Generation Y: The Emotional Void Filled by the Entertainment Industry and Media

Millennials want flexible working hours, a work week shorter than 40 hours. They desire more time for themselves to enjoy their lifestyle. It is paradoxical that most of this so-called Generation Y lacks enough money, and even the will, to realize their imagined travels and business plans, although they will likely get the desired free time. Given that members of the generation born between 1981 and 1995 go out to nightclubs significantly less than their predecessors, engage in sexual relations less, smoke fewer cigarettes and tobacco, drink fewer sugary soft drinks, and consume significantly less alcohol, the only thing left for them to ‘fill the emotional void’, alongside the sedatives or pain relief pills they unfortunately consume excessively, is the entertainment industry and media. Whether advanced technology and constant connectivity are the reasons for this state of affairs is a matter for another analysis, but vast amounts of diverse media entertainment, and even relatively well-produced and designed, are cheaper and more accessible than ever before. Access to information is simpler than ever, and technological devices are more sophisticated.

Investment in Devices Paid television, music, computer games, books, live sports broadcasts, video content reproduction via computer networks, and even print, thanks to millennials, have a bright future, claims a Deloitte study. The more financially well-off individual members of the millennial generation are, the more they invest in their media world, according to relevant research by the specialized television audience research agency AGB Nielsen. As many as 78 percent of millennials in the United States who live alone are subscribers to streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, which is 14 percent more than millennials who are not financially independent and 20 percent more than millennials who are starting family life. Independent millennials also own multimedia devices, broadband internet, and laptops more than any other group of people in the U.S., although they do not earn better than members of older generations. However, millennial families own DVRs (47 percent), DVD players (69 percent), and tablets (65 percent) in larger percentages, which should be attributed to the presence of children in the household and does not necessarily have to be caused by income levels. Millennials living alone spend 94 hours a month using the aforementioned technological devices, which is 18 hours more than financially independent peers.

Printed Material At the same time, viewership of traditional television programming is dramatically declining. Streaming and ‘on-demand programs’ are increasingly the choice of millennials. Over the past five years, traditional ways of watching television programming in the United States have fallen by as much as 38 percent among people aged 18 to 24, that is, members of Generation Z and Y. The older people are, the more they watch television programming in the traditional way. Millennials watch 23 hours a week, Generation X watches 32 hours, and those over 65 watch as much as 51 hours a week. In Croatia, television viewership is also declining, but exact data on how much millennials are (not) responsible for this has not been officially published. And while viewership of traditional television is declining, radio listenership is increasing. Here, in addition to traditional radio stations, internet radio and podcasts should also be considered. Even more interesting is the finding, as claimed by the Deloitte study, that print is not dead, especially when it comes to printed books. Revenue from the sale of printed books exceeds revenue from the sale of e-books by five times, which have failed to replace the printed book, unlike CDs, printed newspapers, and magazines, which are experiencing a decline in sales. Young people aged 18 to 34 are as attached to printed books as their parents and read almost the same amounts as the older population, and they are willing to pay for them, the study further states.

Content Consumption How the situation is viewed in Croatian production companies is revealed by Anita Juka, director of the company 4Film, founded in 2003, which in the past decade can boast a series of successful productions and co-productions of feature films, among which the film ‘You Carry Me’ stands out, the official candidate of Montenegro for the Oscar in the category of Best International Feature Film. – In a time when days seem to be getting shorter and the pace faster, the conditions under which we consume certain content are extremely important. It must be favorable, accessible, diverse, but also specific enough. It is impossible to talk about the future of media without discussing the internet, which has irrevocably changed the media system. Looking through history, it is clear that the speed of change has also increased proportionally with the speed of technological innovations. From video cassettes that revolutionized in the 1970s allowing viewers to choose when and how many times to watch selected content, regardless of television or cinema screening times, through DVDs as their ‘lighter’ digital versions to audiovisual material that we can no longer touch today, but can find on internet platforms or online video stores. The emergence of the internet, and then the social networks that developed within it, has not only changed the way individuals and social groups communicate but also the way people consume different content – says Anita Juka. She describes how the most famous American online streaming service for multimedia content, Netflix, developed from the idea of how convenient it would be to be able to order a movie from the comfort of one’s home, just eighteen years ago.

Different Distribution Not only does it have a huge database of movies and series, but Netflix today also produces its own content. – It is available in 190 countries, and more than 75 million people watch it, to whom this year our production company’s film – ‘You Carry Me’ by Ivona Juka, is available as the first film in the region that Netflix has acquired. Online platforms like Netflix are also changing the way content is distributed. The internet is convenient because almost the entire world uses it, and all the content available on it is simultaneously accessible to everyone at any time, wherever they are. Unlike the limited distribution of independent films, which are at the mercy of cinema exhibitors, who are often placed in unfavorable screening times in cinemas and thus do not achieve great viewership, platforms like Netflix have completely changed the situation. Being on Netflix means being available to 75 million people, at any time, for many years – emphasizes Juka.

It Is Not Free However, when she talks about her generation and new technologies, she warns that in Croatia, millennials mostly violate copyright and engage in piracy. – Here, the trend of ‘downloading’ content is more prevalent than in some other countries where such practices are viewed more harshly, such as the United States or Germany. However, the content that is illegally ‘downloaded’ is not free; it is only perceived that way, which is a consequence of social and cultural upbringing regarding audiovisual or other works. These are practices that directly violate the copyright of artists and which need to be gradually changed. Judging by similar trends in other media (print media that are getting their online versions or becoming their only form), the future of media belongs to the internet. It is a medium that changes not only the way we consume content but also the formats within which we consume them. As a medium that can accommodate almost all other forms of media expression and prompt them to adapt to its format, the expansion, development, and strength of the internet are unquestionable. The internet has expanded the distribution possibilities of independent films and opened the way to gaining a more diverse and larger audience. How film art will develop alongside the internet in the coming years, we can only speculate and cheer for the continuation of these positive trends – concludes Anita Juka.