quarterlife: Acquainting Us with The Millennials

This new web-based microseries called quarterlife is interesting. It is a drama about twenty-something Millennials (the generation born between 1982 and 2000, part of Generation Y, or the iGen, short for Internet Generation) and the issues they face.

I recently viewed this segment on CBS’s 60 Minutes by Morley Safer. Click on the link to this video:

“The Millennials are Coming”

I found it inspiring and enlightening. This generation — again, Millennials, or the Millennium Generation — is a fascinating demographic. Why, you ask? For me, it’s because this is the generation that includes my own children — many of those kids whose lives were micromanaged with tightly packed schedules that included every extracurricular activity possible as well as almost unlimited dynamic and applied technology such as the Internet, and — get this — a voice stronger in its youth than any other generation before it. They are used to self-reliance even though they’ve had helicopter mothers. They’re used to organization, to structure, to change, to staying busy, to adapting (but only when it suits them), and to having the world adapt to their needs. They’re intelligent, confident, and set on changing the world, most for the better for everyone and not necessarily to simply make big bucks as seemed to be Generation X’s aim as a whole. As a matter of fact, they’re all about taking charge of their existence — setting their own work hours, negotiating their own work environment, loving their jobs and hopping to another if they don’t feel appreciated. And they’re all about enjoying quality personal lives. Some of us eighties kids could take a lesson.

I don’t know if it’s from a need as a generation that is just arriving to show us parents where we failed as a generation or because they really believe that they have the answer. But one thing is for sure — they’re not idealists like many generations before them. And they refuse to live inside the box, to blindly accept and be herded. (Did you see them at work on the video above? There’s a challenge in the workplace for older Gen X bosses used to conformity; that’s for sure.) Come to think of it, The Millennials’ whole philosophy seems to be “To Be Heard, Not Herded.”

I think that they are worth learning about, especially since they stand to inherit the world as we have made it for them. And, frankly, I want to see just how good that we in Generation X have done in parenting — you know, if Dr. T. Barry Brazelton was right all along, if it will pay off for Generation X parents to have catered to their children as near personal assistants in grooming them for a successful life, AND if all of those Baby Einstein videos indeed benefited them! LOL

The webseries above seems to get its name, as a matter of fact, from John Mayer’s song “Why Georgia,” which seems to be their perspective:

It might be a quarter life crisis
Or just the stirring in my soul
Either way I wonder sometimes
About the outcome
Of a still verdictless life
Am I living it right?

Most of all, I want to see if Generation Next is indeed any more compassionate as a whole than the others before it, given that they have been raised with more tolerance with regard to religion and different cultures and exposed to more racially integrated environments. Let’s hope that their extra dose of self-esteem is good for something. I believe that they just might prove to be more compassionate. It would balance things out.

If you want to read more about this generation, this is an excellent USA Today article by Sharon Jayson: “Generation Next - Who Are They? The ‘Millennials’ Come of Age“.

From what I have witnessed so far with the Millennials, what most stands out to me is almost an overconfidence bordering on arrogance. I think they got it from constantly having us parents hand over our cell phones and DVR remotes for them to program for us, or possibly from being offered a choice in every decision concerning them since birth — what they wanted to eat, what they chose to wear, and exactly what activities they wanted to participate in, often with us, their adult parent, seated on the floor beside them to share in the experience, however childish or long.  They have been active voices and decision-makers in the household and have even co-parented themselves to some degree.  (Be honest — how many times did you ask, “And what punishment do you think you deserve for this offense?”)  Sometimes I think that we lent them our sophistication in exchange for this experiment in self-esteem. One thing is for sure — we’ve put our kids first, so let’s watch to see if they, in turn, return the favor and indeed make the world a better place. How this generation turns out, and the world resulting, will be our lives’ report card as parents.

And maybe this new who-cares-how-it’s-always-been-done attitude isn’t such a bad thing. They won’t expend their youth getting their bearings like many of us before them did, as they hit the ground running and still have plenty of energy in their time to make great strides — for environmentalism, politics, technology, and the arts.

All in all, I think that, as a group, despite our coddling them and satisfying most all of their whims (or maybe because of it?) Generation Next seems to be quite sophisticated, very tolerant, and non-judgmental of others while being great at self-examination. They are balanced, driving, and conscientious. And though they are clearly somewhat “about me,” they are also full of promise and interested in effecting change for the better. In short, they are more about worthy causes. Whether that’s due to just wanting to ensure their effectiveness or out of caring , it’s a very take-charge, can-do attitude. That’s so much better than apathy, don’t you think?

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Your kid is brilliant, now shut up

~ by Galvanized on November 27, 2007.