Absent-minded Millennials

A trending national poll reveals that millennials are becoming more forgetful than their seniors. Tony Schwartz, the author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, believes that this is because of information overload. It’s worth delving deeper into the subject to find out exactly why this loss of memory is on the upswing in today’s generation.

Ramkumarr Seshu, a senior economist and a Rotarian, believes that the issue lies in a simple haggle between options and patience. He says, “We now live in an era where everything is accessible with just a click. With more options, people tend to get more impatient. Thus, with impatience, there is a constant demand for quick deliverables, ultimately causing stress on the millennials. This could lead to forgetfulness as the focus is on the deadline and not the quality.”  

Refering to a tongue-in-cheek moment, at a recent charity event Deepika Padukone was speaking about how she is a daughter, a sister and an actor. The host of the event reminded her that she is also a wife to which Deepika said, “Ohh I forgot that.”

Psychologist Joji Thomas elaborates, “While in conversation with a delivery executive from a famous delivery service, he told me how they get bookings for delivering forgotten things to offices including keys, files, etc.

Being caught up with work-related stress, forgetfulness affects personal and family matters like forgetting keys, personal hygiene, traffic rules, birthdays of loved ones. etc.” Shedding light on the millennials’ dependence on technology, he adds, “Having more GBs and TBs increases our dependency on devices rather than our own memory. When stress is clubbed along with this, it results in a lack of memory.”

Speaking about the scenario from a broader perspective is Sociologist Dr Sangeetha Amarnath. She says, “Millennials are facing cognitive issues in learning and understanding. With information available just a click away, millennials are not giving any effort to think, analyse and conclude on certain issues. With the lack of cognitive ability, the power to remember and store information is lost. The dependence on gadgets has made people lazy. Nowadays even education is digital.Gone are those days when we used to write down notes in schools and colleges. However, there is too much pressure on millennials today and the outcome of that indeed is forgetfulness.”

Rooting the situation to the worst recession that has hit the country, Ramkumarr says, “Downsizing is becoming a common scene in most companies and the need to multi-task has increased. One should understand that limited employees and more work will definitely lead to early burnouts in several millennials and forgetfulness is the early sign of it.” In fact, several surveys by the American Psychology Association have reported that millennials are the most stressed generation and this decreases work performance.

Vinay Raj, an employee at a support firm, believes the reason is societal norms and social pressure, “The undying conflict between our desires and the standards set by the society puts us under immense pressure. As a result, we give in to societal demands and suppress our dreams and goals and succumb to the monotonous life of a nine-to-five job. Because of nuclear families, most youngsters do not have the leverage of sharing the burden with siblings. All the family pressure is dumped on one person and with such a complex environment, it is difficult for millennials to focus on one thing at a time and we tend to slip.”Joji concludes, “Unplugging from the hectic mechanical life, taking time to relax and recollect; engaging in activities that stimulate the brain; and valuing life and people; are the ways around this.”