A little backstory to this… I am taking a marketing class this fall semester of my sophomore year of college. Right now we’re looking at the generations and the character developments through each generation starting with Veterans up to the current Millennials.
The main focus has been what influence technology has had and how it has affected generations overall and in the sense of how to market to each generation. What information I gathered from this topic started my thinking into how my generation is seen with our connection to technology.
If you ask anyone from the Veteran stage through Generation Y about technological developments and how they see the current generation using it to its highest advantage, you might get some hateful comments as well as feelings of fear to where our world is heading.
If you ask my generation how they think they use technology every day, they will probably see themselves as being “tech-savvy” and developmental.
However, if you truly think about how technology is used and how many people truly understand the software and mechanics behind it all, we aren’t very tech savvy at all.
Today, kids starting at age five all the way to mid-twenties have an understanding of maneuvering their way through computer software and know how to use apps on their phones to a general degree but only a small percentage truly understand the mechanics and how to use them to their highest ability.
Older generations might view Millennials as tech-savvy if they have a higher knowledge of how to communicate through a mobile phone multiple ways or can access more applications on an iPad or tablet than to most people in older generations we can seem “tech-savvy.” However, our generation falls to the more dependent side then savvy side.
I am guilty of constantly checking my phone or walking with my nose in my phone on the way to class, but I could not tell you two facts of what is happening inside the pocket sized device. If our generation was more tech-savvy than tech-dependent, it would allow for those in school to become more interested in learning behind the scenes information starting with devices and evolving into more interests that can develop better learning skills overall.
Overall, I think it is important for not just older generations, but the Millennials, that we are not truly tech-savvy, but tech-dependent.
If we can pull traits of previous generations' appropriate use of our phones and tablets and such, then we could put forth more effort and time to a passion we have ourselves and become a true “expert” in our own field, with less reliance on media and what others are doing and using it more for communication and reaching others directly. This isn’t the impossible to separate ourselves from technology a little bit, but it does take some will power, which is something everyone is capable of.
