The New Greatest Generation: Why Millenials, They Will Save Us All

In the article, “Declining Student Resilience: A Serious Problem for Colleges”, Peter Gray states, “There has been an increase in diagnosable mental health problems, but there has also been a decrease in the ability of many young people to manage the everyday bumps in the road of life”. It has come up a lot that millennials do not have Grit, unlike other generations. Millennials come off as lazy or immature in society today. Millennials always have a reminder from their parents or grandparents saying, “back in my day....” or “you’re lucky, you have it easy”. Other generations tend to give millennials a harder time on how they are performing in a school setting. Some generations believe that millennials are babied by their parents. Everyone has their own opinions about other generations. There are many similarities and differences between millennials and other generations on how they perform in schools. Some examples on how they are different and similar are work ethic, pressure, and technology. These examples come from actual opinions from millennials and other generations on their perspectives when comparing millennials and other generations in a school setting.

After covering facts about millennials and their imperfections, Stein turns his article around by recognizing their good qualities. The purpose of Stein’s article is revealed when he changes sides of opinion. He praises their admirable characteristics saying, “They are probusiness. They’re financially responsible; although student loans have hit record highs, they have less household and credit-card debt than any previous generation on record.” (Stein 33), proving that millennials are more capable and intelligent at managing money although in more debt than previous generations. Stein uses logos to further establish his credibility.

In the beginning, Gillespie immediately captures the reader's attention with a well placed hook. The hook states, “...but we’re on the verge of a nasty old fights between baby boomers and their ‘Greatest Generation’ parents look like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting.” (Gillespie 1) This causes the reader to get a visual of what Gillespie is thinking as he rights this article and is a representation of how he feels about what he’s writing about. Next, Gillespie attempts to appeal to the reader’s logical side by the use of statistics. Such as, “Seventy-one percent of American adults think of 18-to-29-year-olds-millennials, basically-as ‘selfish’, and 65% of us think of them as ‘entitled”.” (Gillespie 1) immediately shows the reader exactly what his claim is. These two quotes are amongst a number of others that Gillespie uses to support his claim that, millennials are selfish and entitled, due to the overprotection from parents. The only problem is that some of his statistics could be used in counter arguments against him. This is seen in the quote, “Students reporting bullying is one-third of what it was 20 years ago.” (Gillespie 1) where the reader begins to see holes in Gillespie’s claims. So, Gillespie discusses his truth of what is the problem with helicopter parents and their

In the article “The Beat Up Generation,” Abby Ellin claims that the negative way other generations view the millennials may all be wrong; instead, the millennials are preparing for the world most generations are opposing. Ellin declares in her article that the millennials are shown to be the most disliked generation; their ideas collide with those in the Baby Boomers and the Gen-Xers causing confusion. Constantly, Articles are being thrown out about the millennials “incompetence” and their “self-absorbed” behavior which only causes more hatred according to Ellin. However, she continues to state that millennials are no more selfish than the previous generations; in fact, millennials are only trying to discover new ways for “communication and

In Joel Stein's article "The New Greatest Generation", he attempts to prove that millennials will save society. Stein presents his counterargument first to interest readers then concludes his article with his

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. More specifically, we grew up in the South, which typically lends itself to being more conservative and religious. These characteristics, along with our instant gratification attitude, define who we are, what we believe, and how we view other generations. For example, we might have differing views with the Silent Generation. Some Millennials may feel the Silent Generation’s social, religious, and economic conservatism is outdated.

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.

Howe, Neil, and William Strauss. Millennials Rising: the Next Great Generation. New York: Vintage, 2000.

turning out in today’s day and age. He goes on with facts and statistics to back-up himself for

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.

“Individuals that are relatively young and spent their years focused on their families and professions who could put their practical competence in to action,” as what Rogers would describe the people that comprise the urban middle class. In a millenial’s perspective I firmly believe that the youth of today have the capabilities in bringing forth change into our nation for the reason that the current generation of youth are comprised of highly-skilled and experienced individuals. Likewise, these individuals are capable of formulating sound decisions not only for themselves but also for the people that are concerned. In line with this, the millenials are active when it comes to political debate and issues that are of national concern. Likewise,

Joel Stein wrote his article "Why Millennials Will Save Us All" to give the world a brief explanation of how the Millennials generation compares and contrasts from earlier generations. Although Stein states all the negative traits of the millennials to grab the attention of the older generations, he then shifts his argument towards how the millennials are not bad seeds, in fact, he expresses how gifted they are. Stein gets his message across to all of his readers strongly by first criticizing the millennials, then stating how great millennials are, and the order in which he wrote the article. The first tactic Stein uses is stating the negatives of the millennials generation.

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.

The millennial generation’s “sensitivity” has been the pinpoint of many jokes and is also escalating in daily discussion. We live in and day in age where people can’t express opinions without some millennial feigning outrage in social media, needing a “safe space” to hide, marching in caricatures of female genitalia, and even rioting to suppress opposing views while promoting their own. Such millennial behavior is grossly hypocritical in a country established on the freedom of speech. Millennials favorite topics to rage against are race, religion, immigration, gender, values, and even bathrooms. Rage is fashionable with this generation. Growing up, we were awarded for simply trying, which depleted our ability to build inner strength and character. This may be attributable to our sensitivity now-a-days. As a 20-year-old millennial, I fall right into this group of people I am criticizing. I am embarrassed and humiliated, not offended – and yes, there is a difference. Millennials are the sensitive generation, not because of sincerity, but because of our entitled mentality.