Gen Y

Before you read any of this post, please take this (possibly overly) simplistic quiz and find out in which generation you fit according to your beliefs, not age. My score was 70, making me a pretty solid Millennial; what's yours?

Last week one of the lectures in one of my textbooks covered the topic of Generation Y (Millennials). It was actually really interesting and I learned all sorts of things (which is one of the joys of being an ESL teacher- I get to study and teach science, history, culture, economics, sociology, etc, and language). For instance, the average Millennial spends at least $30 at the mall every time s/he visits (which is often).  They're very close to their families and usually get along pretty well with their parents; they value time with family and success in marriage far more than success in their career. They are less white than any generation before. They love to have fun. They consider themselves to be pretty tolerant of everything from interracial relationships to religion to sexual orientation. They're well educated, especially the girls. Anyway, you can read the full, and very long, report from the Pew Research Center here.

So I had my students take the quiz--most of them scored somewhere in the Millennial range of 60-80 with a few around 95 (not surprisingly, those are the students whose phones I'm constantly collecting for texting during class) and a few with the scores of Baby Boomers--and then we spent some time in class discussing what it meant to be a Millennial and the differences between us and previous generations.  They were extremely enthusiastic during our discussion, possibly because it meant they got to talk about themselves more, but they brought up some good points.

Most of them said that the one thing they felt was most unique about them compared to their parents' generation was the use of technology. One student agreed that Millennials like to have fun but was concerned that it meant that Millennials are lazy. He's not, he assured me (which is true), but maybe Millennials enjoy leisure so much to the point of making it detrimental to society. I think he's on to something. Millennials are lacking the work ethic that abounded during the time of the Baby Boomers. It may be better that we're not raising another generation of workaholics, but worrisome that we might be lazy entitled piles.

I was surprised that several of my non-Muslim students (from mostly Catholic countries) thought it was ok to date someone of another religion, but definitely not marry that person. I think most young Americans are fine with interracial/religious dating and marriage, and I actually think it's beneficial for society to mix and mingle...which is another thing that makes me a Millennial, I suppose.

Anyway. I was wondering what you thought.  Regardless of whether or not you are one, what do you think is good/bad about Millennials?

One more thing. As I was reading up on Gen X and Y and Baby Boomers, I kept wondering how we all turned out the way we did. What was it in the way our parents taught us or what teachers said at school or what we saw on Sesame Street that helped form our belief system? I was a little offended that I too, fit fairly nicely into a category along with everyone else. I hate that the little voice in my head that shouts "But I'm different!" is wrong.