Millennials
31/05/16 05:15
Our local paper has been running a sort of series about older youth and young adults who are working hard and accomplishing important tasks. I think it is a sort of a counter argument to some of the disparaging things that have been said about millennials. The articles have been interesting, if not earth-shattering. A 15-year-old who is working hard at a summer job and whose supervisor says is doing a good job is really not big news. There are plenty of teens who are faithful workers and whose work experience will prepare them for other life experiences. I had summer jobs during my teenage years and I count them as formative experiences.
The interesting thing about the articles is that the definition of millennials used by the newspaper doesn’t line up with accepted generational theory. I’m not a big fan of generational theory as it can lead to grouping individuals in ways that label them and create false expectations. Not everyone is in line with their age cohort.
Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote several books on generational theory and they are credited with coining the term “Millennial.” It is a reference to those who have come into their adulthood in the early years of the 21st Century. According to their work there are six living generations in our country today:
The GI Generation are those born between 1901 and 1926. Their lives have been shaped by the Great Depression and World War II. Tom Brokaw coined the term “greatest generation” for this group and the name has been accepted by many others.
The Silent Generation, also called the Mature Generation are those born between 1937 and 1945. These were young adults during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In general they have enjoyed the richest and longest retirements in history.
Baby Boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964. This group is often sub-divided between “revolutionaries” who came of age in the sixties, and “yuppies” or “career climbers” who came of age in the seventies and early eighties. This is the first generation to have their young lives shaped by television.
Generation X is the next generation, born between 1965 and 1980. Many of this generation were “latch key kids,” who grew up with divorced and/or career driven parents. This group never got a very “catchy” title and they often report that they don’t feel like they are a generation - they share little with their age cohorts and much with the members of other generations.
The Millennials, also called Generation Y, born between 1981 and 2000 had parents who were much more present than those of Generation X. In many cases their parents were omnipresent and their lives were heavily scheduled. They are the first generation to take access to the nearly unlimited information of the Internet for granted.
Generation Z, also known as the boomlets or the homeland generation, were born after 2001. The attack on the World Trade Center is often listed as the event that started a new generation. This will be a large generation, with birth rates up in the United States. There are over 30 million of them already and they represent a significant slice of the economy. It is estimated that youth between 8 and 12 years old represent $51 billion in direct spending with an additional $170 billion spent by parents and other family members. They have never known a world without computers and cell phones.
Of course these definitions do not tell the stories of any individuals. There are many exceptions in every generation and generalities often end up leading to false assumptions. In a sense each family has its own generations depending on the specific times of births and deaths of previous generations. For example my wife and I have experienced the death of our parents and are the oldest living generation in our family. We have peers whose parents are still alive and even a few whose grandparents are living. We are grandparents of young children, but we have peers whose grandchildren are teens and some whose grandchildren are young adults. We have other peers who are not yet grandparents. Those experiences shape our lives in some ways more profoundly than our age cohort.
At any rate, I think that the series in the newspaper is missing the point if it is trying to counter the complaints that are frequently lodged against millennials. I suspect that the writers haven’t even read simple introductions to generational theory as presented in this blog post.
From my perspective, the issues faced by millennials are not so much whether or not they are capable of working, or whether or not they think of their future, but rather that they are experiencing some significant challenges in making the transition to adult living. Many of them have enjoyed great privilege and have good educations. They have experienced summer jobs and some have significant work experience. A significant number have had close personal relationships, though that is very different for them than it was for my generation. The average age of 1st marriage is creeping toward 30 and there is an extended period of a decade or more of transition, when young adults are engaging in close relationships, but not yet married. The effects of a volatile economy has meant that establishing a career has been a significant challenge for many. We know quite a few young adults who are living with their parents, not because they lack the desire to be independent, or because they are unwilling to work, but rather that they can’t find a career path and even though they are college educated haven’t yet found jobs related to their educational experience. Like the extended period of experimentation preceding marriage, there seems to be an extended period of job drifting before settling into a career. Young adults are often unsettled for many years before making commitments.
We all are affected by the history and culture of our times. It is meaningless to blame any age group for the lives they live. I simply think it would have been more interesting for the newspaper to explore the lives of millennials engaged in that difficult period of transition rather than grabbing a few easy “feel good” stories about teens who are doing well at an earlier phase of the transition from youth to adulthood. I suspect that transition is much more difficult for the millennials than it has been for some of the preceding generations.
The interesting thing about the articles is that the definition of millennials used by the newspaper doesn’t line up with accepted generational theory. I’m not a big fan of generational theory as it can lead to grouping individuals in ways that label them and create false expectations. Not everyone is in line with their age cohort.
Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote several books on generational theory and they are credited with coining the term “Millennial.” It is a reference to those who have come into their adulthood in the early years of the 21st Century. According to their work there are six living generations in our country today:
The GI Generation are those born between 1901 and 1926. Their lives have been shaped by the Great Depression and World War II. Tom Brokaw coined the term “greatest generation” for this group and the name has been accepted by many others.
The Silent Generation, also called the Mature Generation are those born between 1937 and 1945. These were young adults during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In general they have enjoyed the richest and longest retirements in history.
Baby Boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964. This group is often sub-divided between “revolutionaries” who came of age in the sixties, and “yuppies” or “career climbers” who came of age in the seventies and early eighties. This is the first generation to have their young lives shaped by television.
Generation X is the next generation, born between 1965 and 1980. Many of this generation were “latch key kids,” who grew up with divorced and/or career driven parents. This group never got a very “catchy” title and they often report that they don’t feel like they are a generation - they share little with their age cohorts and much with the members of other generations.
The Millennials, also called Generation Y, born between 1981 and 2000 had parents who were much more present than those of Generation X. In many cases their parents were omnipresent and their lives were heavily scheduled. They are the first generation to take access to the nearly unlimited information of the Internet for granted.
Generation Z, also known as the boomlets or the homeland generation, were born after 2001. The attack on the World Trade Center is often listed as the event that started a new generation. This will be a large generation, with birth rates up in the United States. There are over 30 million of them already and they represent a significant slice of the economy. It is estimated that youth between 8 and 12 years old represent $51 billion in direct spending with an additional $170 billion spent by parents and other family members. They have never known a world without computers and cell phones.
Of course these definitions do not tell the stories of any individuals. There are many exceptions in every generation and generalities often end up leading to false assumptions. In a sense each family has its own generations depending on the specific times of births and deaths of previous generations. For example my wife and I have experienced the death of our parents and are the oldest living generation in our family. We have peers whose parents are still alive and even a few whose grandparents are living. We are grandparents of young children, but we have peers whose grandchildren are teens and some whose grandchildren are young adults. We have other peers who are not yet grandparents. Those experiences shape our lives in some ways more profoundly than our age cohort.
At any rate, I think that the series in the newspaper is missing the point if it is trying to counter the complaints that are frequently lodged against millennials. I suspect that the writers haven’t even read simple introductions to generational theory as presented in this blog post.
From my perspective, the issues faced by millennials are not so much whether or not they are capable of working, or whether or not they think of their future, but rather that they are experiencing some significant challenges in making the transition to adult living. Many of them have enjoyed great privilege and have good educations. They have experienced summer jobs and some have significant work experience. A significant number have had close personal relationships, though that is very different for them than it was for my generation. The average age of 1st marriage is creeping toward 30 and there is an extended period of a decade or more of transition, when young adults are engaging in close relationships, but not yet married. The effects of a volatile economy has meant that establishing a career has been a significant challenge for many. We know quite a few young adults who are living with their parents, not because they lack the desire to be independent, or because they are unwilling to work, but rather that they can’t find a career path and even though they are college educated haven’t yet found jobs related to their educational experience. Like the extended period of experimentation preceding marriage, there seems to be an extended period of job drifting before settling into a career. Young adults are often unsettled for many years before making commitments.
We all are affected by the history and culture of our times. It is meaningless to blame any age group for the lives they live. I simply think it would have been more interesting for the newspaper to explore the lives of millennials engaged in that difficult period of transition rather than grabbing a few easy “feel good” stories about teens who are doing well at an earlier phase of the transition from youth to adulthood. I suspect that transition is much more difficult for the millennials than it has been for some of the preceding generations.