Millennials just ‘can’t do it’: Weird quirk that makes folks over 30 sick to their stomachs

Asia Grace
·3 min read
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(Left) TikTok user Jennie Longdon. (Right) Person booking airline tickets on a computer.
Online, millennials say they prefer making "big purchases," such as buying plane tickets or making vacation reservations, on a laptop rather than a cell phone. A recent report found that millennials prefer shopping on computers because the devices help them avoid making impulse purchases.

Thirty-somethings just can’t phone it in.

Millennial quirks are somewhat universal to folks within the generation.

Whether it’s reciting and repeating their phone numbers while leaving a voicemail despite the advent of caller ID or carrying a physical wallet even though most of their banking information and important docs on stored in their phones, people born between the late 1980s and mid ‘90 are set in their ways.

And that includes their inability to buy big-ticket items on cellular devices.

“Millennials, why can we not make big purchase on our phones?,” cheekily questioned UK radio personality Jennie Longdon to a TikTok audience of over 832,000 viewers.

Jennie Logndon went viral after revealing that the majority of millennials prefer making “big purchases,” such as buying plane tickets or making vacation reservations, on a computer rather than a cell phone. TikTok/@jennielongdon
Jennie Logndon went viral after revealing that the majority of millennials prefer making “big purchases,” such as buying plane tickets or making vacation reservations, on a computer rather than a cell phone. TikTok/@jennielongdon

“[Take-out], clothes, shoes…Yeah!,” continued the brunette.

“But a plane ticket on your phone?,” she gagged, pretending to hold back vomit. “It’s a laptop job.”

And the millennial inclination to turn to computers when making substantial transactions isn’t just a fluke.

A January 2024 report determined that online shoppers in their later twenties and early thirties do serious business on computers in order to better resist the urge to make spur of the moment charges.  

A recent survey found that most millennials use computers for big purchases to quell their impulse shopping urges. Ngampol – stock.adobe.com
A recent survey found that most millennials use computers for big purchases to quell their impulse shopping urges. Ngampol – stock.adobe.com

“Millennials are nearly as likely to make an impulse purchase on their phone (48%) as they are in-store (49%),” noted researchers from Attentive, a personalized messaging platform. “However, they rarely make an impulse purchase on their computers (a measly 3%).”

The findings echo a March 2023 survey, which revealed that tipsy millennials are the leading contributors to America’s $14 billion drunk shopping problem, which sees the not-so-young-anymore adults cracking open their laptops and hitting “add to cart” while under the influence of alcohol.

Online, a number of Y2Kers seconded the sentiments of Longdon’s viral vid.

TikTok content creators of a certain age agreed that plane tickets and vacation bookings must be made on a computer rather than a cellular device. TikTok/@the_bonqueque
TikTok content creators of a certain age agreed that plane tickets and vacation bookings must be made on a computer rather than a cellular device. TikTok/@the_bonqueque

“Big purchases are a laptop activity HANDS DOWN,” agreed TikTok user known digitally as @The_Bonqueque. “You cannot do it on a phone.”

“Plane tickets? Laptop. Going to Disney? Laptop,” the millennial added as over 3.7 million cyber supporters cheered him on. “Buying a couch? Laptop.”

Logan Medeiros, a digital content creator from Montreal, chimed in with her own trending post, saying: “Big purchases with always be done on a laptop and not on a phone.” I don’t make the rules.”

And while many across social media concurred, leaving comments such as, “bigger purchase call for a bigger internet,” a handful of millennial dissenters have hailed cell phones king.

“[I’m] a millennial who can’t relate…I don’t even own a laptop…everything done on my phone!,” confessed one outlier.

“38-year-old millennial here and I’ve booked all my holidays on my phone!,” wrote another. “Haven’t opened a laptop outside of work for years!.”