Millennial Communication

“It’s been twenty minutes, why haven’t they responded to my text yet?” I am guilty of posing this question to myself far too frequently, as I am sure many other millennials are as well. “This generation has communication all wrong. The era of social media and text messaging makes everyone expect instant responses” my boyfriend says to me after I’ve complained about him not responding to my text message within five minutes. According to Pew Research Center, “Cell phone owners between the ages of 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages on a normal day—that works out to more than 3,200 texts per month.” Further, the research center found that, “83% of millennials open text messages within 90 seconds of receiving them.” I have come to realize that my boyfriend is right; the social media dominated era that we as millennials have grown up in has caused a need for instant gratification, especially when it comes to communication.

In the past, one of the most primary forms of online communication was e-mail. Although, e-mail can aid in quick communication, it does not provide the type of instant communication that millennials crave today. In fact, according to a Business Insider article, “Over the past several years, the proliferation of chat apps, SMS, and social messaging platforms has largely displaced this more traditional form of online messaging. In 2016, instant messaging and texting (e.g. SMS and chat apps) were the first things 35% of US consumers checked in the morning. Meanwhile, 22% of US consumers checked their email first, down from 29% in 2014.” With the increase in the demand for instant online communication, the question remains, what types of implications does this culture have on the communication skills of millennials?

In my experience, I have found that the current social media dominated culture has had diminishing effects on the communication skills of millennials. For example, many millennials have become so accustomed to online communication that they struggle to hold real life face-to-face conversations. Although many people can get away with lacking face-to-face communication skills by resorting to communication such as texting, this can become a real issue when it comes to millennials in the work place. According to an article in Forbes, many companies believe that “texting has its drawbacks in that message context can rarely be determined from a short message. Often communications can be misunderstood because the tone and body language of the other person is not available for interpretation.” Although texting and other forms of instant communication come with benefits such as convenience, they can clearly have a negative impact on communications in a workplace setting. Overall, I see the increase in the speed of communication that comes with the constant evolution of technology as a positive thing. Despite my support for instant communication, it remains crucial for millennials to maintain quality communication skills in an offline context.