Millennials’ Waves of Influence

Millennials have become increasingly influential in Indonesia in the past few years. They not only speak for their generation but are also leading the way in changing the world.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

President Joko Widodo (fourth left) introduces seven new special staff members from the millennial generation on the veranda of Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Thursday (21/11/2019). They are (from left) Andi Taufan Garuda, Ayu Kartika Dewi, Adamas Belva Syah Devara, Gracia Billy Yosaphat Membrasar, Putri Indahsari Tanjung, Angkie Yudistia and Aminuddin Ma\'ruf. On that occasion the President also said he would keep the old special staff members.

The rising influence of millennials, namely the generation born between 1980 and 2000, was palpable throughout 2019.

In politics, the power of millennial voters in the 2019 presidential and legislative elections was decisive as they accounted for about half of the total number of voters. More than that, there was a significant number of millennial legislative candidates. In the 2019 House of Representatives elections alone, millennials accounted for 1,543 out of 7,968 candidates. This was not much different than the number of millennial candidates for the House in 2014, which was about 1,600.

Millennials also bared their teeth in “extra-parliamentary” democracy, namely in the unstoppable waves of student protests across regions held to reject several controversial bills in September 2019. The protests were effective not only in forcing the House to delay passing the bills into law but also in presenting fresh means to express political aspirations.

Millennials packaged their critical voices with youthful humor in the various posters during the protest, with statements such as “Korean Dramas Are Less Interesting than Legislation Dramas” or “I’m Okay with My Makeup Ruined As Long As Justice Is Not”.

This phenomenon was never seen before in Indonesia’s student movement history.

Millennials working in parallel in the real world and cyberspace also proved themselves to be capable opinion leaders. They can be highly active on social media. They can also be influencers, celebgrams or YouTubers.

Their authority as opinion leaders is determined more by their cyberpresence, creative contents and number of followers. This is in stark contrast from previous eras’ opinion leaders whose authority was assessed from their track records, political science knowledge and position in social structures.

They can be highly active on social media.

In social affairs, millennials have increasingly expanding roles in rising social solidarity. This can be shown in the proliferation of communities bridging those in need and those with resources to help others, including Foodbank Indonesia, Berbagi Nasi and Berbagi Buku. The emergence of crowd-funding portals such as kitabisa.com boosted this phenomenon of altruism.

More recently, a new awareness has also spread among youths to campaign for environmental and cultural preservation. Altruism, care for nature and the environment, as well as wishing to do good, are seen by millennials as something cool with a decisive “wow” effect.

In popular culture, several youths are changing the landscape of creative writing, including in the aspects of production and distribution. In the old days, writers needed to contemplate and research to write books. Now, millennial writers can start writing their books by asking questions on social media and then measure and analyze their followers’ responses.

From there, writers like Marchella FP, who had never been in Indonesia’s “map of writers”, could suddenly emerge with a book that sold more than 130,000 copies.

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

A number of visitors busily take photos of the scenery in the forest area at the launch of Glamorous Camping (Glamping) in Sedayu village, Loano district, Purworejo regency, Central Java, in February (14/2/2019). Glamping was built to attract more tourists, especially those from the millennial generation.

Response

Political communication expert Idi Subandy Ibrahim said that he saw the millennials’ waves of influence as a response to the free market ideology that had dominated older generations’ mindset for so long.

“There has been a strong shift of awareness from economic issues to quality of life and solidarity. There is a feeling that life is not all about chasing material things but can also be about sharing. This new mindset is growing among youths,” Idi said.

The phenomenon is also about how youths respond to rigid and formal economic and political visions. “They resist such behaviors with flexibility in thinking and doing. This way, they can change government policies and set trends,” Idi continued.

These millennial waves of influence are becoming stronger because of their significant numbers, both as producers and consumers. In line with Central Statistics Agency (BPS) and the Women Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry’s 2018 data on Indonesia’s millennial generation profile, millennials accounted for 33.75 percent (88 million) of Indonesia’s 262 million people in 2017. The rest were post-millennials (29/24 percent), Generation X (25.74 percent) and baby boomers (11.27 percent). With such a significant number, no wonder they can be trendsetters.

This new mindset is growing among youths.

Millennials’ capacity to set trends is supported by the digital technology that permeates throughout their daily lives. The same 2018 data shows that 91.62 percent of millennials are active users of cellphones.

Social media applications embedded in these cellphones are today the center of all digital citizens’ “civilization”. From there, everyone can follow various phenomena that are always on the move with high visibility in cyberspace.

Social actions, no matter how small, such as helping others cross the road, can be as viral as big actions in attracting attention, influencing others and even driving others.

Millennials’ waves of influence will only get stronger in coming years as the number of young people is increasing, in line with Indonesia’s demographic bonus, which the nation will start to reap in 2020. Other supporting factors are increasingly equitable internet access and the fading away of boundaries between the real world and cyberspace.