At least once or twice a week, I see a clickbait article on Facebook trying to tell me all the things that are disappearing from our lives because millennials no longer buy or use them.
There’s a certain “OK Boomer” quality to these articles, implying somehow that millennials have achieved a higher level of consciousness, and in some instances this might be true.
Some, but not all.
Take golf, for instance.
I used to love playing golf. In 2011. our first full year in Georgia, I played a lot and actually got pretty good at it. That May, I played on my local course 22 times. Two of those times were memorable for me. I shot a 75 for 18 holes and on another occasion I made eight consecutive pars.
I don’t play anymore, though, and as much as I think golf courses are some of the prettiest real estate anywhere, I understand that they’re not the best use of space. Or time, for that matter. A lovely course I used to play frequently when I lived in Southern California has been closed down and turned into condominiums, and I’m pretty sure it’s not the only one.
As sad as it makes me to admit it, newspapers, magazines and books might be another. I spent my entire career working for daily newspapers, and until we moved to Georgia, I pretty much always had a morning paper delivered to my home. I have always subscribed to magazines, and I have hundreds and hundreds of books in various bookcases in my house.
I also have hundreds of movies and television shows on DVD and a handful of old VHS tapes of things I like that never made it to DVDs.
That said, I’m not completely old fashioned. I have more than 1,200 books, 500 audiobooks and 350 video titles all on a device that will fit in a jacket pocket or a pants pocket. It’s my iPhone 15 Pro Max and it has a 1 terabyte hard drive that is about three-quarters full. Not all my books, audiobooks and videos are downloaded — some are in the cloud — but I do have hundreds of movies downloaded that I could watch in the middle of nowhere.
I’ve even got a pocket-sized solar charger that I can use to keep my battery from wearing down. So theoretically, at least, I could keep an entire library of books, audiobooks and movies in my pocket.
In fact, it might be time to stop printing paper newspapers, paper magazines and paper books. There’s just too much trash and too little effective recycling.
Those changes make some sense, but others are kind of silly. They tell us millennials aren’t buying dress suits or ties, that life and work are becoming more casual.
Isn’t that sweet?
Dressing up for work is about showing respect for your job and for the people you work with and for.. It’s about being professional. Wearing a suit to work shows your job is better than one where you wear a paper hat and a name tag.
We hear that millennials don’t go to restaurants anymore. that they have meals delivered by various service. All well and good, except that going out to a restaurant isn’t always just about food. It’s about socializing or being with friends or family.
In the end, a lot of things are going away.
Including society … and friendships.
Spot on, Mike!