Millennials Are Proud to be a #Merican

Jason Heuser

Millennials on 4th of July seem to love posting ironic Americana images — barbecues, jean shorts, beer cans being crushed upon heads — hashtagged #merica.

These images and the accompanying #merica meme theme parties are just how the Millennials say they love America, a new study by MTV reveals.

“They throw these #merica theme party and it’s truly 70% earnest. I talked to a lot of sorority girls, not just Brooklyn hipster types, and there’s a lot of we throw this country, we make fun, but we love our country,” said Alison Hillhouse, Vice President of MTV Insights. “That’s the millennial sense of humor. I thought #merica was a sarcastic ironic thing, but that’s how they show their very earnest, real pride for America.’

Party on, dudes!!! #MERICA http://t.co/TmGPvlS7af—
  (@HOMAGE) July 04, 2014

This survey comes at a time when so-called millennial patriotism was being called into question by a contrasting PEW survey. In that report, only 49 percent of millennials said the phrase “a patriotic person” described them well (in contrast, 75 percent of Boomers said they did).

But with the MTV iteration, researchers scrapped the word patriotic and asked if the millennial was “proud to be an American” and 86 percent said yes.

“The PEW guys basically put up this press release that was like millennials aren’t patriotic, all they do is Facebook all day,” she said. “And that's what people want to hear, so, oh ok.”

The issue, Hillhouse said, was the word patriotic, which to millennials sounds “like a zealous crazy person.”

“The word patriotism is a struggle, but they are very proud to be Americans,” she said.

But #Merica, which makes fun of an accented “America,” is readily embraced and rallied behind. Brands joined in:

Happy 4th of July everyone! And thanks to our crew for working hard on the line today bottling house beer. #merica http://t.co/pV0WXsSg4X—
Allagash Brewing Co (@AllagashBrewing) July 04, 2014

Even the Legion of Honor got in on #Merica.

Happy bday #merica – Portrait of George Washington. Artist unknown. #IndependenceDay #4thofJuly http://t.co/1wtFweHQbc—
Legion of Honor (@LegionofHonor) July 03, 2014

But so even if #Merica is somehow patriotic, do these millennials still believe in the American dream of homeownership and family?

Absolutely, Hillhouse said.

Millennials want to be in cities during their 20s, but as soon as they’re asked to envision the future, they respond with idealized suburban imagery, Hillhouse said. She called it the “Two-Faced American Dream.”

The data: During their 20s, 70 percent of millennials said they wanted to live in a downtown area of a city, and 57 percent said they wanted to rent. Hypothetically, looking into their 40s, 86 percent responded that they wanted to live in the suburbs or country, with 95 percent wanting to own.

“Millennials are surprisingly traditional in many ways. They’ve idealized city life, but they very much see it as temporary,” Hillhouse said. “When you ask them about their future, it’s literally white picket fence in the suburbs."

This is the greatest thing I've ever seen. #merica http://t.co/hODqYXOmRv—
Shan (@shannn_murphy) July 01, 2014

#Happy4thWeofRecodeAreOutCelebrating

Dear people of the Internet, Silicon Valley and all another outposts of tech:

Please stop doing anything really innovative or groundbreaking today, as the staff of Re/code is really exhausted and needs a lovely day off.

In other words, we will be published on a limited schedule.

So on July 4, no making of obnoxious apps (Josh is on the case!); no management mishegas (this means you, Twitter!); no dealmaking that actually perplexes us all, but we try desperately to explain as bold (Hello, Mark Zuckerberg!); no creepy social experiments on our sad, little online psyches (You again, Mark Zuckerberg!); and — most of all — no more moving.

In his amazing play, “Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika,” Tony Kushner has an angel asking the citizens of the world to “Stop moving!” It is a plea to stop the earthquakes that our incessant human activity is causing.

But one of the main characters has an answer to that in perhaps the most perfect quote about what all that progress and innovation means at its best: “In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we’ve left behind, and dreaming ahead.”

Agreed. But for today, at least, let’s just dream ahead and enjoy the day off.

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Biver said the watchmaker’s sales director left as recently as last week, “to take a contract with Apple” in order to launch the iWatch. LVMH owns Swiss watchmakers TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith.

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You Can Lead a Geek to Water … (Comic)

Microsoft will issue two critical fixes for Windows and IE in July Patch Tuesday

Will fix bugs that could be used for remote code execution attacks

Measuring Fitness on an iPhone 5s

You have some tech questions, I have some answers. Every Friday, I try to resolve these mysteries, succinctly and in plain language. Please send questions to walt@recode.net. Note that I won’t be able to diagnose your personal tech glitches and problems. I also reserve the right to edit questions for length or clarity, and to combine similar inquiries.

Q. I like the benefits of using a fitness tracker, however, I would rather not wear a fitness bracelet to certain events. Most of the time, I have my iPhone 5s in my pocket. I was wondering if there is an app you know of that aggregates data from the M7 processor with data from a fitness tracker in order to improve the completeness of the data? Is it even worth wearing a fitness tracker if i have an iPhone 5s?

A. I don’t know of an app that combines the data from wearable fitness trackers with fitness data generated by using the iPhone 5s by itself, using the built-in M7 chip, which measures “motion data” from the phone’s accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. The apps I have seen that read the data from the M7 chip on the phone mainly measure steps you’ve taken, though some extrapolate from that to things like calories burned. But fitness bands can measure sleep and other things that the phone alone can’t, at least today.

So if you mainly use your fitness band to measure steps, and you carry your phone all the time, you may not need the band.

However, given Apple’s coming big initiative on health, which is due to arrive in iOS 8 in the fall, that may change. One feature of the project, called HealthKit, is supposed to consolidate data from multiple sources. And Apple itself is widely rumored to be planning its own health-oriented smartwatch, which would likely integrate deeply with the iPhone. So stay tuned.

Q. I am thinking of buying a new Windows PC. What’s the latest version of Windows?

A. The latest version is Windows 8.1, Update 1 (often called Windows 8.1.1). This edition takes a variety of steps to make life easier for mouse- and keyboard users of the traditional Windows desktop, rather than focusing heavily on the tablet-like, touch-centric Start Screen, which has confused or turned off many users. I am not privy to Microsoft’s plans, but the rumor mill suggests that there may be a further update to make Windows even more comfortable for traditional users. Similarly, it’s widely expected that Microsoft will bring out a whole new version, Windows 9 (or whatever it will be called), next year.

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