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Millennials (Generation Y)
For Upon |Millennials, also known as Generation Y or the Net Generation, are the demographic cohort that directly follows Generation X. The term Millennials is usually considered to apply to individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21st century. The precise delineation varies from one source to another, however. Neil Howe and William Strauss, authors of the 1991 book Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, are often credited with coining the term. Howe and Strauss define the Millennial cohort as consisting of individuals born between 1982 and 2004.
Years for Millennials
Other proposed dates for Millennials:
- According to Iconoclast, a consumer research firm, the first Millennials were born in 1978.
- Newsweek magazine reported that the Millennial generation was born between 1977 and 1994.
- In separate articles, the New York Times pegged the Millennials at 1976-1990 and 1978-1998.
- A Time magazine article placed the Millennials at 1980-2000.
Overall, the earliest proposed birthdate for Millennials is 1976, and the latest is 2004. Given that a familial generation in developed nations lies somewhere between 25 and 30 years, we might reasonably consider those the start and end points.
There is a great deal of variation from one individual to another within any generational cohort. Nevertheless, the particular environment for any generation affects those individuals in ways that are observable as broad tendencies. This definition of the term discusses those reported tendencies of Millennials in the workplace, Millennials and technology, and Millennials and culture.
Characteristics of Millennials, according to their press:
Millennials grew up in an electronics-filled and increasingly online and socially-networked world. They are the generation that has received the most marketing attention. As the most ethnically diverse generation, Millennials tend to be tolerant of differences. Having been raised under the mantra “follow your dreams” and being told they were special, they tend to be confident. While largely a positive trait, the Millennial generation’s confidence has been argued to spill over into the realms of entitlement and narcissism. They are often seen as slightly more optimistic about the future of America than other generations — despite the fact that they are the first generation since the Silent Generation that is expected to be less economically successful than their parents.
One reported result of Millennial optimism is entering into adulthood with unrealistic expectations, which sometimes leads to disillusionment. Many early Millennials went through post-secondary education only to find themselves employed in unrelated fields or underemployed and job hopping more frequently than previous generations. Their expectations may have resulted from the very encouraging, involved, and almost ever-present group of parents that became known as helicopter parents.
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Millennial statistics (Source: Pew Research):
- 50 percent of Millennials consider themselves politically unaffiliated.
- 29 percent consider themselves religiously unaffiliated.
- They have the highest average number of Facebook friends, with an average of 250 friends vs. Generation X’s 200.
- 55 percent have posted a selfie or more to social media sites versus 20 percent of Generation X.
- 8 percent of Millennials claim to have sexted, whereas 30 percent claim to have received sexts.
- They send a median of 50 texts a day.
- As of 2012, only 19 percent of Millennials said that, generally, others can be trusted.
- There are about 76 million Millennials in the United States (based on research using the years 1978-2000).
- Millennials are the last generation born in the 20th century.
- Twenty percent have at least one immigrant parent.
Watch a video to learn how Millennials compare with other generations:
Millennials in the Workplace:
Some adaptations have come about from employers accommodating Millennials. The bring-your-own-device trend (BYOD), for example, is at least in part a reaction to the Millennials’ near-addiction to mobile devices. Workplace satisfaction matters more to Millennials than monetary compensation and work-life balance is often considered essential. They are less likely than previous generations to put up with an unpleasant work environment and much more likely to use social networking to broadcast their concerns. On the other hand, satisfied Millennials are often employee advocates for the organizations they work for, providing honest, free — and convincing — public relations (PR).
Having grown up being bombarded by advertising, Millennials tend to be skeptical about promotional material of any kind. Whether buying products and services or considering employment, Millennials are more likely to listen to their friends than to be affected by marketing or public relations material. This characteristic makes both conventional marketing and employee recruitment practices often ineffective for Millennials.
Millennials and technology
Millennials grew up with computers, the Internet, and the graphical user interface (GUI). This familiarity makes them adept at understanding interfaces and visual languages. They tend to adjust readily to new programs, operating systems (OS ), and devices and to perform computer-based tasks more quickly than older generations. Although it’s been proven that multitasking is not usually an effective way to work, Millennials may be the employees that are most likely to pull it off.
Millennials are generally comfortable with the idea of a public Internet life. Privacy, in the Millennial eye, is mostly a concern of functional settings limiting who sees their online shares. This comfort with social media means they are good at self-promotion and fostering connections through online media. But this approach often results in an issue when comparing themselves to peers. Millennials are sometimes frustrated by the grass seeming greener on the other side of the fence. That impression may be due to people’s image crafting, which emphasizes the good qualities and exciting parts of their lives.
In schooling, the technology focus increased in programming. Millennials can also be very dependent on the Internet for learning how to do things. When their computers or devices don’t work they often need some form of assistance to troubleshoot and correct these issues without the aid of the Internet. In contrast, the technically-inclined members of Generation X may have started when electronics were hobby kits and the best gaming machines were unquestionably self-built computers. That starting point often meant Generation X has a deeper understanding of programming and hardware issues.
Millennials and culture
The Millennials have shown in the survey to have the least faith in the institutions of America. Conversely, they also show the highest support of political independents and protestor-formed governments. Although Millennials have less faith in religious institutions, at the same time the numbers have also risen for those who have absolute faith in the existence of a god. Many churches’ messages clash with the Millennial ideal of tolerance for religious, racial, gender, and sexual orientation differences. Millennials are also concerned about social justice and will not support institutions that they see as in conflict with social and economic equality. As such, Millennials are exerting their influence on the world around them, as all prior generations have done.
The contrasting view: Jackie Rotman explains why everything you think you know about Millennials is wrong:
The article was originally published here.
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