#zeitgeist Zooms in on the Millennial Mindset
According to Merriam-Webster, zeitgeist is defined as “the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.”
For example, the zeitgeist of the 1970s could be the search and desire for peace in an uncertain post-atomic world. Or, in the 1990s, the zeitgeist could be seen as the tech boom as wireless phones, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, and Google were created and popularized.
So what is the modern zeitgeist?
Identifying the zeitgeist of a time period is easier done in hindsight, but a new series from SAP aims to tackle this hard-to-answer question as it unfolds in real-time. How? By asking an equally elusive group to express their take on the current era — millennials.
Going from millennial to millennial, 26-year-old #zeitgeist host Kesja Cichowski asks her generational peers how their experiences help characterize the mood of the 21st century thus far. Ranging from the rise of highly advanced tech to social media to mobility, the answers provided by interviewees are as diverse as they are.
The idea of creating content for and by millennials isn’t so far-fetched. Earlier this year, the New York Times profiled Mic, a website intent on becoming a leader in digital news for millennials. In fact, according to the Times, Mic’s 106-person staff is filled with stylish 20-somethings — almost identical to its desired demographic. Not only that, but its chief executive is 28-year-old Chris Altchek, who left his investment banking job at Goldman Sachs to start the site, originally called PolicyMic in 2011. Since then, Mic has dropped the first half of its name and now has an audience of more than 30 million people per month.
Looking at those numbers, it’s clear that millennials not only have something to say about the world today, but are also the ones shaping it. With that in mind, who better to ask about the current zeitgeist than these very same movers and shakers?
