Millennials Admit Using Phones To Avoid Talking To People

Megalith

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Do people deliberately switch their phones on to avoid others? I always thought that kind of thing happens unconsciously.

Bank Of America's Trends in Consumer Mobility Report tells me that 40 percent of millennials use their phones to avoid a conversation during a holiday get-together. You might think the future greatest generation is simply hooked on its devices. But, no. It uses them to get away from you. It's rather clever. While you're pitying them, they're bathed in relief that they don't have to hear about your latest hip surgery and that trip the two of you took to the Grand Canyon with your pet marmoset. Our phones really are becoming our best -- and most helpful -- friends. Indeed, 25 percent of all the 1,004 American adults surveyed here between March 29 and April 12 admitted to using phones as people-avoiders.
 
Well it could be the fault of the other too, I mean I'm a bit older than a millenial, but damnit if there aren't instances when someone is yammering on about shit I don't care that much about. I mean I'll still keep them tuned in but jesus shaddup no one cares about what cute thing your puppy did except you.
 
Wow, I find myself doing the opposite. I turn my phone off or leave it in the car on my desk to avoid having to talk/text to people on the phone when I have people right in front of me to talk to.
I consider it rude to ignore family or guests right in front of you to talk/text on your cell unless it is a real emergency.
 
Good. I don't want to talk to them either, because they have nothing to talk about & share nothing that I am interested in. Let them eat cake.
 
millennials are hopeless. Even some GenXers are becoming this way. When did people become so sociophobic
 
People actually admitted to using their phone to avoid conversations in meetings? That's a good way to get yourself fired.

Damn millennials*

*Technically I'm a millennial.
 
Millennials are socially retarded? OH GEE THIS IS NEW NEWS GUIZ!

As a millennial myself, I feel ashamed to be lumped in this desecrating group of stupidity.
 
Well it could be the fault of the other too, I mean I'm a bit older than a millenial, but damnit if there aren't instances when someone is yammering on about shit I don't care that much about. I mean I'll still keep them tuned in but jesus shaddup no one cares about what cute thing your puppy did except you.

That's not what this is about. It's not about stupid pointless conversations.

It's about.... 2-3 people are in a group conversing...... All of a sudden the story from Person #1 ends and the first thing Person #2 does is pull out his/her phone because he is too socially inept to either continue the discussion or introduce a new one. So instead stand there awkwardly and act like checking your Facebook means you're getting a text from someone.
 
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anytime you try and strap a label on something, there is always going to be the few that are well different.

Take a can of coke for example. 99% of the time you will get a sweet delicious drink, 0.09% will get a flat one. and 0.01% you will get one that by all accounts is something other than coke.

I personally hate cell phones. I have to worry about assholes on their phones driving everyday not paying attention, not look where they are walking, stare into their little hour-glass that supposed to be the world.

Yes I have a cell phone, but that is mainly because well pay phones don't really exist anymore. When I give someone my number it's to my landline at home.
 
I avoid phones to avoid talking to people.
 
Wow, I find myself doing the opposite. I turn my phone off or leave it in the car on my desk to avoid having to talk/text to people on the phone when I have people right in front of me to talk to.
I consider it rude to ignore family or guests right in front of you to talk/text on your cell unless it is a real emergency.

Same here. I usually don't talk much and am not really that social (although my wife is surprised several times when I've just started talking to people based on their shirt or playing a game or whatever... Just stuff in common and start talking). I just find it rude to be in a social situation and stare at your phone. I may not be super social, but I'm not rude in my limited interactions. :)
 
All people born between 1980 and 2000 are hopeless?

Okay

Yup. Soon you'll get older and you'll think the new generation are worthless, their music sucks, they drive like shit, and they won't stay off your fucking lawn.

Ask your Dad, your Grandpa... Look around. That's the way things are. Older people think their shit is perfect, but the newer generation sucks.

Of course, not everyone thinks like that. But, it's very typical.

Then, there are some people that just hate everyone. :D

I just realized that both my wife (1980) and my son (1999) are millenials. Their music sucks, they are always on their phones, and they drive like shit. Grunge for life, bitches.
 
I just realized I'm technically a millennial... should I just go and kill myself now or wait for one of you to do it? PM me for home address...
 
Last time I went out with a group of people, about 90% of them had their faces buried in their phones and wouldn't talk to anyone else ... and we were all sitting at the same table.. These devices really are making people socially retarded.
 
Last I heard, the best way to avoid something to physically be elsewhere.

If you require Smartphone to get out of a conversation, then you shouldn't be anywhere near that conversation in the first place.

Smartphones really get used in the most inappropriate places. Date and meeting?? seriously?? That's fast track for being dumped/fired.
 
My guess the talking part isn't the issue , more of having to listen someones whinging about how people don't talk anymore (there is always one ). Before phones it was books and walkmans so little has changed.
 
I just realized I'm technically a millennial... should I just go and kill myself now or wait for one of you to do it? PM me for home address...

Nah, if you are self aware and take an alpha attitude you can dominate. But you have to balance the alpha, if you violate too much safe space they will organize and destroy you.

Remember that most millennials have been conditioned to never say no to anything or push back, so you can exploit that.
 
Remember that most millennials have been conditioned to never say no to anything or push back, so you can exploit that.
This is the first time I've heard this particular stereotype being attributed to Millennials. What's the basis for it? Most of the people I know seem to think that they say 'no' to everything, even basics like "get a job."

Not trying to argue the point, I'm just curious. As someone whose students are Millennials I always find it interesting to see how people paint their generation with broad strokes and why. Sometimes it makes sense, like comments about their willingness to always try new technologies b/c they were never without technology, etc. Sometimes it doesn't make sense, like comments about how they're lazy as a general rule.

Anyway, curious. Cheers!
 
This is the first time I've heard this particular stereotype being attributed to Millennials. What's the basis for it? Most of the people I know seem to think that they say 'no' to everything, even basics like "get a job."

It is the conditioning to accept everything and that everyone matters (like participation awards). If you push yourself, they will not feel compelled to say no. I'm not talking about their ambitions, I'm talking about them not being able to stand up to someone.

I'll put the rest in quotes so you don't have to read my ramblings.

The issue in videos like this are not that they are agreeing to ridiculousness, it's that they can't pull themselves to tell someone they CAN'T do something or they CAN'T be something (even though you can see their brain is desperately trying to make the words come out).

Now the creators of these videos probably have some type of bias or agenda or whatever, but for fuck sakes, these kids cannot push back AT ALL.

"I find it ok if someone wants to identify as nothing" wtf???









So here is the take away. As a society (not just the US, but "first world countries" in general) we are being told not be intolerant, to be multi-everything. But the difference is that people that are maybe 30 years or older can remember a time when we did tell people to "STFU and sit down". Millenials have grown up completely in a time where we haven't done that. So for them, they have no concept of arbitrary social constructs......and kicker is that society...is completely arbitrary. They are going to have a tough time. As that guy said in one of those videos, if they can't answer the simple questions how will they answer the tough ones.

But, I could be a bigot and a change hater. I didn't grow up in a world where blacks and whites couldn't marry and blacks couldn't drink out of the same water fountain. And I think we have done just fine as a result of that of culture change. So maybe this culture change will make us better as well. I don't know.
 
It is the conditioning to accept everything and that everyone matters (like participation awards). If you push yourself, they will not feel compelled to say no. I'm not talking about their ambitions, I'm talking about them not being able to stand up to someone.

I'll put the rest in quotes so you don't have to read my ramblings.
Interesting, thanks for the link to the videos.

What I noticed from watching the first one wasn't an inability to say 'no' so much as an inability to explain what they do stand for. They're answering questions without turning it into a conversation, and when it's obvious that someone is trying to trap you with words it's not usually a good idea to go with their flow. So in a sense I can see what you mean.

To me at least, it's not the inability to say "No, you're not a 6'5" chinese woman, you're a 5'9" white man." It's the inability to say, "Wait a second, let me explain. Height is a physical feature that can be measured, so regardless of what you think you aren't that tall. Biological gender can be determined by which bits you have, but society has recently considered that ones biological gender at birth doesn't always match up with their gender identity, so since I don't care I'd just take your word for it. And being 'Chinese' is a citizenship issue, so if you said you were Chinese I'd ask if you had dual citizenship."

Regardless of whether you agree with the above sentiments is moot to the point I'm trying to make.

I think it might tie in somewhat with the primary purpose of this thread - I don't think I know people who use their phones to avoid talking to others, but it seems a passive way of getting out of conversation. Passive in the way that the students in the video just answered questions without explaining their positions. Like the idea in hiding-behind-your-phone is that you want to stop people talking to you so you don't have to extricate yourself from the situation.

I haven't watched the other videos yet, but I will... just have to be AFK for a while and wanted to post before I forgot. If all of that is addressed in the later ones then my bad.

Thanks again for an interesting point. I still think it's a bit of a wide brush to paint all Millennials with, since I think there's a little of this in all generations, but at least I can see where your original point is coming from now.

Edit: The second video had them doing a bit better on the 'explain your position' bit, so I'm not sure in that case how it ties into the 'inability to say no' concept. If they genuinely don't want to say "no" then it's not a matter of being unable to say it so much as seeing things differently in general.

But regardless, I still see where you were coming from on the point you originally made.
 
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