Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Communicating with Millenials

I was just invited to submit an abstract for a potential panel about Millenials to be presented at our forthcoming National Communication Association conference. Here's the direction I might go:

Communicating with Millenials: Closing the Loop with the Always-On-But-Never-Quite-There Generation

This paper examines the pleasures and occasional frustrations of communicating with today's college students. The author begins with an analysis of how contemporary mobile media technologies intersect with the social needs of Millenial students, highlighting elements of anxiety and control that reflect broader cultural dimensions. The author continues by analyzing transcripts from a focus group of students invited to discuss and reflect upon their communication habits and expectations, especially those arising when they interact with faculty members. Finally the author proposes practical strategies for connecting with Millenials: an approach that starts with understanding and the presumption of mutual regard but also offers hope that some basic decorum need not become a lost art.

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