1

Alex Butler
Jessi Morton
UWRT 1103-066
11 April 2016
Technology and Social Medias Toll on the Millennial Generation

Technology and social media are obviously a major part of the lives for those considered
to be a part of the millennial generation. The big question is: has the impact of technology and
social media overall been positive or negative for the lives of millennials? To start out, Id like to
define who Im talking about when I say millennial generation. The millennial generation
consists of those who were born between the years 1980 and 2000 (The Echo Boom). These
people are the children of the generation known as the baby boomers and in some cases, the
grandchildren. That being said, my peers and I actually belong in the millennial generation.
Along with all the excitement and positive intentions for all the new technology that came about
during our generation, came certain detriments at the same time. With technology came social
media. Social media has many positives about it such as great social networking, but arguably it
has more detriments which is what will be discussed in this paper. Looking at the question
broadly, technology and social media have overall had a negative influence on the lives of the
millennial generation, as well as the potential to harm future generations.
Our generation definitely has a problem with social media because of a major addiction
to it. In her article, Kate Hill breaks it down into three different situations which demonstrate an
unhealthy addiction to social media. The first situation talks about a girl who went to a concert
that was expensive to get into, but ended up not being worth the money. The reason she declared
it wasnt worth the money, is because so many of the other people around her had their phones
out and waving around in order to record the concert. Because of the cameras being waved
around in front of her and the noise created because of them, she wasnt able to enjoy the

Butler 2
concert. The other people were too interested in recording the concert that it cut down the
enjoyment of others who were paying to attend the concert. This is one of the reasons Kate Hill
noted about technology being detrimental for our generation.
The second reason is a major problem because of technology is the potential of someone
to have their eyes so glued to their phone or other type of technology that they could stray into
the street and get hit by a car (Hill). The problem came from an interview conducted of a
business owner by the name of Carmel Buckingham (Hill). There is an extremely real possibility
of this type of tragic incident happening. It doesnt necessarily have to be someone walking in
front of a car, but it could even be something such as two people bumping into each other
because both of them had their eyes glued to their cell phones. She even talks about it as a
common courtesy issue. Hill states that Carmel Buckingham said that teen girls frequently come
into her business talking on the phone or updating their social media and dont even respond to a
simple hello. People being too intent with looking at their cell phones can cause major
problems and injuries in society as well as decreasing our communication and common courtesy
skills.
The third and final reason listed as a detriment of technology is the fact that people of the
millennial generation get cyber bullied frequently, but still dont just simply turn off their
technology (Hill). She takes quotes from a clinical psychologist from the University of Adelaide
by the name of Dr. Nicole Williams. She talks about how its easy for adults to simply turn off
their technology when such problems arise since its not their normal way of life to use
technology and social media, while the younger generations lives revolve around the use of
technology and social media so they wont turn it off even as they get cyber bullied. Dr. Nicole
Williams concludes by saying when it takes over your life or gets in the way of looking at your

Butler 3
family, then its a big problem. My life is much more important than a hashtag. This just goes to
show this is another example of the older generation being more prone to staying away from
technology and social media. The younger generation doesnt realize that their life is more than
a hashtag because this is the society theyve grown up with. Technology and social media are
seen as a way of life in the millennial generation. Even though cyber bullying occurs and leads to
intense problems such as depression, the people of the millennial generation still have a hard
time turning off their technological devices.
People of the millennial generation are becoming far too obsessed with what other people
are doing at all times says Jake Hughes, author of The Paw Print the Adams State University
school newspaper. At the same time as people being obsessed with what others are sharing, there
are never times anymore where people dont have the urge to share what theyre doing (Hughes).
This is what leads the the generations addiction to social media and social media in general: the
obsession with sharing what theyre doing and the obsession of seeing what others are doing.
Social media does have several positive uses such as messaging friends or family who live in a
different state or country (Hughes). However, friends and family members arent the only ones
being added on their social media profiles. He makes the point that these people are adding
hundreds or even thousands of friends on their social media profiles, meaning that random
strangers are viewing what goes on in their everyday lives.
Hughes notes that not only random people are viewing these social media profiles, but
big companies and other organizations such as sports teams check out profiles of potential
members or employees as a sort of background check. No matter what sort of post is made on
social media, there is someone, potentially someone very important, judging it which can lead to

Butler 4
the loss of a position that is desired. Many people can end up screwing themselves over because
of a single dumb post on their social media account.
Overall, Hughes main point in this article is that social media has changed our culture in
many ways such as the way we socialize, the way we receive our news, the way we spend our
free time, and the fact that we can no longer hold a decent conversation as human beings should
be able to because of the constant use of communication through technology. He says that we are
living in a society where everybody is just using social media to show how good we are, while in
reality we are fake because of this. Judging people goes hand in hand with all this stuff
(Hughes). People tend to judge others so much more in our generation because of social media
and it causes more fake people and turns people against each other. For example, if two friends
were having a conversation about another friends post on social media in a negative way, if one
friend revealed the other friends judgment then that could easily end a friendship. Hughes stated
we are all in a race to be accepted in a society where social networking is a big player. Our
generation is just trying to find acceptance and social media is possibly the easiest way to
accomplish this, even though it has its many negative aspects that are disregarded.
Social media and technology have unfortunately caused some of the millennial
generation to become worse employees. Gillian B. White asked many business owners about
employees who are a part of the millennial generation and many of the answers echoed. White
stated that although millennials can possess skills that others cant due to them being tech-savvy
and still being hard workers, bosses in general agreed that employees of the millennial
generation were much more narcissistic than the previous generations. Millennials have also
been pretty vocal about their desire to have more flexible jobs and more leave time (White).
This is likely the case because of their narcissism. Narcissism is an obsession with ones self, so

Butler 5
being narcissistic will give them the idea that they deserve more leave time and more flexible
jobs because they are better than everyone else and deserve it. However, even though they are
considered lazy and narcissistic, White states that bosses also agreed that millennials can make
good employees because of their tech skills, their social awareness, and their ability to learn very
quickly. While some from the millennial generation make for great employees, others are still
living on their parents couches. Although a society that heavily revolves around technology and
social media can create some exceptional employees, it also has the potential to invent some that
are the opposite.
The millennial generation is already beginning to negatively influence the next
generation because of our use of technology and social media. The author who identifies as
Marketing conducts a conversation with a 10-year-old girl. This took place in the year 2012
which would put this girl out of the millennial generation by two years. The girl was asked to
write a few lines about technology and her experience with it. What she had to say is very similar
to the majority opinion of the millennial generation. The child wrote that she believed the world
would be very dull without technology (Marketing). She also wrote that most of her
communication with friends is done over technology rather than actually meeting up in person.
This girl is actually a very good representation of the millennial generation and it shows that she
is heading in the exactly same direction with her views of technology. White even stated that she
wrote when her and her friends are together, they engage in activities such as watching television
and movies or playing games rather than the physical interaction that was frequent in previous
generations between her and her friends. The girl wrote about all these features of technology as
positive while they are in fact, negative.

Butler 6
Not only is it easy to point out the problems technology causes based on this girls
writing, but one can even see literacy problems arising by reading her writing. Marketing
added that the girl wrote My iPod is like all my fav artists and their songs all wrapped into one.
The girl wrote the word fav rather than spelling out the word favorite. This type of text is
very common in the millennial generation because of texting and once again, laziness. These
types of literacy issues only lead to more in the future and contributes to texting and other means
of communication through technology being more common than the actual interaction between
two people.
Elaina Zachos made the argument that technology is changing the millennial brain.
Zachos states that the average millennial spends around 18 hours a day using some type of
digital media and 90 percent use social media which is actually up 12 percent compared to
2005. She said that scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health say that the human brain
isnt fully developed until age 25. If the generations brains arent fully developed yet, the
constant viewing of digital screens can actually harm the brains development, altering the way
our brains develop compared to those of the previous generation. Medical experts say that
technology causes an alteration of the brains development, and this can ultimately affect
communication skills (Zachos). She refers to Kimberly Young who is a licensed psychologist and
professor at St. Bonaventure University in New York, who studies internet addiction disorder
also known as IAD. Through her studies, she found that internet addiction disorder can be just as
dangerous as other drug addictions. This is extremely harmful to the millennial generation as this
is what alters its way of life. Young says that social skills, grades, and health are all causes of
being addicted to the internet with attention deficit disorder and obesity being listed as two

Butler 7
specific examples (Zachos). Being addicted to technology and social media changes the
millennial brain and these are the reasons it does.
In the end, it can be concluded that overall, technology and social media have a negative
impact on the millennial generation and even those to follow. Too much use of social media and
technology cause social problems, alteration of the brains development, changes the way we
spend our time, and overall just causes a nuisance in society. Although there are certain benefits
to technology and social media, the bad definitely outweigh the good. The millennial generation
is different compared to the previous generation because of the way the brain develops with the
constant use of technology and this will have the same consequence on the future generation.
Something needs to be done before we have a society that doesnt interact with one another.

Butler 8

Works Cited
"Date/Age Range of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y." The Echo Boom. The
Echo Boom, 21 Sept. 2010. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
Hill, Kate. "Generation Antisocial: How Social Media Is Affecting Our Teens." ABC South East
SA. ABC, 2014. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
Hughes, Jake. "Social Media Turning Our Generation into Addicts." The Paw Print. Adams State
University, 20 Sept. 2012. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
Marketing. "How Technology Is Shaping the Future Generation." The Workshare Blog.
Workshare, 4 Oct. 2012. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
White, Gillian B. "Do Millennials Make for Bad Employees?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media
Company, 30 Nov. 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
Zachos, Elaina. "Technology Is Changing the Millennial Brain." PublicSource. PublicSource, 15
Nov. 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.