Typically the millennial years are considered to be 1981-1996; however, sometimes the period is more loosely defined as 1980 to 2000. Born during the final decades of the millennium—hence, the name—the representatives are sometimes referred to as the generation of the Internet Age, as the internet’s official birth date falls on January 1st, 1983.
Another technology-based term that is used to describe millennials is digital natives. It applies to people who grew up in the presence of digital technology or in the information age, and millennials are considered to be the first generation of such.
“The first digital natives to enter the workforce use technology as an embedded ‘6th sense’ as opposed to a ‘tool’ like older generations,” Senior Associate Dean and Director of the BBA Program in Emory’s Goizueta Business School, Andrea Hershatter, told Bored Panda.
According to WhatIs, digital natives grew up with the technology which became fundamental to people’s social, educational, and professional lives. With millennials being the flag bearers, the generations that follow are bound to fall under the same term as well, as technology gets more deeply rooted in our everyday lives. (Statista’s data shows that the percentage of people using the internet in the US, for instance, grew from 43% back in 2000 to nearly 92% in 2023.)
That might be one of the reasons representatives of the 1981-1996 generation stand out as avid technology users. Pew Research Center revealed that more than nine-in-ten millennials are smartphone owners, and nearly as many of them (86%, to be exact) are social media users.
Growing up in the Internet Age, it is no surprise that the majority of millennials foster a positive view towards the net. Pew Research Center pointed out that as much as 73% of them agree that the internet has had a positive impact on society (compared to 63% of representatives of the Silent Generation, for instance). It also unveiled that nearly 100% of millennials use the internet nowadays.
The way millennials spend their time online differs with each individual; however, some platforms stand out as popular options among many, such as good old Facebook and YouTube. According to Ypulse, back in 2021, they were used by 75% and 72% of millennials respectively. The two were followed by Instagram (59%), Facebook Messenger (59%), Snapchat (42%), and Twitter (36%). GWI pointed out that millennials have an average of 9.2 social media accounts.
The GWI report revealed that staying up to date with current events and looking for funny or entertaining content are two of the main reasons millennials use social media. They also do it to kill time, see what their friends are up to, and share their photos and videos.
The report also pointed out that the accounts people follow on social media tend to depend on the user’s gender. When it comes to millennials, male representatives focus most on gaming bloggers, sports stores, and entrepreneurs, while their female counterparts follow beauty, food, and fitness bloggers the most.
Millennials ought to comprise quite a large chunk of internet users, considering that back in 2019, they surpassed Baby Boomers in number and became the largest living generation in the US. According to Statista, back in 2022 there were roughly 72.24 million millennials nationwide.
Also known as Generation Y, people born between 1981 and 1996 were preceded by the Greatest Generation (1901-1924), the Silent Generation (1925-1945), the Baby Boomer Generation (1946-1964), and Generation X (1965-1979). The ones that follow consist of only Generation Z (1995-2012) and Gen Alpha (2013-2025) so far.
Andrea Hershatter told Bored Panda that communication across generations differs by content, style, and modality. “The older the generation, the more verbally complex and detailed the communication, and the more ‘old school’ the mechanisms. So, from oldest to youngest, Boomers communicate most often via email with lots of words, and Gen Z is most likely to communicate in atemporal, immediate, succinct and visual modalities like TikTok. Also and obviously, cultural references differ.”
Each generation is affected by different historical circumstances, rapid change in technology and environment, and other factors. So, it’s no surprise that representatives of each one of them have not only different styles of communication, but qualities, views, or goals in life as well.
Pew Research Center analyzed how adult millennials differ compared to adults of preceding generations, which revealed that they are better educated and tend to delay or forgo marriage more than their predecessors. In addition to that, it also pointed out that representatives of Gen Y have brought more racial and ethnic diversity to American society.
According to Andrea Hershatter, millennials are the “Generation (thus far) most likely to complete college education and statistically most likely to choose a major based on career prospects (as opposed to based on meaning, fulfillment, etc.).
“They are also the generation in whom the highest percentage of their family's discretionary income was invested in education, experiences, and enrichment, thus setting up very high expectations and pressure for their future success,” she added.
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Intergenerational differences might be one of the reasons for the formation of stereotypes; and like any other generation, millennials boast a fair share of them, too. In Andrea Hershatter’s opinion, some of them could be argued, though. “They are fragile and can't deal with derailment,” she took as an example. “This is false: millennials have already proven themselves to be incredibly resilient and fully capable of reimagining and reinventing their careers and futures.”
“They are entitled and expect too much from the workplace. This is a misunderstanding. Throughout their education, including in college, millennials became accustomed to a willingness on the part of institutions to grant accommodations that would enable them to perform at their highest capacity. I personally believe that when they ask for similar concessions in the workforce they are simply seeking an environment where they can best contribute to the task at hand.
“They cannot deal with ambiguity. This is partially true. In terms of handling what life throws at them, millennials seem to be pretty comfortable with uncertainty and a reasonable amount of moving outside their comfort zones and risk-taking. However, two things are also true: 1) Their willingness to take risks is calculated against cost of failure (in a much more clearly analyzed and cautious way than it was for Gen X) and 2) They have very low tolerance for ambiguous expectations or assignments. They want to understand the explicit and implicit rules of any workplace culture and to know exactly what is needed,” the expert, Andrea Hershatter explained.