Millennials And Technology

The Tethered Generation, written by Kathryn Tyler, a self-identified member of Generation X, published this article in HR Magazine, a magazine for HR Professionals. In this piece, Tyler elaborates on what she believes to be the most dependent generation to exist: Millennials. A “frequent contributor” to the publication as a freelance writer, she has quite the background in human resources and training, which reflects in the style of this particular article. In the beginning Tyler discusses the effect that tethering to technology, peers, and parents has had on this generation. Towards the end, she writes a sort of “how to” guide on dealing with those effects in the workforce, and how to make the transition into the workplace for those individuals (and other employees) as smooth as possible. Her thesis is evident in the beginning of the article. Tyler argues that because millennials are too attached to technology and dependent on other people that are close to them (like parents and peers), they lack the skills and traits that previous generations possessed, as well as autonomy, and in the process created an epidemic of very overbearing parents that may be too concerned and involved in the life of their children, which could be detrimental to the new young adult’s development of their professional life. This rhetorical analysis is going to dissect the writer’s use of logos, pathos, and ethos in her argument.

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle,” says the great Martin Luther King Jr. In the book To Kill a MockingBird by Harper Lee we see similar struggle that Dr. King battled. Atticus Finch is the only one in the small town of Maycomb willing to admit an african american might not actually be to blame. It was Atticus and Tom Roberson against Maycomb. Throughout Atticus’ interaction with the people of Maycomb he shows people the truth about equality and helped with racism. In the end we learn that it takes courage and a hard shell to beat racism, and breaking down a barrier of society can put a lot of struggle and challenge on one person.

Technology is the inevitable force that is sweeping countries, and taking millennials with it. Simon Sinek states that “adolescents are becoming addicted to social media. Social media itself is not bad, but the imbalance is. Like all addictions, being addicted to social media will ruin relationships, it’ll cost time, and cost money.” Not to mention, using technology too much and not interacting with others face-to-face is depriving adolescents of important relationship skills that are essential inside and out of a job. Electronic usage itself is not bad, but using too much of it is, as with anything else. As Ray Bradbury points out in The Veldt, “Too much of anything is not good for

As generations go by, our predecessors assume we are skipping out on important aspects of life just to get a few extra minutes on our devices. In Catherine Rampell’s “A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much”, it is said the older generations believe Generation Y is “coddled, disrespectful, narcissistic, and impatient” (Rampell 388). In all reality our generation is just doing what it has to in order to thrive in the world we live in, where technology is one of the largest parts of our everyday lives. If the older generations that criticize Generation Y had grown up in Generation Y they would realize the world we live in requires the use of technology. The advancement of society with technology has shaped Generation Y to be the people that they are, relying on technology; however, older generations believe Generation Y is lazy.

As he assures, “I am about to do what old people have done throughout history: call those younger than me lazy, entitled, selfish and shallow” (Stein 28). By using words with such negative connotation, Joel Stein diminishes his focal point of explaining the ways millennials are helping society. Their laziness, among other negative traits, is passionately justified rather than balanced with his optimistic

Youngsters, nowadays, are tech savvy or computer literate. Adults call these youngsters the “Millennials”. Millennials grew up with what technology can offer like personal computers, gadgets , and the internet. Positive and negative effects, advantage , and disadvantages will always be present.

Millennials are categorized in many differ ways. Some people believe Millennials are lazy and narcissistic while other people believe they are more open-minded confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and receptive to new ideas and ways of living. This starts different disputes between individuals. For example, Hasan Piker argues Simon Sinek statements made in the video, “On Millennials in the Workplace.” Sinek uses his motivational speaking skills to persuade the audience that Millennials, people reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century, are catered to and entitled. He uses four examples that back up his reasoning: parenting, technology, impatience, and environment. In contrast, Piker responds differently, believing that Millennials work for their status. Piker argues Sinek’s views about Millennials in the video “Young Turks on Millennials.” Both Sinek and Piker use different rhetorical strategies to entertain and persuade their audience about Millennials.

Growing up, most Millennials butt heads with their parents like every generation before us. Although a vast majority of Millennials have generation X parents. Growing up as a Millennial, technology became more advanced which seems to be the root of the disliking for us from every generation before us. Our parents are “America 's neglected middle child” and we the Millennials are the future of today. We excel with technology, but struggle with our income, causing us to push back commitments other generations would have already done. Millennials want access not ownership. A growing percent of us are putting off buying houses, marriage, children, and buying cars. Being so technologically advanced we look for convenience over hard work, even in our purchases, “57% of Millennials who compare prices in stores. (AIMIA Inc. “Born this Way: US Millennial Loyalty Survey” ©2012)” Online purchases are happening more than ever, with taking in the factor of good quality and prices. “Millennials have come of age during a time of technological change, globalization and economic disruption. That’s given them a different set of behaviors and experiences than their parents (© 2016 Goldman Sachs).” As I explore the differences and similarities of our two generations I will be discussing power distance, uncertainty avoidance, in group collectivism, institutional collectivism, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, performance orientation, future orientation, and humane orientation.

Secondly, Sinek explains that millennials have suffered disadvantages resulting from the older generations advancements in technology. He does this by analyzation of the impact which technology has on Millennials. According to Sinek, “An entire generation now has access to an addictive, numbing chemical called dopamine, through cell phones and social media, while they are going through the high stress of adolescence (Sinek, 2016.)” In making this comment, Sinek puts into perspective just how highly addictive technology and social media really is. He explains that just like highly addictive drugs, the use of these devices releases dopamine. In other words, acceptance on social media makes you feel good. By putting this into perspective, Sinek urges his

The author of the book The Dumbest Generation is concerned over young Americans and what the digital age is doing to them. Throughout the book he cites many percentages of young Americans who are dropping out of high school and college and he blames the digital era for it. The author loves the idea of traditional values and routine and he believes that due to the amount of technology that is rising, it is killing off those core values that students need in order to grow and stay productive. He also claims that younger adults abuse their time, and their priorities compared to the older generation have changed significantly. The reasons that he gives because of these changes are due to the digital media and the advances of technology that have gone up quickly within a few years. This results in adolescent teenagers who are abusing their time over the web. Instead of trying to study and learn they are on Facebook and other social networks.

Across the nation, people are talking about the Millennial generation and how different they are compared to others, but are they really that different? Millennials are lazy, entitled, and selfish, or as you may have heard may be essential to the modern workplace, either way, they are being talked about whether it is good or bad. To put it in other words, past generations are concerned for what the future will look like with this technology-dependent generation, but is that a bad thing if the technology is only going to advance from here on out? The older generation is being too harsh or are they just genuinely concerned about the future? Joel Stein (2013) has written an article about the Millennials, it is titled Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation he argues for them being a selfish generation but by saying that it is not a bad thing. The second article is by Liz Zarka (2017) Generation Me: The Millennial Generation’s obsession with being unique, she argues that they are the generation that needs to be concerned for. After reading both of these articles I agree with some of the points that both of these authors make, however, there are also some sections that I disagree with. My perception of the situation is that millennials may have all these negative characteristics but use them to an advantage that no other generation can has; along with the advancement of technology and the use of social media may have increased the narcissistic trait in them, but they use these traits to get what they want, however, being narcissistic isn’t always good there can certainly be some disadvantages.

In “Millennials in the workplace”, Simon Sineks shows his empathetic and humorous side in his interview, describing Millennials in general, but pin points to the ones in the work force today. He does this by showing behind the scenes as to why Millennials are the way they are. He states his four main points of “Parenting, technology, impatient, and environment” (Sineks, interview, 2017, time). What Simon Sineks states throughout the interview is totally relatable to me as a millennial, I could see myself in action from my habits by the many scenarios he explains. So yes, I agree with his main points as to why Millennials is the way they are, but having two out of his four being a part of the cause more than the others. Technology and environment are huge in having children not fully develop their best possible selves. To understand this better you have to consider the individual who live in third world countries compared to the US. When Sineks gives his main point’s his purpose is to give it to anyone who uses their cell phones and social media. Many can accuse millenniums of this habit because yes, we are always on our phones, however, this could also be in effect on generation X.

Sinek says that there are four reasons why Millennials have such a selfish attitude. The first point he gives out is parenting. Parents made millennials feel really important and special. He says that millennials can obtain everything they want because their parents spoil them too much. Simon Sinek states, “You take this group of people and they graduate and they get a job and they’re thrust into the real world and in an instant they find out they are not special, their mom’s can’t get them a promotion, that you get nothing for coming in last and by the way you can’t just have it because you want it. In an instant their entire self image is shattered.” (Sinek, 2016) Sineks point is that parents make their children feel empowered but then then they start work and realise that they can not always get what they want. The next point he makes is technology. Millennials these days are caught up on their phone with a lot of different social media accounts. Sinek observes that millennials use social media to hide the fact that they are actually empty inside. He agrees that technology is very addicting and it makes them feel good. Sinek says, “An entire generation now has access to an addictive, numbing chemical called dopamine, through cellphones and social media, while they are going through the high stress of adolescence. “ (Sinek 2016) He makes it clear that millennials aren't able to handle their feelings because instead of getting help from people, they turn to their technology. Millennials depend too much on their devices and always rely on them for almost every single task. The third thing that affects this

The next example Simon uses is that when millennials are exposed to technology it’s as if they have been given alcohol. Simon quotes the following “In a 2012 study, Harvard research scientists reported that talking about oneself through social media activates a pleasure sensation in the brain usually associated with food, money and sex.”(2017, 3:22) In this quote, it explains the effects of dopamine associated with other things that release dopamine. Then he explains that this hormone is associated with gambling, smoking, and drinking and argues how there are age restrictions for gambling, smoking, and drinking but there aren 't any restrictions for social media and cell phones. Then he states the following “Which is the equivalent of opening up the liquor cabinet and saying to our teenagers ‘hey by the way if this adolescence thing gets you down - help yourself.’”(Sinek, 2017). This I can relate to by a lot because, since smoking, drinking, and gambling are addicting things so can social media, cell phones and other technological

How can millennials balance the need for technology and avoid the physical and psychological effects caused by the overuse of technology? There is not a simple answer for this.