Characteristics Of A Millennial

Since Howe and Strauss (2007) defined the traits of the Millennials, a number of authors have continued to explore and categorise this generation’s values and traits more than any other; “optimistic spirits, assertive or confident, consummate multitaskers, positive, sociable, cooperative, team oriented with an affinity for innovation and technology”(Pardue 2008, p74). Millennials experience and practice life at an augmented speed, communicating on a multiplicity of electronic devices; “they are an idealistic generation awaiting leadership and motivation; they are primed to do well” and achieve highly (Holt 2012, p81). Despite these characteristics which read as an inventory of an ideal employee, with the merging of multi-generations in a workplace, there comes a disparity in attitudes and approaches; the generational or life-stage divide. Each generation offers rich and valuable outlooks, however to bridge the gap it is important to know what motivates the other.

People my age are often referred to as the Lost Generation, Generation Y, and the Millennial’s. Among these titles we also get ‘lazy’, ‘directionless’, and ‘entitled’. It seems like half of these names were given to us before we were even born, being grouped together with those who came before us. While reading the article “Boomerang Kids: What Are the Causes of Generation Y’s Growing Pains?” by Rosie Evans, she touched on the many reasons why we ‘Millennial’s’ might be the way we are.

There are currently six living generations in the United States, each with different characteristics, beliefs, and values. The things that define each generation’s culture are derived from their history, upbringing, and the lifestyle of their time. Our generation was born between 1980 and 2000. We are called Millennials. We grew up in a technologically savvy world and have a high demand for instant gratification. More specifically, we grew up in the South, which typically lends itself to being more conservative, based on a stricter religious upbringing. These characteristics, along with others, define who we are, what we believe, and how we view other generations.

The best definition I’ve found to describe a millennial is from Urban Dictionary and states that:

Before reading the articles and watching the video my opinion of the topic of millennials from the baby boomer point of view seems to paint us in a negative light from the previous readings. We are seen as the superficial generation that is obsessed with being millionaires, yet do not have a job and only take selfies. From the last in class audio, the singer said that Millennials will need help, and made a mockery of how ‘a girl with yoga pants

I am a millennial. I love my phone, my laptop, and I love electronics. I document what I eat, I take selfies, and I watch all my favorite celebrities through Twitter and instagram. I embrace my biracial life and I am extremely tolerant of differences. I am driven to overcome negative stereotypes about religion, race, gender, and sexual orientation. I am confident in my ability to succeed and I am confident I can reach

Generation, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, refers to all of the people born and living at about the same time. There are six living generations in America. The GI generation, Mature/Silent, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y or Millenniums, and Generation Z. People from these generations are all different. Every generation has distinctive likes, aversions, and traits. A person’s birth date does not always match his generation’s characteristics. However, as a typical group, they have similarities. A generation has responsibilities to the one which precedes because they are the ones who have been left with problems such as, poverty, rapid climate change, international terrorism, and are responsible

Millennials (also know as generation Y) are people born between the early of the 1980s to the early 2000s. This generation is the youngest in the work place. They are the first generation that grew

Just as people have different perspectives on people of other races or religions, I believe people also make judgments on age. Baby boomers, Generation X, Generation Y/Millennials, and Generation Z all have different perspectives of each other many of which are negative. These days many people see Millennials as lazy, entitled, and selfish. When doing a little bit of research on this idea of age being a culture, almost everything I found about Millennials was negative. In 2013 Time Magazine published an article which stated things like, “Not only do millennials lack the kind of empathy that allows them to feel concerned for others, but they also have trouble even intellectually understanding others' points of view” and “And these aren't just rich-kid problems: poor millennials have even higher rates of narcissism, materialism and technology addiction in their ghetto-fabulous lives.” (Stein). A video with the publication showed the writer “become a Millennial for a day”, in which he had to post at least five times on Facebook, post selfies, and keep a “nonessential” group chat going throughout the day. While this video was posted in 2013 and times have changed, people still feel that this is all Millennials care about. While some people in this group do show these characteristics (as well as do people in other generational groups), not everyone does. For anyone be classified by others as this culture group when not all of these characteristics apply to everyone is somewhat disturbing to

I hope to accomplish in this piece the juxtaposition of showing how many images and articles that consider the millennial generation to be a passive and egocentric while I speak passionately about stories and topics that affect this generation. Those of the millennial generation are even quick to categorize their peers as being all of these terrible adjectives because that’s what’s been told to them. I hope to cause the audience to question if we should believe labels that are placed upon them or to think more critically why these labels are given to

“The Try-Hard Generation,” by Fareed Zakaria, tells about the views of other generations on the millennial generation. Zakaria informs that a lot of those who are older than the millennials put labels on them down putting and not really good. Those people giving the labels are expecting the millennials to be like their generation and act like their generation when they were the same age. Zakaria explains that it is thought that since the millennials do not challenge the system with protesting and rebellion, then they must not be a great generation like the ones before it. Zakaria goes on and says that they millennials are just

Millennials are “echo-boomers” born between the years of 1976-2004. A diverse generation of individuals continually misguided by society and stereotyped based on discernable predispositions.

Wilson goes on to say that this generation is more detached from all the traditional institutions, but that it does not mean they are completely attached because of the advancement of technology allowing them the resources to keep in touch and network virtually (Wilson, 2014). According to the other article, “Are Millennials as bad as we Think?” this author has all of these same beliefs, but also adds that this generation is perceived to be entitled, lazy and “the most high-maintenance workforce in the history of the world” (Chamorro-Premuzic,

Millennials, a group of people who were born in the year 1984 and after. There are millions of them and they are our future. According to Simon Sinek, millennials “are accused of being entitled and narcissistic, self interested, unfocused and lazy.” Even though Millennials lack in some aspects, he believes that parenting, technology, impatience and environment is to blame. As a millennial, I totally agree with Sinek’s point because I am affected by all the variables that he listed ever since birth. Millennials did not do anything wrong but, the way they were raised affected their attitudes.

Across the nation, people are talking about the Millennial generation and how different they are compared to others, but are they really that different? Millennials are lazy, entitled, and selfish, or as you may have heard may be essential to the modern workplace, either way, they are being talked about whether it is good or bad. To put it in other words, past generations are concerned for what the future will look like with this technology-dependent generation, but is that a bad thing if the technology is only going to advance from here on out? The older generation is being too harsh or are they just genuinely concerned about the future? Joel Stein (2013) has written an article about the Millennials, it is titled Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation he argues for them being a selfish generation but by saying that it is not a bad thing. The second article is by Liz Zarka (2017) Generation Me: The Millennial Generation’s obsession with being unique, she argues that they are the generation that needs to be concerned for. After reading both of these articles I agree with some of the points that both of these authors make, however, there are also some sections that I disagree with. My perception of the situation is that millennials may have all these negative characteristics but use them to an advantage that no other generation can has; along with the advancement of technology and the use of social media may have increased the narcissistic trait in them, but they use these traits to get what they want, however, being narcissistic isn’t always good there can certainly be some disadvantages.