Why is the millennial generation so comfortable with social networks?
Ask the Millennial Generation how long have they have been
socializing via the Internet and social networks and many will account being active on social networks since the boom of MYSPACE. MYSPACE is now considered to be back in the day when many of us were in our preteens.
So how is it that our generation is so comfortable with the Internet when it was at its heighten point many of its driving consumers were not even old enough to access sites without parental guidance. SIMPLE, MYSPACE’s brilliant marketing team realized the dangers associated with the Internet and social networking interaction. MYSPACE marketed itself as a place for friends, allowing kids to be comfortable, making a page private so that only their friends could see if they chose to while giving parents as well as the Millennial’s themselves a bargaining point as we now had the power to control who saw our personal life via social a network. Thus, also only allowing people we trusted to view our lives via what we posted; even allowing us to rank and display our top friends. Allow me not to get carried away, sure many adults were already heavily surfing the Internet via dating sites, but what MYSPACE did was kill the stigma that it was taboo or too dangerous for pre-teens and teenagers to socialize via social networks. Secondly, they welcomed the older generation to MYSPACE as a way to advertise business, to reconnect with lost friends and relatives. Now that parents were on social media sites they could now “monitor” their child’s activity, which was often not the case.
Why are millennials so comfortable exposing personal aspects of their livesvia social networks?
Simply put, we were the generation that erased a lot of the fear about
social networks, we made interaction through social networks the norm much like the cell phone boom in the 90s. At one point it was foreign to have a cell phone, but today if you don’t have a cell phone you are considered strange or even obsolete. Today if you don’t have a Facebook or Instagram you’re considered obsolete. I feel the Internet boom personally has as much to do with societies changing and evolving of social norms as it does with the Millennial Generation. Just to think how comfortable Americans are with an occasional casual drink when prohibition was not even a 100 years ago.
How has social networks and media outlets such as Instagram, Vine,
WorldStarHipHop, amongst others effected the image of urban America in
today’s society?
Social networks such as these have been positive in the urban community in the sense that it gives young urban kids who otherwise wouldn’t have a voice an outlet to society. The negative aspect of this is that many of these young teens and preteens have not fully grasped the concept of self- image in society and post things that can be detrimental to their further advancement in society. Many employers and universities have begun to inquire about your social network sites and the things that potential applicants or employees are projecting about themselves via social media platforms. Which leads me to my next question why isn’t there an age limit for membership on social network sites? There is one on everything else society deems incomprehensible for pre-teens and teenagers such as driving, alcohol consumption and voting. So why is social networks so different? Surely if they are not old enough to consciously vote on a presidential candidate because they’re not deemed mentally capable of making such a decision how are they deemed capable of posting a picture that can be viewed by thousands even millions of people?
How has the millennial generation changed the culture of how Americans and the world view social networks and utilize them in everyday society?
I don’t think we have changed the culture of American society; I believe we merely fulfilled what every generation before us has done in America, which is break social norms and press social barriers of their times. Whether it was African Americans of the civil rights movement who broke the social norm of the time which treated Blacks as inferior and did not deserve the same accommodations that white Americans had, or it be Pop Artist, Madonna who came along in the 80s and broke the barriers on how revealing and sexually explicit women were on national television as well as in the public eye.
While I think we have done a good thing in promoting what social networks can do as far as promoting ones business or career or even reconnecting with family and lost friends,I still feel there is a stone unturned and that is a proposed age requirement for social networks.
Delque Chalk
Millennial Contributor
ReelUrbanNews.com
Delque is a native of Long Beach, California
Former Div II athlete and currently completing
a Psychology degree while still a member of the
Millennial Generation
