This means that while it may be relatively easy to get their attention, it is very difficult to hold it. And they probably aren't going to wait for "authority" to get its act together any more than we did when we were their age.

A Day in the Life

Lauren took us through a day of her life, which began at 5:30 a.m. (I immediately disliked her, even though I, too, once used to be an early riser). She starts her day engaging almost immediately on social media. She delays email by an hour because she apparently thinks email is a low latency communications platform. She argued that 5:30 a.m. was simply too early to engage in email even though it's opened on the whim of the recipient and not the sender. This showcases what I think is a consistent significant difference with this generation; they assume everything is instant even when it isn't and, because of that short attention span, doesn't wait long enough to recognize it isn't.

In short they want instant but, as long as they aren't waiting, they will act as if it is even when it isn't. Their assumption appears to be that someone may be getting their email instantly because they see their email as soon as they open up the application. Even though the email they see may have been there for hours, they see it as instant and likely attribute any delay to the other user who they likely think is also multi-tasking.

Throughout the day she stays connected and is active on a variety of communications products (this really drove home to me why we, if we want to drive safely, really need self-driving cars. Communicating while walking, while eating, and even while talking to someone else over some form of electronic media is common, which suggests that for some people doing it while driving is likely common.