More than 50 years ago, Marshall McLuhan famously exhorted the baby boom generation to be aware that "the medium is the message." Were he alive today, he might observe that for the Millennial generation, the messenger is the medium.
By being constantly plugged in, both receiving and disseminating information and opinion, Millennials seem to be encoding the very act of communicating and messaging into their DNA. For them, to think is to act — to act is to transmit.
Never before have members of any generation had such capability to tap instantly into a hive mind and influence one another so quickly. They are as close to Star Trek's Borg — a mechanically mind-linked predator species — as is nonfictionally possible. And they are our children.
Resistance is futile.
While doing research for coursework in strategic communications, I realized how typical Millennials "Jess" and "Mike" are integral parts of the most-connected generation in history — never far from a constant data stream tied to family, friends and the world at large. They are part of one vast network of information and opinion exchange. And because one of their greatest fears is missing those connections and being left out of anything, a large part of their day is spent sharing — everything.
More than 90 percent of Millennials say they check their phones before getting out of bed in the morning and that it's the last thing they do before turning off the lights at night. They are never more than a nanosecond, a node and a cell tower away from knowing what's going on with one another. They are the true residents of McLuhan's "Global Village." He was far more prescient in the 1960s than anyone today could have imagined.
"Electric circuitry has overthrown the regime of 'time' and 'space,' and pours upon us instantly and continuously the concerns of all other men," McLuhan wrote. "It has re-constituted dialogue on a global scale."
Millennials' increasing interdependence on this networked community has produced some not so surprising results: They value the opinions, reviews and endorsements of friends, family and acquaintances above claims made by officials, professionals, celebrities or corporate brands.