25 Internet’s Impact on Millennials
Matthew Gibson
25.1 Introduction
Keywords
- Millennials: People born between 1981 and 1996.
- LAN (Local Area Network): A group of computers and devices that share a common communications line or wireless link to a server in a specific area.
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language): the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser.
- URL (Uniform Resource Locator): Specific address given to a unique and specific location on the web.
- Influencer: Someone who has established credibility in a specific social media industry with access to a large audience, and can persuade their social media followers how to act based on their recommendations.
- Instant Gratification: Wanting something or desiring something right away rather than waiting.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the basic history of the internet and social media.
- Given the past, consider what the future holds for the internet.
- Think about what problems the internet has caused and what problems it has solved.
When it comes to growing up with the internet, the first group of people to truly grow up with it were millennials, people born between 1981 and 1996. The idea of the internet was first created in 1962, but it did not have the resources for it to thrive until the millennial generation. This led to the generation growing up and evolving with the internet as they evolved as well. With the beginning of the generation growing up and developing in the late 80s to early 90s, the technology available for them was limited with the first main use being emails. The later part of this generation however that grew up and developed during the late ‘90s to early 2000s had much more advanced technology such as google, social media, YouTube and internet blogs.
Although the internet and social media have had many positive influences on millennials for the most part, there are negative aspects such as hate speech, cyberbullying, suicidal tendencies and political tampering. These problems became more prevalent in the late 2000’s to 2010’s in which many millennials were affected by this more than other generations. The creation of the world wide web has ultimately impacted many generations in negative and positive ways, but no other generation had to navigate the internet on their own than millennials who grew up and adapted with the technology.
Key Takeaways
In the span of only 10 years, the percentage of American’s on the internet increased from 1% to 40% showing how rapidly the internet and social media are advancing. The benefactors of this surge in technology are the Millennials as they are getting to grow up using this technology instead of having to adapt to it.
25.2 When did the internet become prevalent in the everyday lives of millennials?
In 1990, less than 1% of the population had access to the internet regularly, compared to 2000 where almost 50% of the population did (Roser). No one was impacted by the growth of this techno