Absurdity and Subtlety

I’ve been hovering over a theory for weeks: Millennials generally lack the ability to understand subtle cues and changes in inflection and tone.  Obviously the theory needs serious testing, though I have some anecdotal evidence to support the theory—ultimately it needs academic style testing, one with a ‘control’ and all that science-y good-stuff but here’s how I landed at my current conclusion:

For years I’ve had friends who would rather text, IM, or Facebook me when they have a problem. Very rarely do I get a confrontational phone call; I can count on two hand the number of negative conversations I’ve had in person. An uncomfortable conversation normally manifests via text or Facebook message. A week ago I noticed two Facebook friends stirring up an online feud, escalating into a ridiculous Twitter battle, which finally ended with a phone call, I’m told, and ‘unfollowing’. Now, there are three things at work here:

1.     Communication is lost, or misinterpreted via online medium; in other words the lack of subtle tone, inflection, and physical cues is leading young people to hyper-react.

2.     The inability to communicate one-on-one about sensitive subjects, i.e. rent, cleaning the dishes, passing notes in class, anything that potentially causes an argument, big or small, in person. In essence, avoiding confrontation until it erupts.

3.     The socio-cultural weight of ‘unfriending’ or ‘unfollowing’ among young people. (Which is a larger post coming soon)

As an objective observer, merely following the conversation as it unfolds, the argument was a simple misunderstanding that escalated quickly that could have been avoided with a simple explanation. Because online communication eliminates interpersonal interaction and one-on-one communication millennials have had to evolve around those limitations.

I have said for years, “Sarcasm doesn’t translate online;” there needs to be a sarcasm style font.

A text message, or quick post, is by nature extremely direct. 140 characters or so to include tone and context—as a result many lack subtle hints that most humans pick up on; things like, an eyebrow raise, facial tick, weight shift, anything nonverbal that would indicate tone or attitude. These are the silent indicator sof conversation, all of which are lost in text only messages. Because millennials generally cannot deal with criticism, they assume any neutral comment is negative. The statement is therefore confronted in a method other millennials understand and are comfortable with, another text based message.

It is the subtlety of nonverbal communication that becomes a problem in communicating with millennials; they need things direct, or so absurdly bizar that they are forced to understand. Perhaps this is why absurdist advertising seems to work so well with millennials. They don’t understand subtlety at all, therefore absurdity and absurdist messaging communicates a more transparent and obvious message.