Turns out Millennials are a little more financially responsible than initially assumed — although they do already spend $913 million of their own money on school supplies. A recent survey by Braun Research for MasterCard Safety and Security reports that 62% of Millennials would rather have their nude photographs leaked than their financial information.
Jordan Bebout, a student at the University of North Florida, says that she’d “rather have [her] financial info compromised.” She adds, “Probably because I’m a college student with no money, so they don’t have anything to steal. [But] nudes are harder to get off of the Internet.” But she was a part of the minority. Of the 305 participants, over half of them would rather see their nudes online than their bank statements.
It’s not necessarily surprising to hear that Millennials don’t really want to deal with a financial security breach. But why the cavalier attitude towards their naked pictures floating around the web? According to Dr. Thomas Plante, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University, as well as a Stanford University School of Medicine adjunct professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, these survey answers could be the result of many things.
“It could reflect our Kim Kardashian-style culture where people feel more and more comfortable posting intimate details of their lives, including nudity, online… There is a narcissism and exhibitionism flavor to our culture that seems to be driven by a variety of factors such as social media, celebrity culture and so forth.”
With over 30 million active Snapchat users, and over 50 million active Tinder users (with the number growing every day), it’s not unrealistic that many of these Millennials may have to face one, if not both, of these options at some point in their lives. But it goes to show that you can never be too careful when protecting your assets, even if your assets are in, well, your photos.