Safety & Security Topics
Playing it Safe: Millennials and Security Pt. 2
• 7 Mins read
In “Playing it Safe: How Our Idea of Safety Grows With Us Pt. 1,” we discussed how millennials perceive safety and security. Millennials face a number of impediments to a secure financial future, including high levels of debt and low wages due to the lingering effects of the ‘08 financial crisis. Because their financial situation is less stable, millennials have had to delay major life milestones like buying a house or a car. Instead, many millennials remain concerned by their ability to afford basic safety essentials, such as food, shelter, and healthcare. Unfortunately, this has compromised their ability to build a safe and secure life.
Although millennials are often unable to make expensive purchases, that doesn’t mean that they have no regard for possessions. They care deeply about objects of high personal value such as musical instruments, art, photographs, souvenirs, or electronics. As technology has become more advanced, objects like smartphones and other home electronics have become closely linked with the millennial image. This “always-connected generation” places huge importance on having the latest technology as a link to the outside world and as a means to remain competitive in business. Unfortunately, the portability of objects like smartphones and laptops make them highly attractive to thieves and burglars. For some millennials, a smartphone or a laptop might be the most expensive object they own – and losing it would be a huge economic burden, not to mention massive privacy concern. Maintaining a watchful eye over their electronic devices is certainly a millennial concern that looks to only increase as time goes on.
Despite their financial limitations, millennials are using their tech-savvy mindset to adapt to the modern era. Most millennials can’t afford to buy a home, so instead they rent apartments, usually in urban areas with better access to jobs. For millennials, keeping a rented apartment safe and secure is just as important as a maintaining a home of their own. By renting an apartment and filling it with modern electronic devices and other treasured objects, millennials have found a way to enjoy desired creature comforts previously thought of as the domain of the well-heeled only, and today’s smart home devices have helped to increase the safety of their personal spaces at the same time.
Although many millennials are waiting to have children, they often live with roommates, significant others, or beloved pets. In some cases, millennials are actually choosing to have a dog or a cat instead of having children due to the cost of having a child and their inability to move into or purchase a larger home. Of course, any dog or cat owner cares deeply about the safety and well-being of their pet – the growing industry of high-tech pet cameras is indisputable proof of that, and demonstrates another area where millennials have addressed a safety concern with technology head on.
In a typical sense, maintaining personal safety might mean avoiding unsafe areas at night, locking the doors and windows at all times, keeping valuables locked up or hidden and remaining aware of the surroundings at all times. However, due to the previously mentioned special circumstances that millennials face, safety has taken on additional lifelong meaning that some members of older generations may have taken for granted. Besides physical and property safety concerns, many millennials now perceive important aspects of safety to include access to comprehensive, obtainable healthcare, affordable housing, fair education costs and job wages, and career security. As millennials struggle to find a place in our slowly recovering economy, they will seek out tech-savvy, budget-friendly solutions to gain safety and security where needed.
Here at Scout Alarm, we believe a home security system is an extremely important facet of personal and home safety. Having to decide between peace of mind that you can afford to protect your important possessions or affording healthcare or education to try to improve your life shouldn’t be an additional concern. As home alarm systems become smarter, more mobile, and more affordable, home security is now much more accessible and cost effective to the millennial generation. To meet this growing need of remaining connected to best-in-class, internet connected security products, modern home security systems have introduced features like smartphone control, cellular back-up and a wide array of integrations that allow users to control and monitor their systems from anywhere in the world. Modern home security systems must meet the level of technology that millennials have come to expect in their lives, ensuring the safety of their most valued possessions whether they are at home or away without adding additional worry or making them choose between safety and their next meal.
The next article in our “Playing it Safe” series will discuss what safety means to young and growing families. If you're part of a young or growing family and would like to share your experience(s) with our readers, please send an email to media@scoutalarm.com with the subject line: "Attn Marketing: Security to Me"
