‘Millennials’: just a buzzword?

The Millennial generation as defined by Pew Research is anyone born between the years 1981 and 1996. In 2018, this includes everyone age 21 to 37 (That’s about the age gap between Kylie Jenner and Kim Jong-Un) this extends from people just entering the workspace to ‘adults’ with 2 kids or more.

The much-hyped label ‘Millennials’ has resulted in a blanket buzzword that is often met with derision. It brings up an image of Snapchat-happy narcissists who hate hard work and criticism but love ethical products and spending all their money on avocado toast.

Apparently, millennials are killing countless industries, here are a few from a seemingly never-ending list.

1. Napkins

2. Cereal

3. Golf

4. Motorcycles

5. Yoghurt ( especially light yoghurt)

6. Homeownership

7. Diamonds

8. Soap bars

9. Banks

For a more detailed read and more industries that have apparently been brought to their knees, read more here. Some of the other more bizarre accusations range from being afraid of doorbells, bringing about the end of churchgoing, giving up on dinner dates and loving wine but not the process of uncorking it.

In the marketing sense, it is illogical to assume that a 21-year-old and a 37-year-old consume the same media, have similar life interests or even react to the same stimulus. Understandable that “a generational name helps to start a conversation,” according to Jason Dorsey, president and lead researcher of millennials at the Centre for Generational Kinetics, a research firm that studies millennials and Generation Z. “Otherwise, we might be saying ‘twentysomething’ and ‘thirtysomething,’ which is not actually generation-specific but a demographic.

The Wall Street Journal has admitted that the term ‘Millennials’ has become a sort of snide shorthand in their reporting, Fortune has suggested dropping the title, millennials themselves hate being clubbed together and research too has shown that most resist the label.

Author and journalist, Summer Brennan, came up with an interesting idea aimed at getting people to accurately understand the term ‘millennial’. Every time you see a headline that mentions ‘millennials’, replace it with ‘adults under 40’.

If you do that for the examples stated above, ‘adults under 40′ killed the napkin/cereal/yogurt/diamond industry; ‘adults under 40’ are afraid of doorbells does sound a little absurd. It does help to take a deep breath and objectively take buzzwords out to get a real understanding. This all comes down to the way we frame conversation shapes our worldview. Specific words and phrases have the power to change minds.

A famous quote from Winston Churchill (originally describing Israel) seems to sum up the generation pretty well “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”.

On the other end of the spectrum, one of  Deloitte’s startling revelations was that media consumption behaviours of Gen  Z,  Millennials,  and  Gen X are now so similar, they nicknamed this combined group the “MilleXZials.” But that definitely needs a blog post in itself and a revamp of the way we compartmentalize and understand the world.