Technology & Gen Y: together since day 1

“I can’t walk for five minutes alone without being on my phone.”

In the beginning, there was man and there was technology. They were two distinctive things.  At first, technology was scientific - impersonal and complicated; functional and grey; raw and brutal. Today, there is little segregation between our lives on and off-line.  Technology is as habitualized in our routines as cleaning teeth and putting on make-up.  
It’s as if human anatomy has somehow been changed forever; scientists even say our brain is being rewired.  Blue tooth runs through our veins and technology is an extension of our fingertips.  This is the world that Gen Y, also known as Millennials, has grown up in.  They have only one reality. One which blends the physical with the virtual.

The technology myth

"Our generation likes to think that maybe we define technology, not the other way around."

A generational cohort is characterized by the coming of age events that shift social values and designate that group.  Much has been said about technology being the essential element that defines Gen Y.  But technological developments in and of themselves have not been life changing events for those born between 1980 and 1995.  Perpetual development and advancement of technology have been constants in their lives.  They’ve never known the world to be otherwise. 
In fact, many Millennials have told us they define how technology is evolving and being used; rather than the other way around. And, according to Pew, only 24% believe that technology makes their generation unique.  

There is no doubt, however, that the World Wide Web, developed in 1990, has influenced Gen Y’s world significantly.  As TV brought Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon into our living rooms, the Internet has virtually connected Millennials with communities and people across the globe and placed them in the center of world events as they unfold. It has given Gen Y greater perspective, access to information and the ability to place their lives and life purpose in a larger context.

A cultural tipping point
Brands and our new cultural story

Read the full piece at http://bit.ly/sOnNnZ