Ask A Millennial About Identity

Ask A Millennial About Identity

Day/Session:Thursday 3K

Convener:Samantha Windley

Notes-taker(s): Samantha Windley

Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:

In this session we discussed different ways that millennials trade their data for service and what things they are willing and unwilling to give away when it comes to their online persona.

Social media platforms, such as instagram and Facebook, were brought up as a way to sign into things, and Sammi said that she uses her Facebook account as a “throw away” way to sign into different apps and services. Her phone number, on the other hand, is something that she is worried about using to sign up for apps and other services. 

Millennials tend to keep their social identity separate from their identity they use for their bank account, etc. In consequence they are more willing to trade their social identities and information for services an app provides.

The question “what would it take for you to no longer trust a service?” — If the company does nothing to fix a hack and if the hack then compromised some of the person’s personal identity, not just the social identity. 

For millennials, time and information is no longer chronological— Instagram feeds, google searches, etc. are based on what the user has liked in the past, or what is most popular. 

AI was discussed, and while Sammi viewed the email suggestions gmail gives you at the bottom of an email as creepy, the fact that instagram curates ads for her based on things that she has liked in the past didn’t— more of a “Hey girl this is awesome, and I think you would like it!” AI approach vs. the “helpful assistant AI.

Social media fast— decided to change the content she was consuming to something uplifting and helpful instead of time wasting. Resulted in her being happier and empowered.