Question for Millennial or Gen Z'er

[DanDelaware]

I'm writing a story where a husband has suddenly and willingly becomes his wife's slave and she wants to blab to her BFF about it. Their ages are not clear in the story but I figure they're both in their mid-twenties. I'm an old boomer and don't know how youngins communicate, so I have the wife pick up the phone and call her friend, switching to video share to show her husband, then back to the phone. Is this something a 25 year old woman would do when having a detailed and intimate conversation with her BFF? Would it be done via text or maybe video chat? It's not terribly important to the overall story but I like to get the details right.

Thanks in advance, Dan

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm a barely-boomer and I relate to questions like these. My impression is that "young folks" use their phones for everything, but the specific apps and technologies involved change all the time. My suggestion: It's OK to be somewhat vague about the specific technology platform. There's a good chance it will be outdated in 5 years, anyway. Phones can do pretty much anything these days so I think it's OK to narrate two people having phone, text, and video exchanges without getting into the details about how it's being done.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

As a certified millennial I will say that this is perfectly reasonable behavior. I do it all the time. Just make sure your phone is a smartphone, not a landline or one of those old Motorola bricks

 

[MrPixel]

Gawd, I'm square in the middle of Boomer, and even my old-fartedness knows that when somebody says "phone", it's gonna be a smartphone. My equally Boomer sister and I have been doing Facetime for years.

Where "the youngins" differ is their reliance on social media. That exchange with the BFF you mention could easily be on FB in private messaging, where somebody swiped wrong and published it to a group, closed or even public. Heckuva plot bunny, free of charge.

 

[Bubo_bubo]

I'm writing a story where a husband has suddenly and willingly becomes his wife's slave and she wants to blab to her BFF about it. Their ages are not clear in the story but I figure they're both in their mid-twenties. I'm an old boomer and don't know how youngins communicate, so I have the wife pick up the phone and call her friend, switching to video share to show her husband, then back to the phone. Is this something a 25 year old woman would do when having a detailed and intimate conversation with her BFF? Would it be done via text or maybe video chat? It's not terribly important to the overall story but I like to get the details right.

Thanks in advance, Dan

Yep. Plausible. Whatsapp or Snapchat on a phone. Not a milennial, or a gen-Z but a father to a adolescent daughter.

 

[hanban24]

I’m on the border of Millennial and Gen Z. The scenario you are describing is a little hard to give an exact answer for, since it is so specific, but I’ll give you some tips that can help and may apply to others.

For communication with friends, texting is the number one option. Snapchat would be a close second, especially among females. 90+% of the time I’m talking to my friends by one of these two methods. FaceTiming is something I’ll do on occasion, but that is going to be more specific to the person. I know a lot of people who never use FaceTime and others who use it semi-regularly. I think in your scenario it’d make more sense if the wife was snap chatting videos and pics of her husband to her friend, rather than FaceTiming.

Also, and this is a pet peeve of mine, please don’t try and use a bunch of slang if you are writing about younger characters. I know that some people think this helps make it seem like the characters are the right age, but most of the time it is awkward and you can tell an old person wrote it. Once you get past being a teenager, you don’t use as much slang anyway. As long as you aren’t using old people slang like “whipper snapper” or “good golly”, you’ll be fine writing a story that involves younger adults.

 

[Defluer]

I'm Gen Z and I think HanBan got most of it right, from what I see of friends and friends of friends around me.

I think my only caveat would be a... privacy issue? I guess SnapChats usually have timers set on them that they'll delete after a while, so it might not be a thing if you aren't considering screen shots. I could see FaceTiming because it's less likely that would "get out". If the Boss Wife doesn't give a damn... Then I could see sending pictures and videos without any worry.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The younguns I know say 'message' rather than 'text' because it's likely on WhatsApp or other apps anyway. A 'phone' is a smartphone, as opposed to a brickphone or a landline.

I'd avoid mentioning apps by name as they do seem to change every school year, or what they're used for and who by does.

 

[DanDelaware]

Thank you all for your kind and helpful replies. I'm going to change the story slightly so that their conversation starts with messaging, but they switch to a phone call. My main reason (other than me being old) is that I'm trying to let the dialog carry as much of the story as possible and text messages seem so stilted compared to live conversation.

 

[stickygirl]

Thank you all for your kind and helpful replies. I'm going to change the story slightly so that their conversation starts with messaging, but they switch to a phone call. My main reason (other than me being old) is that I'm trying to let the dialog carry as much of the story as possible and text messages seem so stilted compared to live conversation.

That's a good point - messaging is fine in a story for a couple of lines only. Like KQ I'd avoid mentioning any particular app because it'll age the story. You can throw in the occasional key word if it lends itself to the BFFs - look at Urban Dictionary but most of it is out of date now but might still have slang used by millenials. I agree with HanBan that once you're in your twenties you ditch the teen speak, preferring to have people treat you like an adult!

As a personal note, please don't anyone use Facebook messenger (edited) - Meta sucks big time and is the equivalent of using the devil as your platform. Whatsapp is Meta as well and is constantly trying to access (steal) my contact list ...but my family uses it

 

[karaline]

I'm Gen X, but something that a lot of my millenial/zoomer friends do, which I find thoroughly baffling, is voice notes. Instead of calling or texting they will respond with short recordings, sometimes even during a 'live' conversation -no really, you can just call me, its fine, i don't mind

 

[Bubo_bubo]

I'm Gen X, but something that a lot of my millenial/zoomer friends do, which I find thoroughly baffling, is voice notes. Instead of calling or texting they will respond with short recordings, sometimes even during a 'live' conversation -no really, you can just call me, its fine, i don't mind

My wife does that. Probably because she doesn't want me to interrupt her (though admittedly we also do it when not in the same country, and long distance charges can be quite important, and we just want to hear each others voices)

 

[MrPixel]

As a personal note, please don't anyone use Facetime - Meta sucks big time and is the equivalent of using the devil as your platform.

Just for clarification, Facetime is Apple. At least they give lip service to privacy. But Meta? Yeah. I knew about Z's shenanigans back when he was in school; that he's made billions by being a total creepster is just wrong.

 

[stickygirl]

Just for clarification, Facetime is Apple. At least they give lip service to privacy. But Meta? Yeah. I knew about Z's shenanigans back when he was in school; that he's made billions by being a total creepster is just wrong.

My bad, soz! I corrected my original. I don't use either hence my mistake = Facebook Messenger

 

[DanDelaware]

I'm Gen X, but something that a lot of my millenial/zoomer friends do, which I find thoroughly baffling, is voice notes. Instead of calling or texting they will respond with short recordings, sometimes even during a 'live' conversation -no really, you can just call me, its fine, i don't mind

I've read that people do that so you can't screenshot and forward their message.

 

[DanDelaware]

I've been thinking about it a little bit and as far as the storytelling goes, it doesn't matter whether it's a phone call or a video chat, as long as two people are talking to each other. I'll go with the vchat but leave out the part about her picking up her iPhone g9 and using Snapchat 11.94..27 Beta. Probably just going to say something like 'she picked up her phone and started a vchat with her BFF.' Since she's holding an active video camera in her hand, there a lots of fun things that she could do while talking with her friend. I'm liking this better every minute.

 

[karaline]

I've read that people do that so you can't screenshot and forward their message.

ah, that makes sense

 

[tenyari]

I'm Gen Z and I think HanBan got most of it right, from what I see of friends and friends of friends around me.

I think my only caveat would be a... privacy issue?

I'm constantly being surprised by how little attention folks pay to privacy issues. Seems to be an issue among both older and younger people. Less so among working age people.

That said if the story involves a married couple, they might be old enough to have seen at least one friend get burned after posting their sex-tape on facebook with a share to their pastor and grandmother or some equally WTF level of not screening things.

 

[tenyari]

I'll go with the vchat but leave out the part about her picking up her iPhone g9 and using Snapchat 11.94..27 Beta.

Yeah, vagueness is always best when referring to technology. What you write today will feel a century out of date by tomorrow...

A decade ago I recall reading a series that was set in the 'near future' and the writer kept going on about the great new features the characters had on their Palm Pilots... even by the time I read it, only months after it came out, the Palm Pilot was a dead device.

 

[Defluer]

I'm constantly being surprised by how little attention folks pay to privacy issues. Seems to be an issue among both older and younger people. Less so among working age people.

That said if the story involves a married couple, they might be old enough to have seen at least one friend get burned after posting their sex-tape on facebook with a share to their pastor and grandmother or some equally WTF level of not screening things.

You're probably right on that. In this case the assumption would be that this was her friend and her friend wouldn't violate her trust and send it out. Even though how freaking difficult would it be not to want to show your own spouse/friend what X and Y are up to? That increases the chances that somebody handling the device will send that on.

Yeah, vagueness is always best when referring to technology. What you write today will feel a century out of date by tomorrow...

A decade ago I recall reading a series that was set in the 'near future' and the writer kept going on about the great new features the characters had on their Palm Pilots... even by the time I read it, only months after it came out, the Palm Pilot was a dead device.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi, it's a great book/series but he made the choice to call them PDA and it's one of his regrets because obviously nobody uses that term and it was probably one of the shortest lived ones.

 

[MrPixel]

A decade ago I recall reading a series that was set in the 'near future' and the writer kept going on about the great new features the characters had on their Palm Pilots... even by the time I read it, only months after it came out, the Palm Pilot was a dead device.

Don't remind me... I was a Palm developer, and built some great apps.

All tech is ephemeral, anyway. Just wait for phones to become implanted communicators.

 

[MsNatalie99]

I use a variety of stuff to talk to friends IRL. Discord, tends to be my go to. We text, use emojis, and short hand in much the same way folks in the PG do.

My advice would to be vaugue with the devices and platforms, as well as using current slang sparingly.