The Millennial Question Simon Sink Analysis

In Eric Hoover’s article, The Millennial Muddle, he describes how stereotyping and trying to understand students has become a major industry, especially with Millennials, since there are different adaptations and interpretations of this generation. It contains the different opinions from people who have studied this generation. Researchers try to figure out who Millennials are, how they think, why they always do what they do, and in those propositions and findings find them to contradict one another. Hoover then states that “in other words, they’re all different. But just for fun, let’s stereotype them as smart, successful, and lull of shakeable opinions.” Hoover does not deny these findings to be contradictory of what Millennials truly are.

This book is a sequel to the Generations book by the same authors. It is very optimistic about the potential and qualities of the Millennial generation. For instance, they are born in an era when children were viewed more positively, they are more optimistic, cooperative, accepting of authority, rule followers, are the most watched over generation, smart, and believe they can change the future.

Joel Stein uses his article in TIME Magazine, “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation” to address the underlying issues and positives of the millennial generation by using various forms of data, statistics and negativity. While he is mostly successful with his tactics, he goes to such extremes with his negativity that he loses some of his audience before he even has a chance to talk about anything else. Stein spends much of his article speaking about how the Millennial generation is lazy, however research suggests that the Millennials aren’t necessarily lazy, but are held in place for various reasons outside of their control.

In “Why They’ll Save us all” published in Time magazine on May 20, 2013, the author, 41-year-old Joel Stein informs readers on the behavior, lifestyle, and mentality of millennials. He fabricates his article around the concept of contradiction and information that is both reliable, yet meticulously placed, in order to successfully persuade and inform the audience that although the newest generation can be entitled, lazy, and self-absorbed, they are also capable of positively changing the world.

As generations go by, our predecessors assume we are skipping out on important aspects of life just to get a few extra minutes on our devices. In Catherine Rampell’s “A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much”, it is said the older generations believe Generation Y is “coddled, disrespectful, narcissistic, and impatient” (Rampell 388). In all reality our generation is just doing what it has to in order to thrive in the world we live in, where technology is one of the largest parts of our everyday lives. If the older generations that criticize Generation Y had grown up in Generation Y they would realize the world we live in requires the use of technology. The advancement of society with technology has shaped Generation Y to be the people that they are, relying on technology; however, older generations believe Generation Y is lazy.

Ultimately, millennials are a complex demographic with key differences influenced by life

As GenX circles middle age, there seems to be a re-evaluation of who they are and what’s important to them. While Millennials are grabbing the world by the horns and adventuring forward, GenX is trying to get unstuck and live a more fulfilling and rewarding life. The relentless pace of an always-on technology-filled-sound-bite life coupled with the stress of their life stage – peak earning years, job stress and for many raising children - results in a life that feels overly routinized and superficial. Through the collages and journaling of the EthnoBlogs and echoed in the Roundtables, we see a target group who is feeling like life today has dumbed them down and they are not as thoughtful or empathetic as they used to be (pre-kids and/or before technology took over). Yet, lapsed and lighter patrons are motivated and interested in rekindling the part of themselves that doesn’t just react, but that notices more, thinks harder and feels more deeply about the world around them.

Throughout Kathryn Tyler’s article, “The Tethered Generation,” she discusses the effects of technology and helicopter parents on the millennial generation. Tyler believes that technology has became an easy way for parents to continue to watch over their children as they age (Tyler 478). Tyler also says technology is helping oppressive parents continue to smother their children and that people in the millennial generation are not becoming adults in every aspect of life in the time frame they should be (478). An enormous factor of growing up is being able to make mistakes and figure out problems and solutions alone. This is being taken away by cellphones because young adults constantly have a lifeline to call or text, such as their parents who help solve their problems. As Kathryn Tyler explains in relatable ways throughout her article, technology and helicopter parents are a concerning issue for our future because they prevent young adults from gaining the necessary skills needed to become prominent and responsible adults.

Through the internet and the change in learning this group is more self motivated to learn from each other versus just from the classroom. They also learn a lot more on their own. This expands “new forms of expression and rules of social behavior” (Source B). Consequently, the internet is more creativity and sense of self. As well as that “what makes these groups unique is that while adults participate, they are not automatically the resident experts by virtue of their age ” (Source C). Proving that Millennials surpass adults in the aspect of technology understanding and knowledge. Overall, the 30 and under generation are more self directed and creative in their learning prior than older

From my experience as a twenty-one-year-old, I have seen and heard my generation be talked down upon. We aren’t exactly considered to be in the ‘norm’ as one would say. I have been told that all we care about is going out and socializing, being glued to our electronics, spending all our time on social media, and countless other things in which cast a dark, lingering shadow over our reputation. But what those individuals don’t see is the immense drive we have. Yes, the population of millennials married and with children before the age of twenty-five has plummeted compared to those before us, but it doesn’t mean we don’t see those plans in our future. Us millennials have the incredible liberty to focus on our passions and dreams before deciding to settle down. Many turn to furthering their education and building a career, others stray from the beaten path. There is no correct, or preferred way of doing things such as there was before. We have an unlimited array of opportunities from which to chose from.

In an interview of 2016, Simon Sinek analyses and discusses the topic of Millennials within the workplace. Throughout Sinek’s speech in his interview, he explains the disadvantages which Millennials have faced while growing up in their generation. Now, Sinek claims that the reason why Millennials have been dealt such a “bad hand” in life, is a result of failed parenting strategies, and an imbalance of technology along with social media (which has advanced like never before within the adolescence of Millennials). Therefore, the imbalance of the internet and real-life interaction results in millennials being unable to form deep and meaningful relationships, in order to carry out happy and meaningful live in comparison to previous

Today, we hear so much about how great the older generations were and how my generation appears to have deteriorating moral standards, as well as a dangerous addiction to things of the technological sort. However, I believe that there are a plethora of skills, attitudes, and habits that my generation possesses that would be beneficial to the older generations. These include being open-minded, using technology, disregarding social barriers, letting go of grudges, and laughing more.

In “Millennials in the workplace”, Simon Sineks shows his empathetic and humorous side in his interview, describing Millennials in general, but pin points to the ones in the work force today. He does this by showing behind the scenes as to why Millennials are the way they are. He states his four main points of “Parenting, technology, impatient, and environment” (Sineks, interview, 2017, time). What Simon Sineks states throughout the interview is totally relatable to me as a millennial, I could see myself in action from my habits by the many scenarios he explains. So yes, I agree with his main points as to why Millennials is the way they are, but having two out of his four being a part of the cause more than the others. Technology and environment are huge in having children not fully develop their best possible selves. To understand this better you have to consider the individual who live in third world countries compared to the US. When Sineks gives his main point’s his purpose is to give it to anyone who uses their cell phones and social media. Many can accuse millenniums of this habit because yes, we are always on our phones, however, this could also be in effect on generation X.

In Simon Sinek speech “Millennials in the workplace interview” Simon humorously explains using past and personal experiences that millennials are a great and fantastic generation. They have become an addictive generation because of bad parenting, technology, impatience, and the environment and the only way to change this generation is if they are given help to balance physical and social lives. I would agree with this because I too suffer from an unbalanced physical and social life. At the start of his speech, Simon states that the generation of the millennials is everyone born from approximately 1984 and after. Then he describes the millennials as being entitled, narcissistic, self-interested, unfocused and lazy. Then he explains that

How can millennials balance the need for technology and avoid the physical and psychological effects caused by the overuse of technology? There is not a simple answer for this.