I’m sure most of you read the opinion piece in the New York Times entitled “Save Us, Millenials.” I know it was extensively passed around on Twitter and Facebook last week. I’ve read it at least five times now, and every time, something new jumps out at me.
Now, there have been TONS of books, articles and opinion pieces written about the Millennial generation. From the book Generations (which is next on my list to read), to the article in last month’s Delta Sky Magazine, it seems people just love talking about us. And, my oh my, the adjectives used to describe us are vast: entitled, lazy, driven, optimistic.
Whatever you’d like to call us, I believe Timothy Egan nailed it when he said:
Instead, at a time when most Americans described themselves as “angry,” the generation now entering adulthood is keeping their trademark optimism. A recent, detailed survey of their attitudes done by the Pew Research Center was headlined: “The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change.”
Naturally, we’re the generation most open to change. There’s little in our lives that has remained constant for more than five years, from the way we watch movies and how we learn, to the way we buy things. Exposure to ever-changing technologies and multimedia have made us multi-taskers, quick learners and adaptable. Meanwhile, other generations either have to catch up, or give up. And unfortunately, that “give up” attitude has been applied to too many topics: the environment, government, education, etc. for many of our elders.
The optimism of my generation never ceases to amaze me. Now, I’m not trying to boost us up without giving credit to all the hard work that others put in before us, or argue that Millennials are without any faults. However, I truly believe that our generation isn’t given enough credit. We experienced the fear and uncertainty of 9/11 during our formative years. We continue the trends of being the most-educated, highest numbers of college graduates. And, entered one of the worst job markets in history, where we’re guaranteed to be earn less than our parents. Yet, we are going to change the world.
Whether it’s joining the Peace Corps, volunteering with Big Brothers, Big Sisters or committing to recycling. We want to make a difference. That attitude is inspiring and contagious. So, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t wait to see what we do in our lives, and I hope that one day we’ll make all those other generations realize just how great we are.
#1 by Jesse on June 9, 2010 - 8:05 pm
Kristin, I was inspired by your last post to get over my anxiety about entering the blogging world (even as a mere “commenter”) and add my perspective.
I absolutely agree. In my opinion, some of the criticisms of our generation are unwarranted – particularly the idea that Millenials are lazy. Of my friends and acquaintances, I would say less than 5% work a 40 hour work week. Most think it’s a good night when they’re finished by 7 and don’t think twice about staying at the office until 9 or 10. I don’t think this is as much a result of changing supervisor expectations as it is about Millenials being more driven to go above and beyond. Whether the primary motivation is to better serve a client or to be a candidate for promotion, I don’t think either warrants the descriptor lazy.
#2 by Kristin on June 16, 2010 - 5:13 pm
Jesse,
First, I’m glad that my last post encouraged you to comment. I love hearing your perspective and opinion – so I hope that you continue to comment!
I agree that our generation does work late and commit to their jobs, but I’m not sure if that is what makes us different. I am more inspired by people (like you) who maintain feelings of idealism and are determined to change our world. That attitude is shared across our generation and makes us so different from others!
#3 by Heather on June 14, 2010 - 8:08 pm
I’ve read a number of things about generations and presented on differences between the groups. People love this stuff. However, one thing I found particularly interesting lately was a new take on it – we’re reallly not all that different. Sure, there are tendencies for millenials to be better at technology (since most don’t remember the world before the internet so it’s quite a natural thing), but for the most part, each generation has people who are optimistic, lazy, driven, entitled, etc. I feel many of the differences between generations have more to do with “life stage” than with generation. Plus, all generations like to analyze the next one coming up. Gen X workers were driving baby boomers crazy in the 90′s… Today’s middle schoolers (whatever the next generation name will be) will be driving us all crazy in a few years too… So don’t feel too bad for being picked on. It will only last a few more years and then we’ll have someone new to pick on.