Hey now! We recently had a pleasingly sustained 25 minute conversation with a Millennial !! Usually those conversations are measured in seconds, especially when the young person is in front of you, with a TV on (sports), music playing, trying to type on a laptop, with a mobile phone bonging with incoming texts.
Here’s how it happened: we got the call during dinner, speaker phone on our end, and the conversation ranged from this Millennial’s next visit, to work issues, holiday plans, a vacation plan, to a severe weather warning, even food! One of the last topics was traffic, then it dawned on me: this person was doing hands free driving, still multi-tasking in a way, but only one screen, the windshield. That’s how we could sustain that old school way of communicating, with an oral-aural connection!
It’s amazing how one can sense the engagement once the multi-tasking is pared down a bit. So, when you really want to talk with a restless Millennial, send her or him out for a drive with a hands-free set for safety, and have them call you! And warn them: “Text Neck” is apparently real, cervical nerve impingement as we used to call it, from looking down at one’s phone too much!
terimakasih0 / Pixabay
Joking aside, let’s give Millennials their due, maybe trying to do too much! Nice report about Millennial caregivers came out a few weeks ago, and here’s a nice graphic from the report:
