In Hooked Up, Myers focuses on a subset of Millennials he terms “Internet Pioneers” who are much better connected and much more savvy technologically than any other generation before, and are potentially the next “Great Generation.”
Jack Myers: Well for those of you who are watching HBO's new series Newsroom Aaron Sorkin's new series in the very first scene of the very first episode Will McAvoy, the news anchor played by Jeff Daniels berates a college coed calling her a part of the worst generation ever. Well I not only believe that today's college students are not the worst generation ever, but they may in fact, be the next great generation.
Today's college student, the kids born between 1991 and 1995, are a very unique generation, a generation like none we've ever seen in history. They're a bridge between the pre and the post internet. Millenials are usually referred to as those born about 1982 to 2002 and right in the middle, to 1993, came the internet and when I began researching this schism between pre and post internet I found this unique generation that bridges the two, that has a number of the characteristics of the pre internet generation, but is our first window into the post generation window and what really sets them apart is they're leaders. They're internet pioneers. They're the first to cross this bridge, if you will, the first to cross this chasm and as leaders they're builders and what they're building is a more stable world for themselves. They're looking for more balance. They've grown up in a world that's been noted by its instability.
So they really come to the internet and instead of seeing that as a place that's creating chaos they see it as a place that's creating stability for themselves, economic stability, political stability, social stability and I believe they are a very unique generation in that they're going to lead us into a period of greater stability and balance and out of this last two decades of social disruption and upheaval.
They've grown up being told how difficult and challenging it's going to be and one of the things that sets them apart is that they've embraced the knowledge that it's going to be difficult and challenging as opposed to having grown up like many Millenials thinking the world is going to be handed to you on a silver platter and just it's yours to go out for the—just go to Wall Street and you'll make millions of dollars - and this is a generation that is far less interested in going to Wall Street. They're much more interested in contributing and giving back and doing good and they're far less inclined to think that it's going to be easy for them. So they're prepared for the hard work, as opposed to prior generations that was prepared - but not to have to work hard.
Directed / Produced by
Jonathan Fowler and Elizabeth Rodd
