Fifty-three percent of youngsters would be willing to give up their sense of smell to keep their phones or laptops.
In fact, younger generations consider technology to be as important, if not more important, than some of their senses.
This is according to a global study by McCann's thought leadership unit, Truth Central. The study highlighted technology as a great unifier of the youth. "This is not all that surprising when you consider that technology represents all the friends you could ever want, all the knowledge you will ever need, and all the entertainment you could ever desire," the study reads.
It also found that the youth of today live in an editable world where they use social media as a way to seek approval. For example, the study participants admitted to feeling good about themselves when people liked or commented on their status updates.
Similarly, in this social economy, documenting all aspects of one's life is essential, with the youth believing that photographic evidence is needed to prove that something actually happened. The study highlights authenticity as one of the most important values for the youth, particularly when it comes to celebrities and brands. Google was cited as their main ally when they were looking to verify something.
At Future Group's Smartest Event last week, the fact that 65% of South African consumers are under the age of 35 was highlighted as SA's biggest demographic dilemma, with speakers at the event calling on brands to better prepare themselves to target this group of upcoming consumers.
Speaking at the event, Dave Ives, a director at Karabina Solutions, noted that companies should be mindful of how best to target the youth. As younger generations grow up, the days of a consumer are over; we now have a "pro-sumer", or a promiscuous consumer, he said. "They move very quickly, because they can. Business must keep up."
For Ives, this obsession with technology, connectivity and social media means younger consumers are communicating with brands very differently, with social media now one of the main channels of communication between a business and its customer.
This can be used to the business' advantage, said Ives, outlining how much faster it is for a customer complaint to be picked up using social media. In one instance, while working for a client with massive abandon rates and customer complaints, they were able to pick up a customer's complaint on Twitter almost half an hour before the customer service call centre even knew about it.
If social media and call centres are better integrated, by the time the call centre receives this complaint, it will have some background knowledge about the customer and his or her problem, and will be better able to fix the issue, he concluded.
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