Gregory Rodriguez over at the L.A. Times wrote a column on Monday questioning the ability of the Millennial generation to cope with the country’s ongoing recession:
“…The millennial generation — the computer-savvy, coddled and cocky children of the 1980s — may find that the current financial crisis is their crucible. If they survive it.
Variously dubbed “Generation Me,” “Generation Y” or the “Everyone Gets an Award Generation,” today’s twentysomethings are to the boomers what the Japanese are to electronics. If the baby boomers invented me-first hyper-individualism, then the millennials have perfected it. Indeed, millennials are the children of the boomers, the product of family planing and the cult of self-esteem. They are hellbent on making it by their own rules.
A lot of those who are studying millennials have identified this “we’ll do it our way” tendency as a sign of entitlement and weakness; by this logic, this won’t be the greatest generation, just the whiniest and the neediest. But in my experience — I’m Generation X with the Ys on my heels — and in the studies of another set of observers, all that confidence instills in them just what their folks hoped it would: resilience. OK, arrogance and resilience.”
This is a pet peeve of mine, mostly because this is the latest in a long line of articles I’ve seen that just gets it plain wrong on what the Millennial generation is all about.
To start with, many commentators point to our use of technology and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to label Millennials as self-obsessed, desperate to inform the world about what we’re eating for lunch while killing the English language with our darn netspeak. This focus on the trivial misses the much larger point – that these innovations allow us to be more connected to each other than ever before, and that these connections can go far beyond the internet and into real world action. After all, we just witnessed an election that revolutionized the way young people interact with politics (hello, YouTube debates), and politics itself was forced to change to meet the new demands of its audience (check out those Congressional Tweeters).
I also take issue with the other labels Millennials always get slapped with: entitled and unrealistic. Mr. Rodriguez quotes Jean Twenge, the author of “Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled –and More Miserable Than Ever Before,” as saying that “If [millennials] don’t adjust to reality, many are going to end up with a lot of disappointment.” Mr. Rodriguez and Ms. Twenge are misinterpreting young people’s attitudes. While this generation has benefited from extraordinary opportunities, nothing has been handed to us. Rather than exhibiting naiveté or arrogance, Millennials display a simple belief that the way things are now doesn’t dictate the way things will stay forever.
And in times of hardship, that attitude is critical. There’s one thing Mr. Rodriguez gets right in his column: the Millennial generation is resilient. We have to be. Franklin Roosevelt once said, “To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation has a rendezvous with destiny.” His words are as true today as they were back when our grandparents were young people themselves, entering adulthood with the weight of the Great Depression and the Second World War on their backs.
We’re inheriting a planet on the edge of a climatic catastrophe, an economic meltdown that is threatening our families and ourselves, and ongoing wars that too many of our friends have fought and died in. The costs of an education are saddling us with the equivalent of a mortgage before we even leave school, the job market pretty much sucks for those of us entering the workforce, and more than 13 million of us (and counting) are going without health insurance.
But, unlike Mr. Rodriguez, I don’t question the ability of our generation to meet these challenges. Much is expected of us, but the optimism that he seems to belittle as transitory or suspect is the very quality that will allow us to weather this time of crisis and upheaval. We do have faith: in the ability of governments and institutions to make people’s lives better, and in the hard work and personal responsibility that will make it happen.
And we’ll be happy to take the lead.
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As another Generation X’er with the Y’s nipping at my heels I have to agree with the article, and considering I teach this generation at the college level I can back up much of the article’s assumptions with hard facts and more stories than I can count. The young twenty-something’s have a sense of entitlement like I’ve never seen, and is something commented on frequently by the older staff on campus as a major concern in the education system. Time to take a step back and see that your own generation is in fact filled with whiners and individuals who think they deserve everything handed to them.
Sorry, Anon. I have to disagree with yours and Mr. Rodriguez's opinion.
And I also agree with it.
As both a member of, and someone who teaches Gen Y, I can say that our generation is the biggest bunch of confused, proactive, self-serving, world-reaching, networked, isolated, resilient, fragile, lazy, hard-working, opportunistic self-starting, brain-dead and imaginative, boring and exciting bunch of winning losers I've ever seen. There's a lot of double negatives in my generation. I love it and hate it at the same time.
My generation *does* want things handed to them. But many of them also don't want to take over the family business. They want to carve out their niche in the world, but with so many options, paths and subsequent responsibilities, they don't know where to start. We've got the youngest families, the most amount of debt, and something we really really dislike: the older generation telling us what to do.
Rodriguez basically says we're a smart (but scattered) generation, and his only real fault with them is that they might not know how to prepare themselves in the dawn of a recession. That the oncoming debt crisis may put a roadblock in the path of their expectations.
But who's to blame? The Y'ers or the employers? Rodriguez even quoted the CEO of Jobfox as saying that "Businesses must learn new ways to incorporate Gen Y views. … The companies that succeed … will be the ones that can most inspire Generation Y. This is the most educated and technologically savvy generation ever."
But then Rodriguez says that was before the recession. But he doesn't offer proof as why a financial crisis would make us any less educated and connected.
If anything, it might give us some perspective.
Generations will always consider the new wave of young folks as "having it easier." They'll try and tell the new generation how lucky they are just to have ____ & ____. And the new generations won't listen, again.
I also teach this generation at the college level, Anon, and I've learned that you get back what you put in. If you can inspire this generation, they will be unstoppable. But unless you do that, Gen Y won't respect you one bit. And the older generation hates the idea of having to earn respect to this group of self-important little prits. But I've seen it happen. If you keep asking them "why?" and teach them how to speak up for themselves, they can be amazing. But the old ways don't equal the same solutions, especially in the classroom setting. They need constant change, real-world dilemmas. They need to know what they are actually capable of. And until the older generation can do that, the newer one will continue to amuse themselves however they please.
So in short, I believe that both sides of this argument have very valid points. But we can't do the "old man yelling at the punk kids on his lawn" thing. This generation has been given a world of information. Someone needs to show them how to use it. And do understand *that* you have to stoop to their level, and realize that everything changes.
Can I get a w00t?
As theleastresistance points out, every generation is full of contradictions. A 20 year spread of people is bound to have some differences of opinion. But Rodriguez and anon’s characterizations of Millennials (born 1982-200?) totally misses what they are about. They, as a group, are more team and civic oriented than any since the GI Generation (born 1901-1924). Yeah, they act entitled, but is that such a terrible thing? Boomers destroyed the GI society as young adults and Gen X was full of cynicism. Every generation has its faults.
Here’s the real issue: this crisis won’t be over until 2025 and we need Millennials to see us through the thing. I agree with Justine that the Millennials optimism is critical to getting us through. We also need Gen X’s pragmatism and Boomer vision. Can’t we all just get along?
Dave and theleastresistance make some very interesting points here.
Dave, I checked out your site, and it’s great – a fellow Howe and Strauss fan, I see! I particularly liked this observation you made: “The ideological battle for how society should look will be debated by the Boomers and fought by the Millennials (born 1982-200?).”
I think this speaks to some of what theleastresistance was saying – with the proper inspiration, Millennials are unstoppable. And the older Boomer and Gen X’ers are in a unique position to provide some of this guidance. Developing these mentor-like relationships is, in my mind, a far more productive use of time than criticizing Millennials for having a different world view.
how do you inspire someone who feels as if everything should be placed on in front of him/her before any actual work is done? the best way to inspire and force someone to act is to give him/her a cold dose of reality. unfortunately this economic downturn is that dose.
Anon, you have it all wrong. You are doing “the old man yelling at the punk kids” thing. I bet you are a college professor who tells your students what you want them to know instead of having discussions and/or debates about the whos, whys, whats, wheres, and hows of the information presented. You probably expect your students to read the text, come to class and be lectured, and then come to class and take a test, all without any real thinking or problem solving, just memorizing and regurgitating information. I personally won’t be apologetic for questioning.
As a former college student and Millenial (1984), I don’t expect anyone to hand me anything on a silver platter. I work damn hard for what I have. It may not be in a factory on an assembly line or some other menial labor nine to five that was one of the primary employers for past generations, especially in my home state of Michigan. Instead, I am a Millenial who uses her brains and ideology to get ahead in my career. My employees are motivated, not through harsh words and scare tactics, but through rewards and recognition. “Work smarter, not harder” is the motto of my generation and we’re damn proud of it.
Too many people in this world look down upon us, but we have shown that we can overcome adversity and rise up. We did it with this past election and we will continue to do so with the current recession and in the future as well. There are a myriad of traits that we possess, many positive and many contradictory. We are an unapologetic, passionate, headstrong group who have been witness to too many things caused by the older generations that we plan to fix. We are not an apathetic group, but, rather, are the opposite. We instill and inspire change whether on a small scale or a large one.