Journalism / Millennials (Analysis)
They are called the Millennials, Generation DotNet, Generation Y, and many other names. So who are they? Why are they different? What things have shaped them? There are many factors: the events experienced as a group, political involvement, beliefs about the world around them, and other general characteristics that will be discussed. Are the Millenials the slackers they are perceived to be, or are they the next revolution?
The birth dates that define this generation is the span between 1978 and 1994. The events they have experienced as a group include the Challenger explosion, the first Children Summit at the UN, David Koresh at Waco, TX, cartoons-with-attitude (starting with the Simpsons in 1990, South Park, etc.), the Oklahoma City bombing, the cloning of Dolly, the Columbine Shootings, and the attacks on 9/11.
Psychology states that core values are programmed in the first 15-16 years of life. (Merrill Associates, June 2004) As a generation they have never known a time without ATM’s, VCR’s/DVD’s, PC’s, CD’s, MTV, CNN, and SUV’s. The other side is that unfortunately they have also never known a time without AIDS, crack, terrorist attacks, and kids shooting and killing other kids. All of these things change a society, and when they happen at such a young age, they have an even greater impact.
There have been plenty of groups, especially employers that are quick to call them lazy, apathetic, and irresponsible, but that is an uninformed assumption. In May 2007 Fortune had this to say about Generation Y: “The good news is they’re also going to be the most high-performing workforce in the history of the world. They walk in with more information in their heads, more information at their fingertips – and, sure, they have high expectations, but they have the highest expectations first and foremost for themselves.” Generation Y has also been documented as putting volunteerism at an all time high in this country; 30% of students grades 6-12 volunteer more than 80 hours per year (USA Weekend 2005). Another study shows that 61% of 13-25-year-olds feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world (USA Today 2006).
There are ten generalized characteristics that describe this group and reasons behind them.
First of all, they are impatient. Growing up in a world which has been taken over with computers, the internet, MTV, video games, and cell phones; they have never had to wait for anything. Generation Y views the world as a drop-down menu of choices. Many people view this as a negative thing. The reality is, the entire world is moving more quickly, changes that used to require 10-15 years, now happen in a matter of months. This is a good thing in technology, medicine, business, and politics. Today’s technology can be adjusted much more quickly now than before, this can be seen in cell phones and computers. Where it would have taken years to fix the bugs in a software system in the early 80’s even, now there is a faster and better computer produced every month or so. Cures to diseases are discovered more quickly; there may be a cure for cancer and AIDS in our lifetime. Businesses develop and expand more quickly now than ever before. When the government makes a change in this country it takes a much shorter time for citizens to adapt to it.
They are highly adaptable and there is an upside and a downside to this one. On the positive, they have never had time to get embedded in old patterns or routines. They are progressive and embrace change. Change, which when used for the right reasons, can have a very positive effect on all of society. As the economy is ever changing there is a willingness to develop new skills and not simply be specialized in one area, so they have more marketable skills. This is very important as job security has become highly unlikely, with companies like Enron, which lost 21,000 employees (Time June 2002) Hewlett Packard cutting 14,500 jobs (New York Times July 2005) and Motorola getting rid of 25,000 employees (PBS Economic Snapshot August 2001). On the negative side, there is a lack of interest in history which could be a huge downfall. History tends to repeat itself, and lack of interest equals lack of knowledge, and the ability to learn from past mistakes and prepare for what is to come.
This adaptability causes Generation Y to question everything. They are open to new possibilities and use innovation to avoid boredom. They are not only comfortable with technology they are taking it to new levels, like Sarah Flannery who developed a new encryption algorithm which is 22 times faster than the current RSA encryption system, which is used to secure e-commerce transactions (WIRED Jan. 1999). They’re ambitious, they’re demanding and they question everything, (Fortune May 2005).
Another description of this generation calls them over-achieving, and over-scheduled. Having schedules packed with school, sports, arts, clubs, activities, and volunteerism; makes for very skilled time managers and multi-taskers. They are efficient, seeking maximum results with minimum effort. This generation prefers to analyze problems, choose a solution, and move forward; instead of waiting for things to happen, make them happen. This is one of the characteristics that make employers view Gen Y as lazy. Employers are not accustomed to workers doing things in an original way. At AT&T when younger workers began to request working from home one day per week, they were originally turned down, but Mr. Hammill, the director of employment, decided to give it a chance. He began with the management team letting them work from home one day a week, and they loved it (Times Free Press March 2007).
Generation Y has seen professional athletes discredited, presidents caught in lies, the confessions of Princess Diana, and the media debunk other past heroes. This has lead to them being highly skeptical and wary of trusting others. They have few illusions of the world, and value truth and honesty, and trust their own research over taking anything at face value. “Millennials have just about seen and heard it all. Jaded? No, just equipped with a finely tuned radar — and low tolerance — for BS.” (Iconoculture 2007) This means they think for themselves, they look for their own answers to questions. When it comes to politics and social change, this is wonderful because they dislike embellishments, over-inflated promises, and will hold others to commitments made. “Their three key values are trust, loyalty and honesty” (Career One Nov. 2005)
Access to so much information, and viewing the ugly side of life at such a young age has made Generation Y very resilient. They are slow-to-shock and quick-to-react risk takers because they feel we are equipped to tackle anything life throws at us. Respect is something strange for them; they do not give it easily, they address elders as their equals, which makes them appear disrespectful and too outspoken. This does not equal a lack of respect in fact many of today’s young entrepreneurs have demoted themselves in favor of older CEOs. (Inc.com July 2007) At the same time the expect respect automatically, they are quite confident in themselves and believe that they deserve to be equal to others.
Generation Y was born at a time when family was becoming popular again. Parents began been involving children in decisions, their opinions were valued and they have been encouraged to speak up. Due to this Gen Yers have become independent thinkers, blunt, and honest. Often what others perceive as attitude is simply authenticity on their part. They believe in being straight-forward and giving immediate feedback. “If we ever think there’s a better way of doing things, we’re going to pitch the idea very quickly,” –James Fowler, Youth Services (Times Free Press 2007). This is a positive trait it makes them more willing to communicate freely as a group about decision that will affect everyone. “What we’ve found is that there are very few problems that a team of people working well together can’t overcome.”—Brenton Taylor, Inogen. This is especially important when it involves community or political policies, as they will be comfortable voicing their opinions, concerns, and ideas to come to an agreeable resolution, which is the basis of democracy.
Generation Y is a true product of the Civil Rights Movement, the most globally aware and racially diverse generation yet. This quality makes them slow to judge others and possessive of great openness. They have the ability to cross gender and racial lines and work as a team with anyone, due to not being tied down by prejudices that affected previous generations. Incredible tolerance is one of their most defining characteristics. In a world filled with honor students displaying green hair, and college virgins covered in tattoos and piercing, preconceived notions of appearance are no longer valid.
With all of these things going on, The Millenials’ greatest desire is to find a purpose and something to believe in. This can make them appear to be unwilling to work and uncommitted. In truth they are highly committed and fiercely loyal when they find something they believe is worth their participation. An excellent example of this is Joshua Butler, and accountant at KPMG, they allowed him to arrange his schedule around his bodybuilder training. Josh responded by saying, “You know what? This firm has shown a commitment to me. Let me in turn show some commitment to the firm.” (CNN Money May 2007). However, this means they aren’t going to be satisfied working menial jobs, they desire to achieve great things in their lives. Sure there will always be someone to work in the fast food industry, but the majority of them are striving for a greater purpose, and a higher level of satisfaction in their lives; which will be a terrific boost for the economy.
So what are the differences between Generation Y and the previous generations? Polls show that citizens between the ages of 18-29 exhibit the most support for Civil Unions (54%), and gay marriage (44%). This comes from high tolerance of other lifestyles, due to greater diversity. When concerning the importance of legal marriage Generation Y shows the least amount of support (37%). They are the smallest group to regularly vote in politics (22%), this is largely due to loss of faith in the government, from seeing politicians lying and involved in scandals, to disagreement with the war in Iraq. (PEW Research Center July 2007)
The differences between the previous generations and Generation Y are vast, and while some believe that these are negative trends for society; they are simply different. The world moves more quickly, and Gen Yers have adapted to it, and improved the technology. They look to improve their lives over the lives of their parents, and hold everyone to high standards of integrity. They are not afraid to speak out and express their opinions, but greatly admire the experiences of the older generations. This group does not hold prejudices, instead they believe in team work and outcome over presentation, and while they can be demanding they are also, fiercely loyal to other who show the same commitment to them. Generation Y has grown up in this rapidly developing world and I am personally excited to see what the next generation has to offer us.
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Hi, first of all I think this is a bit too long to sustain the interest of the reader throughout. You risk losing the attention of the readers attention half-way through. You may have a lot of information to share, but you have to look at it from the reader’s point of view too. Still, a simple way of allowing yourself to be a little lengthy, and yet hold the attention of the reader, in fact a necessity for articles of this length, is to put subheadings, which you have completely forgotten. Now, coming to the content, I feel it sounds more like a paean than an insightful analysis, you could have titled it An Ode to the Millenials, than simply Millenials. You found one very teeny downside somewhere, though, but basically you go on lavishing praise on this whole generation of people, which could constitute 1/5 or 1/4th of the whole population. It would be better if you try to put yourself apart and investigate the situation from a more mature, objective and sociological viewpoint. Instead, though you use third person plural, it is clear that you speak as one of them, which is not bad in itself, but it tends to narrow your perspective, as it has happened here. The presentation of the article is not too amateurish, but it is not very professional either. Language and grammar -wise, there are quite a few obvious errors, and this piece needs to be edited (In May 2007 Fortune had – comma). What I am very uneasy about this article is your way of making distinct demarcation and making categorical statements throughout. Say, I’m born in 1977 – and since I missed your span category by one year, did I miss out on the holy status of being a millennial? What is such a great difference between people born in 1977 and people born in 1978? But you make historical time seem like a political map, at this precise line ends the US and begins Mexico! And what about children born in 1995 – do they belong to the generation z automatically? In fifteen days more 2008 would be here and, age-wise, they would be at the same place where children born 1994 were sometime back. Your water-tight compartmentalization is rather silly and throughout the article your effort to portray what you perceive to be a distinct race of people among us as a species apart totally ruins the article. Instead you could have begun on a more realistic premise like this: “these tend to be some of the more prominent characteristics of a majority of youngsters of today, and even of slightly older people. But, roughly speaking, people born between 1978 and 1994 are categorized as the ‘millennials’.” -and so on. Millennials is not a noun in the dictionary, it is only an adjective, so you should put it in quotes to begin with. You should begin with a summary of what you are saying, so that even if a person (a typical generation y’er with a short attention span) goes away from reading your article after the first paragraph, he would get some of the main points of your argument. In these types of articles, the first paragraph is very crucial to adumbrate the rest of the content and set the scene. But in this first paragraph, you are so vague and outright wrong. “Political involvement” has shaped this generation? Do you have any clue what are you talking about? Political involvement may have shaped a younger generation in the Communist russia or cuba of 1960’s, and “beliefs” and perceptions may have shaped the hippie generation of the 1970’s america. But it is technology that is the most determining factor in shaping the “Generation dotnet.” And all the 20-somethings are perceived to be slackers? By whom? Everyone knows there are more young millionaires today than ever, by far. Did they earn their millions by slaking? I’ve no clue what you are talking about. I could go on pointing things at every sentence of your article, but there is no space. I can see that you have done a good amount of research on this, and put in a sincere effort to write the article, but unfortunately, the result is still a largely sloppy and uninformative piece.
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“The birth dates that define this generation is the span between 1978 and 1994” – I would remove is the and say ‘spans between 1978 and 1974
“The other side is that unfortunately they have also never known a time without AIDS, crack, terrorist attacks, and kids shooting and killing other kids.” – and how is this experience so different from previous generations and their ills, small pox, polio, bombing of Pearl Harbor, hanging of black people, etc.
“First of all, they are impatient.” – First of all almost sounds confrontational; like a verbal pointing of the finger. Is there a way to begin your list of 10 differently. Also:
1. Impatient
2. Adaptable
3. Over achievers
4. Value truth & honesty
5. Resilient
6. Independent thinkers
7. globally aware & recially diverse
8. Purpose driven
Unless I am mistaken 2 characteristics are missing? You stated there are 10 generalized characteristics. Are you counting truth & honesty as 2?
Your piece is titled Millenials but then you reference Gen Y as the noun throughout the remainder of the piece. Millenials is hardly heard from again. I think your title needs to be and could be more captivating otherwise why would I want to read it?
“entire world is moving more quickly, changes that used to require 10-15 years” – I would place a (.) after quickly and©hanges that…
“He began with the management team letting them work from home one day a week, and they loved it (Times Free Press March 2007).” – you prove that it is great for the worker, I would suggest proving the impact it also has on the employer, ie. better productivity, fewer out sick, etc.
“they feel we are equipped to tackle anything life throws at us” – your pronouns do not match up; I would suggest ‘their feeling is they are equipped to tackle anything life throws at them.’
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