The millennials

Each generation has a personality all its own, certain traits and characteristics that
define who they are and in what they believe. The millennials are no different and like all
generations that have come before, they have certain challenges to over come. They were
the first to grow up in a world where the technology never stopped increasing and the
web became world wide. Millennials or generation Y live hand and hand with their
technology, cell phones, computers, I-pods and video games. Through social media they
post their everyday lives on sites like acebook, Tumbler and Twitter for the world to see.
!ot to mention they are able do many of these things simultaneously.
The obvious "uestion that I had was# what is a millennial$ or that there is no
easy answer, and this is a topic of much debate. %ome studies show the starting birth year
for the millennials is as far back as &'().Yet others who say &')* or later. The greatest
consciences I could find in my research was the year &')+, which I found some what
shocking since I was born ,ust the year before. I had always presumed I was born well
into generation -, the predecessor of the millennials. The end date for the millennials
being born seems to average about &''' or .///. It should be noted that the start date for
the millennial generation is largely geographical. 0oor and rural communities were
among the last to be plugged in to the internet, witch seems to have been the deciding
factor in weather you are a millennial or not.
There are many reasons the millennials will alter forever the way we see things
like race, gender and social economic status. They have inventive ideas of the way they
wish to live their lives and the issues they feel are important. %o older generations prepare
for something new, because the millennials are coming and they see things differently
than you did. 1hange is inevitable.
Yet there are others who do not agree with me that the millennials will change
things for the better. The chief complaint seems to be in there work ethic or the lack there
of. 2rian %chutt, owner of 3omesense 3eating in Indianapolis, said 4Young people 5ages
.* and under6 have a different work ethic. They ,ust want to play and have fun and
smoke,7 %chutt told orbes maga8ine. %chutt goes on to say that he thinks this is because
the many of millennials are not accustom to losing and as children there parents
encouraged to 4,ust have fun7. Its true there are no participation paychecks in real life
unlike the trophy9s they got ,ust for showing up when they were kids. Many previous
generations have an unnecessarily low opinion of the millennials. 3owever, what past
generation has not thought poorly of the ne:t, as if they had nothing to do with it$
The rescission of .//) hit the millennials hard. ;obs were scarce and even those
who had college degrees found themselves unemployed. 4The millennials ages &) to .'
suffer from nearly twice the unemployment rate of the national average. %ome of them
are not even being counted because they have ,ust given up looking for work all
together.7 Evan einberg writes in 5orbs maga8ine6.It has been a rough road indeed
stepping into your working life, into what is now called 4The great recession7.
<s a result of this economic down turn the millennials who did leave home found
them selves moving back. In a ./&+ article written by 5=onni 2erke for 1.!.! titled
4Brace yourself Mom we are back7 6 states that +>? of young adults &) to .' now live
with their parents and they feel no shame in doing so. Moreover their parents allow it.
This number was unheard of in previous generations.
@espite all the challenges standing in front of the millennials they have at least
one thing on their side, their shear si8e in numbers. Estimated at nearly )/ million strong
according to an article in 2loomburg businessweek by Matthew 0hilips published ;une
.> ./&A. The millennials are even bigger than the 2aby 2oomer generation and This has
happened before 4In &')+ A.+ million .+ year olds were about to start their careers. Their
timing was perfect, the B.%. was emerging from a deep recession, and business needed
the cheap labor of all those young workers.7 said 0hilips. It helped usher in almost ./
years of economic prosperity. 2uying cars, houses and investing in the stock market led
to one of the longest peacetime e:pansions in modern history. Even if they may not be as
well off as past generations the millennials are the group that will one day be in charge.
42y the year ./.* they will make up (*? of the workforce 50hilips6 and are the only
generation large enough to pay into the failing social security program and foot the bill
for all those boomers now approaching retirement age.
The millennials are not happy to ,ust grind away at ,obs they hate, working long
hours like they watched their parents do. They want more out of life and don9t want to
spend it all at work. amily, friends and being happy are the new priorities, while blind
careerism is beginning to fade away. CThey choose meaningful work and fle:ible
schedules over salary. ItDs a matter of figuring out what they want. E They want to find
what connects best with their values and what theyDre good at.C said @an %chawbel,
founder of a 2oston consulting firm, in an article for the 51hicago Tribune6 titled
millennials want more out of work. Fhat could possibly be wrong with that, how many
older baby boomers or even Gen -ers do you know that say happiness is achieved by
spending A/ hours a week at a ,ob you can9t stand, because I am unable to think of one.
Fith this new attitude towards the workplace employers are being forced to reali8e the
fact that the millennials will put themselves, friends and family before their careers.
In a 0ew research center survey conducted eb &A through .+ ./&A, it was evident
that the millennials are not in a hurry to get married. Fith only .>? tying the knot
compared with Gen- +>? and the 2aby boomer at A)?. 2ut what the millennials do
support in contrast to their own low marriage rate is same-se: marriage. %even out of ten
people age9s &) to++ support marriage e"uality for same se: couples. Even if they get
more conservative with age like many generations do, same se: marriage is her to stay. <
sub,ect still considered taboo and widely unaccepted by their predecessors. This is yet
another sign of how the millennials see gender differently then in years past.
The young women of the millennial generation feel empowered and are getting
the education to back it up, the result of growing up in households where mom and dad
often shared an e"ual role. 4The millennial generation is the first in B.%. history in which
women are more likely to attend and graduate from college and professional school than
are men.7 %aid Michael @. 3ais and Morley Finograd in the national ,ournal article
entitled 5Race? No, Millennials Care Most About Gender Equality.6 2y ./&> women of
the generation are e:pected to earn more than >/? of all associate, bachelor and masters
degrees 53ais Finograd6. Fithout doubt this is a sign that the glass ceiling is coming
down and the men and women of the millennial generation will stand e"ually on top.
The diversity of the Millennials may be a large factor in their openness to change.
In fact the millennial generation is the most divers in <merican history. In the same
earlier sited 0ew research center survey. 4%ome A+? of millennial adults are non white,
the highest share of any generation. < ma,or factor behind this trend is the large wave of
3ispanic and <sian immigrants coming to the B.% for the past half century and who9s
<merican born children are now reaching adulthood.7 It is no surprise to me that the
millennials seldom see color. 2eing raised in a school system where the greater part of
your classmates are something other than white, will without doubt change the way race
is perceived by your generation. or the millennials it9s almost a non factor all together.
It is a tough world the millennials are maturing in. < poor economy, a government
that accomplishes little or nothing and all the vast consensuses of growing up in the
shadow of the falling towers. Their parents told them when they were young that they
could be anything they wanted to be, now the millennials have come of age to inherit the
world and shape it their own way. The millennials will change how we all view many
things in years to come and I for one welcome it. Their music may suck, they dress weird
but the millennials high minded idealistic views are ,ust what we need and the future is in
their hands.