Benny Johnson is a big deal in the digital space.
For one, his personal twitter is reaching nearly 20,000. He is also the creative director of the Independent Journal website; a news feed for Millennials with a penchant for viral hits.
He would also get a mortgage, but there is one thing the home loan is missing to attract Millennials.
During a panel at the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation conference for Housing America’s Families, Johnson talked at length about connecting via social networking to the Millennial hive-mind.
“This is the window to our soul,” he told the mostly Baby Boomers gathered in the audience as he held up his Apple iPhone6.
He even took a selfie with fellow panelist Ayla Brown mid-session (see at bottom).
Johnson mentioned a friend from college who is now filling his social media stream with photos of his successes: pictures of himself on the White House lawn, meeting Marines, etc.
“That fills me with FOMO, fear-of-missing-out,” Johnson said. “Mortgages don’t give me FOMO.”
The panel featured many Millennial panelists, all equally expressive and passionate.
John Paul Cisneros,associate with Siebert, Bradford, Shank and son of former secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former mayor of San Antonio Henry Cisneros, said that might all change as soon as Millennials start having children.
But, that also means those Millennials will need to move out of unaffordable metro areas to make the American Dream happen.
Johnson said he goes on Zillow often, but never even thought of applying for a mortgage. “I would love to get a house,” he said, but doing so wouldn’t inspire his peers to do the same. Could it be that no mortgages lenders want to be his friend online?
“What would give you FOMO,” he asked after, “a selfie with your house or a selfie with Beyonce?”
Great selfie during our #millennial panel @AylaBrown. Very basic. pic.twitter.com/bFQH6AQfjW
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) October 16, 2015
