Differences in Baby Boomers and Millennials in Communication

 How do the Baby Boomers compare to the Millennials?

Executive Summary

We live in a world today that has advanced rapidly in the past few years. Time has produced many different generations in order for the world and its societies to reach the level of advancement we see today. Such generations include the Baby Boomers, which are people born between the years of 1946 to 1964 and the Millennials, and which are people born between the years of 1981 to 2000. These two generations are very different in the way they speak, the way they write and the way they present themselves. We have to understand that Baby Boomers lived in a different time period where things weren’t developed as the Millennials experienced.

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These two generations were both raised in different periods of time. The Baby Boomers were born and raised in the aftermath of World War Two. People in this period were born into a world that had just witnessed grief and distress. They were influenced by the assassination of President Kennedy, the Vietnam War, and the legal rights movements. Baby Boomers are hard-working and like to speak about their achievements.

On the other hand, Millennials were born and raised in an era where technology and social change was emerging. The advancement in technology has made the job easier for Millennials since everything can be searched up online. One thing about Millennials is that they are confident and have a high self-esteem. Unlike a Baby Boomer that prefers to work by himself and get the job complete, Millennials like to collaborate and work in teams.

These recommendations below can help you speak properly to either one of these generations:

Baby Boomers:

• Discuss how they are making a difference.
• Provide public recognition and perks for performance.
• Focus on the personal touch and one-on-one communication
• Discuss how their contributions affect the organization.

Millennials:

• Provide good supervision and structure.
• Communicate clear objectives and expectations.
• Emphasize their ability to make a difference.
• Use technology to deliver information.
• Assign work that is interesting, meaningful and important.
• Assign them with career planning.

Important Key Points between Baby Boomers and Millennials

Objective:

The objective of this business proposal is to learn the main points on how communication amongst these generations is affected by the way they think and the way they speak. This means to that both generations must communicate in an organized manner thinking about what they want Boomer or Millennial to hear rather than asking one’s own questions. The tone of the conversation has to be compelling to the audience and the speaker must know some information prior to speaking with the audience.

Methodology and Findings:

There is two main differences that separate these two generations away from each other:

1. The first difference is that Millennials and Baby Boomers had a different view of the world growing up as kids. The parents of Baby Boomers went through so much distress and strived to give their children any little progress to accomplish a better life. On the contrary, Generation Y had an advantage to getting much more at their youth because, “Through this hard work, parents of Millennials were able to offer things to their children were not available previously,” (Krupeinski, 2016, p.1). This was at a time whereas change in the world was beginning to occur and where society was starting focusing on legal and social innovations.
2. The second difference between these two generations is that Baby Boomers, “tend to value compensation and the need to work long hours to affirm their loyalty, this was born as a result of growing up in a period of limited resources and technology,” (Krupienski, 2016, p.2). Whereas the Millennials received technology growing up which helped them learn and understand how to manage and work in a world that is constantly changing. Unfortunately, for Baby Boomers, growing up in an era where technology was limited meant that everything had to be done from scratch and there wasn’t a supporting database to provide feedback and assurance.

According to a study in 2015:

• There is 75.4 million Millennials between the ages of 18 through 34 living in America.
• Baby Boomers between the ages of 51 through 69, make up 74.9 million of this generation in America.
• As of 2015, the Millennials have overtaken the title of being the largest generation in America away from the Baby Boomers by having 500000 more.

Conclusion:

To sum up, Baby Boomers and Millennials differ in a variety of ways. The structure and composition of the language and communication bridges a gap between generations. It seems that Baby Boomers have more sophisticated speaking skills since they had to read and write to develop these kind of skills. As for the Millennials, the language skills and form of speaking differs from the Boomers because technology created a new wave of communication that brought different words and phrases. The quality and framework of the communication skills for Baby Boomers is more established and founded on a genuine source of information.

Recommendations:

1. For them to understand how to communicate amongst Baby Boomers, Millennials have to understand that the way they that Boomers think is in a more mature mindset and that they make sure to work constantly and effectively to get the job done even it takes a long time to get it completed.
2. Baby Boomers need to understand that this new wave of technology has created many different mindsets and point of views.
3. Last but not least, the new forms of communication have changed the original procedures and policies that many Baby Boomers used in order to complete and finalize documents and resources. By this, Millennials need to know that certain things might be more difficult to complete.           

Baby Boomers vs. Millennials in Communication

The generation known as the Baby Boomers are people who make up a good portion of society today. The reason they are known as Baby Boomers is because they were born after the World War Two ended and the number of births exploded. The thing about them is that they were born in an era that had just witnessed a lot of war and horror. The parents of these boomers witnessed the dreadful and difficult times and only hoped the best for their children. They were born and raised in a time where there wasn’t advanced technology and innovation like there is today. This means that the way they think and the way they speak is very different compared to Millennials. According to Mind The Gap, Baby Boomers like to have face-to-face or person-to-person conversations. One thing this article says about the Baby Boomers is that, “they’re pretty open and direct. They want details. They don’t want you to tell them what to do, they just want the information to make decisions,” (Whitehead, as cited in Solheim, 2012, p.2). As we can see here that the way Baby Boomers communicate amongst others could be described as a more candid style of talking. They want to know the facts and they want you to tell them straightforward. We have to understand that Baby Boomers experienced big social changes that affected the United States economy and improved the society we see today. So in order to communicate properly with Baby Boomers, we have to understand a few things about them. Initially, they are deeply connected with their career achievements and they have worked long hours and days to rise above and get ahead. This shows us that they didn’t have it the easy way to succeed. They had to look for information in physical books and the technology to search up things was limited. Having fun for Baby Boomers wasn’t going online and using social media. Instead, it was going outdoors and playing with the neighborhood kids. As stated in Playbook: Dealing with Generational Crosstalk, the writers explain that whenever you speak to a Baby Boomer make sure you, “Discuss how they are making a difference, assign challenging projects, provide public recognition and perks for performance, support them with their diverse family responsibilities, and understand that phone and one-on-one communication best suits this generation,” (Arnold & Williams, 2008, p.2).  Many Baby Boomers have worked hard their entire life and now they just want to focus on personal growth and change for the better. They want to be acknowledged and recognized for the all the hard work they have put in and the things they have accomplished. This is one reason why it is important to personally approach them with friendly rapport. Baby Boomers are older in age and they need to be treated with respect, because they have lived longer and have seen and experienced more things than Millennials. It is also important not to speak sexist or stereotypical language when speaking to Baby Boomers because women have a principal role in the expansion of children born in between those years. Learning how to listen and talk in the workplace is very important in order to gain the Baby Boomer perspective. One thing that Baby Boomers have is a high-level of professionalism which helps them have a huge advantage in face-to-face interview situations. 

Due to the changes that have happened in society over time, Millennials have the advantage of knowing more about the technological innovations such as the Internet and how to use the social media.  Millennials or also known as Generation Y, were born in a world of rapidly evolving technology. These Millennials are known as the largest and most diverse generation, but also are seen by others as lazy, unmotivated, disloyal and inadequate communicators. As a millennial, we are known for depending on technology for everything that we do. During the Baby Boomers period, the birth rate was the significant factor that was booming. Well, in the Millennials period, the internet and mobile communication is what is still booming today. There is many forms of communication that Millennials use and are adjusted to. Such forms of communication include the usage of cell phones that contain text messaging with social media and the creation of the email which makes sending information online easy and quick. It seems that the face- to-face communication style that the Baby Boomers prefer is really not necessary for the Millennials. We have the technology to open up a video chat and talk to friends and family in another city. The way the Generation Y speaks amongst each other is not an example of proper communication. The world has changed so much over time that inappropriate words or as we call it “slang talk” has integrated in the English language making those words seem normal. There is a lot of words that Millennials say, but really don’t understand the damage they are creating on the proper way of speaking professionally. With so much social media apps such Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, it makes it easier for Millennials to communicate with each other. These apps also bring negative results that affect the way people speak. The meaning of this is that people get so adjusted to texting and chatting incorrect words and phrases that eventually it becomes a part of their normal oral communication. This can be a problem when speaking to a Baby Boomer because this type of language barrier didn’t exist in that time.  On the bright side, it seems to be that communication is very important among Millennials. According to the Millennials: Moving fast in a high-speed world, Connor explains that Millennials, “are a fast group, though, and thrive on immediacy, in communication and in their interaction with one another,” (2017, p.1).  Millennials feel that with the way technology has improved, it can help them better manage their time and complete tasks in a more efficient manner. One thing about Millennials is that they have an eagerness to learn and enjoy questioning things. They are excellent at multitasking and can perform multiple activities and tasks. In order for you to speak to them or grasp attention, you have to either text them or email them. Calling them on the phone is a waste of time. There is a few guidelines in order for Millennials to communicate effectively. These guidelines are to provide good supervision and structure, communicate clear objectives and expectations, and emphasize their ability to make a difference, use technology to deliver information, assign work that is interesting, meaningful, and important and assist them with career planning. One main difference between the speaking communication between Millennials and Baby Boomers is that Millennials were born into a tech dominated world and can struggle at times with presenting themselves formally in front of the group. The members that make up Generation Y usually prefer to communicate through social media, but don’t realize that it is somehow helping them in some way. For instance, when Millennials video chat on Facebook live and other platforms such as YouTube or Skype, they are actually practicing public speaking. Although these social media applications can distract and disturb people, they can also help them develop better public speaking skills. There is people that spend most of their time on social media talking and reading other peoples’ information. Eventually, this can lead to an expansion of a greater vocabulary due to all the kinds of different feedback people receive on the social media sites. The forms of feedback can be a message, a like, a comment, a tweet or a picture. Text messaging has become so advanced that nowadays people can communicate only by using emojis. These are also a form of speaking by expressing feelings with smiley faces and cartoon icons. 

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It is no surprise that these two generations are similar in some ways and different in other ways. These two populations play a very important role in the development of this country. Without the participation of Baby Boomers and Millennials, America wouldn’t be as powerful and successful as it is today. It took the dedication and commitment of the Baby Boomers to expand the economy and give the country and the world an example of what it is to be an efficiently and exemplary country. The Baby Boomers contribute a lot to how the Millennials were raised and why they gained the title of being Millennials. Without the hard work of the Boomers, then the Millennials would’ve never had this type of technology to use. We have to thank the Boomers because they made technology increase and advance over time. The communication between Boomers and Millennials describes the different perspectives members have on different issues. In conclusion, the way we speak and communicate with other cohorts, shouldn’t prevent us from staring a relationship or friendship with each other. We need to ignore the generation gap and focus on developing better bonds with those who helped us get to where we are. Lastly, the Boomers and the Millennials need each other in order to create a more efficient and productive society. We need to communicate as if we have been neighbors our whole life.

APA References

• Parks & Recreation. Arnold, K., & Williams, K. (2008, November 1). Playbook: Dealing With Generational Crosstalk. Retrieved November 2, 2017, from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uhd.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=16177c7e-6867-42eb-8c29-09c219a8ea6f%40sessionmgr4007
• Benefits Selling. Solheim, N. (2012, August 1). MIND THE GAP. Retrieved November 2, 2017, from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uhd.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=18c7871c-5a8a-465d-b548-61e0aae923ff%40sessionmgr4009
• BusinessWest. Krupienski, J. T. (2016, February 22). Millennials and Your Business. Retrieved November 2, 2017, from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uhd.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=b664b6a8-1a04-4801-bfbe-f9f03c04a2f3%40pdc-v-sessmgr01
• Fry, R. (2016, April 25). Millennials overtake Baby Boomers as America’s largest generation. Retrieved November 05, 2017, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/25/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers/
• Fort Worth Business Press. Connor, R. (2017, June 26). Millennials: Moving fast in a high-speed world. Retrieved November 2, 2017, from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uhd.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=04312932-ec3e-4b2d-8d2b-0b8d88801f02%40pdc-v-sessmgr01