This is truly a new word to our lexicon, brought about by the proliferation of cameras in cell phones. It seems that much of the online world is preoccupied with pictures and some of the latest gadgets are designed specifically to enable people to take these pictures. And as if selfies alone aren’t bad enough, now there is an abundance of selfie enhancers including extendable selfie sticks, boom arms, and remote control shutter releases with self-timers… I don’t know about you, but the idea of me taking a picture of myself kind of bothers me. Guess it truly dates me.
My last blog talked about relevance. This Selfie Generation clearly cares about some things. On the surface, it seems to be “all about them.” I offer a link to an article in the New York Times that gives a fabulous overview of the challenges here. I especially appreciate this paragraph:
“The millennials’ skepticism of parties, programs, and people runs deeper than their allegiance to a particular ideology. Their left-wing commitments are ardent on a few issues but blur into libertarianism and indifferentism on others. The common denominator is individualism, not left-wing politics: it explains both the personal optimism and the social mistrust, the passion about causes like gay marriage and the declining interest in collective-action crusades like environmentalism, even the fact that religious affiliation has declined but personal belief is still widespread.”
– Ross Douthat, Op-Ed Columnist, New York Times
That is quite a persona to fit into the mix now isn’t it? Maybe we really need to think differently about our agendas if we are going to engage this group. Maybe we need to actually ask them how we can be relevant. Are we asking the right questions? Are we really listening to their points of view?