating startups that cross business ideas to be the “new” form of one existing field, because traditional careers paths are so early 2000s.
We see these creative careers popping up all over the country and world thanks to the ease of the Internet. Small startups and businesses tend to fester the most in cities, though. San Francisco, NYC and Chicago are all the backdrop for young, hip, millennials to live out their poorly funded, creative dreams.
These people tend to be somewhat the same— privileged enough to be able to seek this gratification for their creative thinking. As a proud millennial and gratification-seeker myself, I am not dismissing this way of thinking and living.
It is somewhat necessary to acknowledge and understand that these people are primarily privileged. Especially in large cities where poverty runs rampant, the luxury of being able to live out one’s own creative ideas as a way to earn a living is pretty significant.
Watching this generation thrive off its passions is fulfilling. They say that if you find something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. It gives hope to my technology-obsessed generation of millennials that the future of innovation and creativity is bright and ready to revive the bleak 9-5 work day.
Katelyn Martin can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.
