There really are some significant differences. If you grow up with a cell phone in one hand and having instant access to any information and many services, you are just different than me, who grew up without those things. I'm seeing more and more of these differences ever since my nephew has been living with me. I have to keep reminding myself that my way isn't necessarily the right way, but I can tell you this: on a cloudy day, he can't find his way home from a new place because GPS. He doesn't know how to read a map and really has no interest in even learning general directions (he doesn't know if his job is to the East or the West of where we live). Part of that is him, part is his parents, but part is also his generation. These were normal things that we all HAD to learn back when I was in school. now, not so much.
Yeah, I see this with my high school students. Information is so easy for them to find ... so they don't put effort into
really listening or remembering -- after all, it's so easy to pick it up again. And as a result, it seems that their knowledge is more superficial than that of older generations, and
they don't understand that. Yeah, they can pull up facts super-fast, but can they fit those facts into an educated world view? Not so much for many of my students.
I think the defining difference is not the "millennial" thing but how ubiquitous computers/technology was in your childhood.
People who are in their early 30s did not grow up with computers from their early childhood. But move that back 5-10 years? Very different childhood experiences, with respect to computing.
Thought 1: Whether you grew up with a computer or not definitely makes a difference. Thinking of my students again, they're all Millenials in terms of age, but the top 25% are fantastic with computers. They genuinely understand them and can make technology work for them. On the other hand, the bottom 25% are clueless. They're users of technology, but they don't really understand it; for example, when they save a piece of work they've completed in class today, they can't find it tomorrow -- when asked where they saved it, they don't understand that you can save to different places. They don't know how to send emails. They are baffled by the idea of submitting a paper electronically. They can't troubleshoot. They are consumers of technology but not users of technology. And the middle 50% falls somewhere in the middle of these two groups -- they're not real manipulators of technology, nor are they complete idiots.
And if you ask these kids whether they have computers at home, the trend is easy to see: The real users have had computers from a young age; their parents gave them age-appropriate computer games when they were toddlers. They've learned. On the other hand, the lower group has grown up with sketchy computer usage at most, and they don't grasp that their phones ARE computers. They claim they hate computers, can't understand computers ... in the same way kids say they hate math and can't understand math.
Thought 2, which seems to conflict with the above: Those of us who didn't grow up with computers aren't lost -- and neither are my above-mentioned students; they just aren't putting in the effort. I finished my first college degree before I ever used a computer, but today I teach a technology class in high school and next year I'll be teaching that same class plus two online classes. So never think that a person who didn't grow up with today's technology is incapable of learning these things -- it's not really rocket science, but you have to realize that it's important.
The millennials represent a sea change, politically, for this country. And they have much different core values than the Boomers, in particular. These 2 facts make a lot of (conservative) people very, very uncomfortable. So they make fun of the millennials at every opportunity, because they fear the inevitable change they represent.
No, while the M. generation is different, people are still people. I don't think my students' core values are all that different, and I know my children's values are almost identical to mine. The one issue that seems to be age-divided is the attitude towards gay marriage/rights/etc. But on other big topics like religion and politics, I don't see significant changes, though I do see more outspokenness. The other thing I see among the Millennials is a huge increase in the number of people -- mostly girls -- who have problems with Anxiety; and I can see a number of reasons why this might be true. The other thing I see on this board -- much more strongly than other places -- is that Millennials have very thin skin. That is, they can't see their own faults and are quick to blame others for their own shortcomings.
But no, you're not making older people nervous. That's just silly.
As another poster said, I think it's funny when boomers complain about the millennials, when they're the ones that created all the special snowflakes :).
See, that's a good example: Millennials hear a discussion about their generation and think it's a complaint -- or a personal attack on them. Thin skin.
I'm pretty sure Gen Xers were the first generation written about in the media who took this mentality.
Something that hasn't been mentioned yet, but it's significant: Gen X has been written about MUCH MORE than any generation in history. This has given the group a group mentality in a way that previous generations haven't had.
I have one millennial under my roof, at the end the millennial age bracket. One thing I noticed with this kid and most of his classmates they don't really care about fancy cars, a $3,000 clunker is just fine if they even have a car at all. A big old house is of no importance, they just don't care about most material things.
I'd say yes and no ... Millennials care less about name brand clothes than my generation, but they consider it acceptable, ordinary, expected to spend frivolously on going out to eat, picking up expensive coffees, etc. They expect to own the newest tech and unlimited data plans. No, I don't see the Millennials as any less into material things -- they've just shifted the spending to different targets.
It's not millenials that came up with work smart, not hard.
Lots of disagreement here about work -- this won't be resolved for several reasons: Jobs aren't all the same. I'm in a job that rewards people for staying; has nothing to do with my birth year -- people ten years younger than me are following the same career path I'm following; it's the smart choice for our profession. Other jobs reward people for job-hopping.
The one thing that is absolutely true is that no matter who you are: It takes a while of slaving away before you start to feel successful, and most of the Millennial group is still too young to have made it past their entry-level jobs, so for a whole lot of people, what they're whining about is their own youth: My husband and I both graduated from college in our early 20s, married around 25, and we had NO MONEY for the first three years -- but we saved. About the time we turned 30 -- and it seemed to happen all of a sudden -- we were comfortable financially. We were able to live more comfortably and increase our savings, but it was because we'd passed those first difficult years. We always had the sense that we'd "get there", and because we were so frugal in our first married years.
Old people: "kill the young"
Young people: "kill the old"
Don't worry snake people, in a few years you'll get to complain about those darn kids too. In reality you will be jealous of some of their habits and distressed about others. It has always been thus.
I don't see this attitude in my workplace. Everyone likes one another -- and our circumstances are such that it could be otherwise. The younger teachers are receiving raises, raises, raises, and the people my age are saying, "Good for you. We wish we were getting a piece of the pie as well, but you aren't the ones to blame." Likewise, they are facing a very uncertain future, and they have fewer legal rights than we older workers (yeah, we're grandfathered in), but the younger workers don't blame us for changing times. No one wants to kill one another because of age /generation.
