Texting. Emailing. Tweeting. Three words we often hear (or do) on a daily basis.
Smelling. Something we also do on a daily basis. Yet according to a recent McCann Worldgroup study, The Truth about Youth, 53% of young adults, ages 16-22, would rather give up their sense of smell than their technology.
This quantitative study polled 7,000 16-30 year olds across seven markets: Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Spain, UK and US. The goal of the study was to examine the fundamental needs for technology and how it’s compared to generations in the past.
Three “needs” that emerged from the study included:
- Authenticity – The need to see things as they are
- Commune – The constant need to be connected and engaged
- Justice – The need for social or personal justice
Technology is not an add-on for this generation – it’s an essential tool for everyday life. It’s hard to imagine what life would be like without Facebook or Twitter, and for 53% of the study, they’d rather not find out.
A PC Magazine article states, “The study also found that youth care more about connections than experiences. This generation maintains friendships differently than their parents, too. Through social media, the average teenager is "likely to manage and maintain multiple, intersecting groups of friends," as opposed to a single, smaller core group. In fact, 47 percent of respondents want others to remember them for their connections.”
If you had to give up your sense of smell or your Smartphone, which would you choose? I think the truth about youth as outlined in this study is slightly daunting. Perhaps we need to be a bit more sensible with technology. I’d rather give up my phone to stop and smell the roses.
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