The Generational Stigma

A friend just sent me a message with a link to an article about the Millennial Generation...and it got me fired up. Check out the link below for the full story, but to quickly summarize: it was not flattering about our generation's ability to be contributing members of society and in the workplace.

I've heard this several times before but it never fails to bother me. Isn't this age-ism at its worst? I understand completely that there are some generalizations to be made about a certain age group of people, but the things I have most often heard in analysis about the Millennial Generation (aka Gen Y, Gen Next, or Echo Boomers) are extremely negative.

When you also take into account the age range some people use to define the generation, I think the generalizations become even more absurd. I admit it, I used Wikipedia here (where's Encarta when you need it ;)...but I found the definition of the Millennial varies from at start anywhere in the mid 70s to mid 80s and ending as late at the mid 90s to mid 2000s. Really? We're going to generalize the motives and attitudes of a 30 year age range? I have a hard time being lumped in with folks who don't remember September 11th. How about we try and stick to a more commonly accepted range from the early 80s to mid 90s? I can get behind that definition a little easier. Still, though, we're talking about an age group that significantly splits a huge jump in technological advancement. At one end we have the early 80s kids who remember stuff like Skip-It, New Kids on the Block, Jellies, Sega Master System, Apple 2 E or C computers and Oregon Trail. Then the mid 90s kids had the Beanie Baby craze, Spice Girls, Nintendo 64, the beginning of the Internet, and Pokemon. Was there overlap? Sure. But did we grow up a little differently? Definitely.

So here's the article on CNN's website that started this tirade: http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/05/navarrette.millennials.jobs/index.html?hpt=hp_abar

A few points:

1) This guy can't do math. He claims his favorite researcher is a millennial (which are, according his article, age 18-30) and was born in 1971. That makes her 40, sir.

2) He claims we were raised in the era of 'everyone gets a trophy' and 'high speed internet'...so we're entitled and impatient. I didn't have internet at home til I was 14 and we definitely didn't all get trophies. Maybe the context (and not the judgement) only lies with the latter portion of the Millennial and into whatever the next generation is called?

3) Lots of the negatives listed don't seem like negatives to me. We want to like our jobs, value friends and family over career and care about the environment and human rights...how are these bad things?

4) He paints a picture that we are lazy and therefore have a higher unemployment rate. My question is: which age group was just trying to break into the job market as everything was going down the tubes? Oh right. Us.

5) I don't really mean this as a dig to the whole age group (because I love my parents and think they were great, as were the parents of many of my friends). But here's my point in generalization form: If this generation is so screwed up by how we were raised, who should folks be railing against? Solely the outcome or also the people responsible? Somebody must've been doing a piss poor job of parenting in order for us, as a generation, to turn out so terribly. So where are the articles about that?

Anyway, there's some food for thought. I've given my two cents to please chime in at will.