Communicating with millennials: Talk to them face to face
Texting, Snapchat and other digital channels are only part of the discourse puzzle. New research shows that members of Generation Y long for in-person exchanges. No, really.
Oh, those pesky millennials.
So much blame is heaped on those people born between into Generation Y, especially for a culture in which conversation is deteriorating and everybody is texting.
“We never talk anymore,” the complaint goes. MIT social studies professor Sherry Turkle has even written a book about it, alarmingly titled, “Reclaiming Conversation.”
Meanwhile, recognizing that the highly coveted millennial market is busy texting away, companies are tripping over themselves to adopt technologies that will reach them.
Businesses routinely tout the brilliance of technologies that eliminate the need for actual conversation. “No more meetings!” has become a recruiting tool, because, after all, meetings are wastes of time that produce no measurable benefit. Collaboration tools are more effective.
Learn the dos and don’ts of reaching millennial employees in this free guide.
They are also turning us (as critics like Turkle warn) into isolated creatures who don’t know how to communicate with others unless that communication is mediated by technology.
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