The Buzzword Of CES 2017 Is "Millennial." What The Hell Is A Millennial Anyway?
During the first day of CES 2017 announcements, the word "millennial" was used 32 times. It's fair to say this is quickly becoming the buzzword of this year's show, but does anybody even know what it means?
Most mentions of the word come with sweeping declarations and assumptions of millennial behaviour, with supporting so-called market research and lifestyle footage of young people loving life in the most Instagrammable way possible.
I do, however, have one piece of bad news for these companies, though - including Chrysler with their Portal concept car and Huawei's new Honor 6X smartphone... Their assumptions of how we millennials live life are rather wrong.
Otherwise known as Generation Y, Echo Boomers or (more strangely) the Peter Pan Generation, millennials are people entering young adulthood during the 2000s - born from the late 80s onwards.
Most of us don't overshare on social media, and we don't live life like an episode of Skins or a generic summer club tune music video either. We don't want a car that looks like it's straight out of Demolition Man, and we can see through a poor attempt to brand a generic phone as "for the young people."
Many don't care whether their coffee is organic or free trade, and they don't have a favourite craft beer either.
We don't speak entirely in emojis and, rather adversely, we are immediately turned off by the mention of "millennial," because it comes from what market research and a boardroom dictates to us.
Treat us like human beings, companies. Much like you did with Gen-Xers, don't build for just one God awful stereotype of millennial that you all seem to have grabbed. Give us a clean slate of a gadget and allow us to add our own personality.
How hard can it be?
Alongside the scientists, 50% of the British public and the future health of young people across the nation, I have one simple request: delay Freedom Day, please.