Millennials use tech to learn basic skills
getting it all over the screen.”
That story is in no way novel; millennials frequently turn to the internet to learn life skills that perhaps their parents never taught them. Maybe that’s because YouTube is a click away, maybe it’s because there are companies banging down their doors to make life easier for them with apps and services.
In any case, millennials live at home longer than the previous generation, on average — in 2016, The Pew Research Center reported that 15 percent of 25- to 35-yearold millennials were still living at home. So maybe they just never needed to learn things for themselves.
Millennials also have grown to become the largest single age cohort. The Pew Research Center defined the group as being ages 1834 in 2015. There are about 75.4 million millennials, as compared to 74.9 million boomers.
With that, a new market has awoken: the business of teaching young people how to do, well, everything.
“How do people survive without the internet, I don’t getit,” Ms. Weidner laughed.
More distracted?
Contemporary vernacular has even evolved to match the pace at which innovation simplifies peoples’ lives. Search engines have become verbs, and company names, like Uber, have become household nouns.
“We use [these words] all the time, we say ‘I Googled this, I searched that,’ but we don’t discuss it as a topic,” said Nick Hoban, 29, who had to watch a series of YouTube videos to figure out how to change the water filter on his black Frigidaire refrigerator shortly after moving into a newhome with his wife.
The sales consultant from South Fayette believes there’s nothing wrong with Googling how to complete at ask because it’s free knowledge at the public’s disposal. While some repair skills simply escaped him because he hadn’ t encountered such issues before( he admitted he didn’t know where the was located on a refrigerator ), others just required a quick reminder to get the details right.
“I had to YouTube how to jump my car with jumper cables,” Mr. Hoban said. “I know my dad taught me a long time prior, but I knew I had to get a refresher.”
Some of his friends have even used videos to install new cabinets in their home, he said. It might take longer, because the video needs to be paused and played over and over again, but it’s cheaper than hiring outside help.
A reliance on technology doesn’t necessarily mean that mill en ni a ls haven’ t been taught any life skills, though, he said.
“My dad knows how to do more than me, but that’s probably just generational. I think it’s probably just a lack of interest growing up; we had a lot more distractions,” Mr. Hoban said. “I think each generation gets more and more distracted.”
Ms. Weidner just thinks this digital dependence is a sign that times are changing. People have always relied on some sort of resource to learn things, she said.
“I wonder if past generations were actually better at these things, honestly,” she said. “Did all 20-somethings really know how to carve turkeys back in the day? Or did they just wing it or look it up in a cookbook?”
The beloved, checkered red “Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook” — with a spot in most gen X and boomer kitchen drawers — is probably a hint.
The app generation
Cookbooks, instruction manuals and family tutorials used to be life skill coaches, but now there’ s ana pp for that.
Penny is a personal finance app to help track spending habits, and Trade Hero uses ga mifi cation to teach players how to invest in the stock market.
Stitch Fix, which recently went public, has an office in Oakland on Forbes Avenue. The app sends handpicked clothing to the recipients’ doors each month, and even offers the option to select clothes appropriate for work, a solution for those trying to figure out exactly what “businesscasual” means.
Blue Apron, another app that recently opened on the stock exchange, teaches users how to cook by sending the exact amounts of each ingredient in a package with detailed recipes.
Ms. Weidner said she used to rely on Plated — which offers essentially the same service as Blue Apron — to learn howto cook new foods.
But these apps aren’ t always a forever investment and may even be a fad. While they partially stand in as a way to help millennials save time, they also serve as a teacher.
And once you’ve learned the basics, you can leave the instructor, here the internet service, behind.
Including holiday promotions, Plated costs $35.85 to cook three meals for two people each week, and Blue Apron costs $39.94 for a similar plan. That company’s stock has plummeted from about $10 per share to just under $4 as of Friday afternoon, perhaps due to the high cost or maybe because the space for these services is so cramped.
For Ms. Weidner, Plated was a gift, and also a luxury she couldn’t splurge on all the time.
Still other apps are just plain practical, she said.
“I use Google Maps to get everywhere, even my boyfriend’s house, which I’ve driven to a million times,” Ms. Weidner said, adding “just to make sure I’m taking the most efficient route.”
In an increasingly digital world, overflowing with apps, tutorial videos and a blog for pretty much everything, it’s nearly compulsory to get things right.
“It’s so easy to look things up,” Ms. Weidner said. “So why do it wrong?”