Seven in 10 employed U.S. Millennials (73% of those ages 21-29) say they couldn’t live without the Internet, as do 58% of college students ages 18-24, according to Cisco. [The research examined the two groups separately for comparison purposes. —Ed.]
Millennials who live in China are most likely to say they couldn’t live without the Internet (78% of working 21-29-year-olds and 71% of 18-24-year-old college students); those who live in Russia are least likely (38% of employees and 30% of students).
Just under a third of global and U.S. Millennial college students (32% of each) feel that the Internet is as important to them as food and water; nearly two thirds of Brazilian (65%) and Chinese (64%) students feel this way.
Globally, both college students and working Millennials cite their computers as the most important technologies in their daily lives. When broken out by desktop vs. laptop, however, U.S. working Millennials are more likely to cite their smartphones than either desktop or laptop computers as the most important piece of technology in their daily lives.
Students Value Internet Over Dating
Worldwide, college students consider the Internet to be more important in their daily lives than going out with friends, dating, or music. French college students are least likely of students worldwide to consider the Internet the most important activity in their daily lives (7%) and most likely to consider dating the most important (54%).
College students in Brazil and China are most likely of global students to cite the Internet as most important (72% and 59%, respectively). German (36%) and UK (33%) students are most likely to cite going out with friends as most important, but almost as many students in both of these countries consider the Internet most important (30% of each).
Globally, 64% of college students would rather have Internet access than a car. U.S. students would prefer a car, by a small margin: 54%. More than eight in 10 students in China (85%) and Japan (84%), and more than seven in 10 students in India (77%), Germany (75%), and the UK (72%) would choose the Internet over a car.
Although U.S. college students are more likely to consider spending time with friends important than keeping up to date on Facebook (36% vs. 18%), those in Spain (54%), Brazil (50%), India (45%), China (41%), and Italy (38%) cite Facebook as the most important social activity of their day.
More than three quarters of U.S. college students (79%) and working Millennials (76%) log onto Facebook at least once a day.
Workplace Priorities
If offered two jobs, one with a slightly higher salary but less flexibility in terms of working remotely and using mobile devices at work, and the other with greater flexibility, just over half of Millennial employees worldwide (55%) would choose the job with the higher salary.
Those in the UK (72%), Spain (65%), U.S. (62%), France (60%), and Germany (60%) are most likely to choose salary over flexibility. Millennials in Brazil (59%), India (57%), Russia (57%), Canada (52%), and China (51%) are most likely to choose the job with greater flexibility.
Worldwide and in the U.S., majorities of both college students and working Millennials don’t consider/expect it to be necessary to be in an office every day in order to accomplish their work.
U.S. Millennial workers are about half as likely as Millennials globally to think their expertise with social media was a factor in getting their current job: 14% vs. 31%.
Source: “2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report,” September 2011, Cisco, Marie Hatter, VP Enterprise Marketing, 170 W. Tasman Dt., San Jose, CA 95134; 408-526-4000; also, Ben Stricker; 408-527-3199; bstricke@cisco.com; www.cisco.com. Price: Available online at no charge.
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