Adam “Ruins Everything” Conover was asked to give a keynote to a conference on marketing to millennials, and he brought the house down with an amazing speech about the absurdity of generalizations about generations, and about how all of the generalizations hurled at millennials have been slimed over every other generation, too.
Moreover, all the things that people say about millennials’ relationship to social media have been said about other media.
Remember: in 1790, novels had “poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge.”
Remember: in 1816, the waltz was “obscene display” only fit for “prostitutes and adulteresses” and it was “a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion.”
Remember: in 1909, movies were a way for “depraved adults with candies and pennies beguile children with the inevitable result.”
Remember: in 1926, the telephone was a scourge whose effect was to “break up home life and the old practice of visiting friends.”
Remember, in 1954, “All child drug addicts, and all children drawn into the narcotics traffic as messengers, with whom we have had contact, were inveterate comic-book readers.”
Remember: in 1956, “The effect of rock and roll on young people, is to turn them into devil worshippers; to stimulate self-expression through sex; to provoke lawlessness; impair nervous stability and destroy the sanctity of marriage.”
Remember, in 2005, Hillary Clinton said that video games were “stealing the innocence of our children” and “making the difficult job of being a parent even harder.”
This Comedian Just Obliterated All Stereotypes About Millennials in One Presentation
[Sarah Singer/Mic]