What It Means To Be A Millennial
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-02-18/what-it-means-be-millennial
Today's 20-somethings are politically progressive, at ease with technology and more ethnically diverse than previous generations. How millennials are re-defining traditional ideas of what it means to be an adult.
Guests
Paul Taylor
executive vice president of the Pew Research Center.
Hannah Seligson
journalist and author of "Mission: Adulthood."
David Burstein
author of "Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaping Our World."
Roger Fierro
co-founder of the start-up First Encounter Productions.
Related Items
Read An Excerpt
Excerpted from "Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaping Our World" by David D. Burstein
(Beacon Press, 2013). Reprinted with permission from Beacon Press.
Read An Excerpt
Excerpted from "Mission: Adulthood: How the 20-Somethings of Today Are Transforming Work, Love, and Life" by Hannah Seligson (Diversion Books, 2012). Reprinted with permission from Diversion Books.
Comments
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For the first time President Obama said something as president that is constructive and non divisive, I could hardly believe my ears.
On February 15, 2013
In His Hometown of Chicago, a Policy Speech by Obama Turns Personal
"Mr. Obama spoke in unusually personal terms, acknowledging that laws alone cannot prevent crime or strengthen families. He said marriage should be encouraged and child support laws changed to get more men working and engaged with their children"
“As the son of a single mom who gave everything she had to raise me, with the help of my grandparents, you know, I turned out O.K.,” he said. Nonetheless, he said, “I wish I had had a father who was around and involved.”
On OCTOBER 11, 1798, President John Adams wrote to the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division of Massachusetts’ Militia:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net…
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
The "millennial's" are nothing more than the last gasp of post WW2 decadence. This country is living off the hard work and savings of the WW2 and older generations. The millennial generation is living in a bubble of imaginary wealth, wealth derived from credit lines with low monthly payments. A generation that has the arrogance in believing that they should be judged on the work they want to do and not on the work that has to be done. "Progressivism" for this lot means the total acceptance of what was once considered immoral and irresponsible and now is considered reasonable life style choices. They are living in an anomaly of time, the calm before the storm, a gap in societal evolution where the bill has been delayed and the bill collectors are waiting just behind the corner. Our present administration and the "progressives" as they like to be called, are making a Faustian bargain, create as much dependency on the federal government they can while we still have a credit line, when the bill comes due the people will be weak and dependent, out of desperation they will accept the failed idea that prosperity and security only comes from one direction, the federal government. Does this sound conspiratorial? not really when you consider the fact that the left has already made it more than clear that they think they are better at controlling our lives and administering to our needs than we are.
OMG....the right-wingers will try to fit ANY topic into their paranoid fantasies.
I'm surprised they even listen to DRShow. (if they actually do!)...seems like they'd be more at home listening to FOX or Limbaugh.
Thank God their ilk is dying out!
@Not that guy again wrote:
The "millennial's" are nothing more than the last gasp of post WW2 decadence. This country is living off the hard work and savings of the WW2 and older generations. The millennial generation is living in a bubble of imaginary wealth, wealth derived from credit lines with low monthly payments.
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I just had to laugh at this...while I don't disagree there are those out there that this description fits, it by no means is a description covering all of us, or even the majority.
I feel you are trying to define all millennial's as such because the traditional, conservative base you come from is shrinking. You can be socially liberal at the same time as being Financially Conservative. Not all of us are that way, but if your base would stop pushing your personal-social ideology on to everyone, you would receive more votes and the country could move forward with a better financial outlook.
Until then though, you'll see more moderate people being voted for and I'll continue securing my families financial security without dependence on the Feds ;D.
Notthatguy: Your comments are incredibly ignorant and out of touch. The millennials I know (myself included) are strapped with the burden of college debt and are working day and night to make due. Gone are the days of young frivolous spending. Homeownership, and having children are financially impossible for most of us, many in my age group are too financially burdened to leave home. Due to the economic down turn jobs that have historically gone to recent college grads are being gobbled up by 30 to 40 somethings. This is not the 90s. Are you living under a rock? Or more likely your mother's basement?
25inAnnArbor wrote: "Notthatguy: Your comments are incredibly ignorant and out of touch"
Just wait until the bottom falls out and the federal government can no longer borrow 40 cents of every dollar it spends. We will see who is ignorant then.
1. I'm not sure what it means to be a millenial but it definitely doesn't mean being marginally employed or unemployed but still living a wealthy life style in Brooklyn.
2. The biggest cultural and probably commercial change in my life time has been the the internet's emergence as a consumer technology.
3. Quite frankly, this might not be popular to say but a lot of people especially men of older generations were not anymore hard working but lucked into good jobs with little or no education.
Lost Generation Still Lost
I'm nearly 70 years old now, born in 1944. I've been listening to radio and reading papers my whole life. I'm still waiting for my generation to be mentioned as the topic of any program or any article.
No wonder they call us the Lost Generation.
VanfromG- Hatetriotism dies brain first.
Once I uncovered a 55 year old loser online claiming to be 20 and saying the Boomers were taking his share. Spazz-trolling has no logic at all. Millenials are "progressive" I guess because they expect to get paid. I'm glad. I'm 38, and kind of odd and idealistic. If I hadn't inherited money and enjoyed powerful family support I'd most likely be destitute or imprisoned today.
At 38, I might be the hopeless parent of an underclass millenial. But I work hard, so I agree with Sam Ewing on #3.
Most of societal ills are structural. Sibs, or generational groups, are environmentally molded.
Curtis Skeels wrote: "Until then though, you'll see more moderate people being voted for and I'll continue securing my families financial security without dependence on the Feds ;D."
Considering the founding fathers would be seen as right wing radicals today, what exactly is a moderate anyway?
Your comments are not applicable to this discussion. This thread is about the millennial generation. If you are listening to the program you will realize that.
25inAnnArbor wrote:
"Notthatguy: Your comments are incredibly ignorant and out of touch. The millennials I know (myself included) are strapped with the burden of college debt and are working day and night to make due. "
First, you have all that college debt and yet don't know the difference between "due" and "do"?
Perhaps if you had picked a more practical discipline than "Art History" major, in other words, one in which you could actually make a living, you would not feel overwhelmed by the debt. That is part of the reality that Notthatguyagain is referring to. It is dealing with the world the way it is, not the way you would like it to be. The fact is, the "millenials" have not been forced to grow up the way previous generations were. Welcome to the real world, AnnArbor. Rude awakening, isn't it?
I teach a freshmen seminar class for first year college students. I am in my mid-thirties. My last class was centered on just this topic. I taught the good, the bad, and the ugly of the new communication methods, the openness, the globalness. I have two issues that were difficult for me to communicate with the students. I was curious of your comments.
1. The millennial generation has no expectation of privacy. Most of the class consider their lives and all aspects as public. They feel that everyone should have access to all of their information whether it is facebook, twitter, blogging, etc. The entire class stated that the police should have access to all their information (even ones on a private side) with no warrant. No one had any issues with this.
2. I asked the class to describe (for example in a mock interview) what skills they have over an older generation. They could not describe much. They have been well versed in the negative issues facing the millennial generation (lack of interpersonal skills, lack of motivation) but they could not articulate what the positives were.
Before we cast blame or judgment, let us not forget that a large portion of what forms a generation is how the parents from the previous generation raised the children of the current one. My point is that if call the Millenials lazy, apathetic and so on, should we not blame the parents who are, at least partly, responsible?
Sam Ewing wrote:
"Quite frankly, this might not be popular to say but a lot of people especially men of older generations were not anymore hard working but lucked into good jobs with little or no education."
Yeah. That must be it. Luck.
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I`m a Boomer. I envy and admire the millennial generation. Maybe they can enjoy life more fully,post AIDS. The AIDS epidemic slammed the brakes on my generation`s social freedoms.
Today`s technology renders all the right wing propaganda outlets obsolete.They don`t have to listen to the noise.They`re not limited to right wing newspapers,like my home town paper,the Palin Dealer.BRAVO !!
As the parent of three millennials, two of which have college degrees (with very manageable college debt) and one who does not, I have difficulty feeling sorry for the students who incurred $100,000 of debt earning degrees that have little or no possibility of providing help in repayment of that debt. During college, did those students never explore the earnings potential of their chosen field? Where were their counselors, parents, peers to challenge their choices? If that influence was absent, it is a shame. But it is not society's responsibility now to 'bail them out'. It is not a scandal that those who have large debt are more likely to be a 'have not' instead of a 'have'. Their decisions are the reason. Society is not the reason for their problems.
As a Gen Xer I find these Millenials as amusingly arrogant as their parents, the Boomers!
Did your guest, Ms. Seligson, really claim that Millenials are the 2nd Greatest Generation because they are tolerant of others? WHAT!! So not because of sacrifice, hard work or major achievement (like defeating Hitler), Millenials are great because they are nice?
I would have called this comment in but I am laughing too hard.
anna nimitty wrote: "I`m a Boomer. I envy and admire the millennial generation. Maybe they can enjoy life more fully,post AIDS. The AIDS epidemic slammed the brakes on my generation`s social freedoms."
Morality and responsibility slammed the breaks on for the previous generation. Quite a difference.
I say it's all bull-pucky and I say the heck with it. This is a total turn-off-in-first-five-minutes show (of which there have been far too many lately). "Milennial Generation" like the Pepsi Generation (aka Boomers) is a marketing ploy pure and simple. The nicest thing about the "Greatest Generation" was that they didn't presume to name themselves and puff themselves up. Every "generation" (even my own Nameless Generation) thinks it is is the hottest thing ever known to Western civilization. Bad news. We were not, nor were Boomers, nor Gen-X, nor even you. Some of you will do great things, most of you will exist only to buy stuff and collect lots of it. Period. Now can we PLEASE have a serious discussion about almost anything else?
@ecgberht2
According to Tom Brokaw, many major corporations actively recruited undergraduates at the public university he went to in South Dakota. Yes luck plays a role in everyone's life both good and bad.
Baby Boomers- Had access to reasonably priced higher education, but it was not required to acquire the "american dream". Had WIDE and easy access to high paying jobs WITHOUT higher education. Previous generation's life expectancy of late 60s.
Gen X- Had access to moderate-high priced higher education. Higher education required for only white collar jobs. Still had wide access to high paying blue collar jobs WITHOUT higher education. Previous generation's life expectancy extended to the late 70s.
Gen Y and Millennial - Has access to High-unaffordable higher education. Higher education REQUIRED for jobs above minimum wage. NO access to well paying blue collar jobs without higher education. Previous generation's life expectancy extended into the 80s and WORK expectancy extended into late 60s. The first generation that has to directly compete with older generations for entry level, living wage jobs, while being saddled with insurmountable debt. The first generation that is expected to take NON-PAYING internships in order to entry level jobs.
Your guest Roger Fierro made an interesting comparison i've been trying to express for some time. He compared the families who were taken advantage of with obviously irresponsible loans for homes that we all allowed to happen to the loans that we allowed to be offered to families to send their kids to school.
We should treat the millennial generation with more compassion than we did with the families who lost their homes. The millennial generation is not the only one responsible for this college debt. The same way everyone allowed for the housing situation to happen.
I am a millennial my name is Juan Mendez Arizona state representative
A panelist,in response to the suggestion that millenials have a sense of entitlement, stated she was lead to believe the world she would enter as an adult would look a certain way. She added that the promise of prosperity wasn't being funded as it was for her grandparents who were able to go to college using the GI Bill. She and her peers are laden with college debt instead. I wAs able to go to college as the first member of my family to do so, because I joined the military in 1985. That offer, if a person cannot responsibly take on student loans, is still available today. By the way, my first home mortgage interest rate was 16.5%.
The rise of higher education costs has been stunning since I attended college in the late 1980s. However, there are still options to reduce the costs. I was the first person in my extended family to attend college and the first to graduate. Due to family issues, I received little assistance beyond a roof over my head and health insurance. I basically put myself through school. I attended much more affordable community college for two years and knocked out many of my core classes before transferring to a state land-grant university to focus on my major. I selected my university primarily because it was the most affordable place in which I could pursue my educational interests. I was a commuting student, which also kept costs down. I borrowed textbooks from fellow students, bought used textbooks, and found previous editions of the text in the library. I worked dozens of part-time jobs during these years, sometimes two or three at a time to earn what was necessary to pay the bills and my share of the rent. It took me six years, but I graduated owing no one. The increase in costs may make it impossible to emerge today debt-free, but it could be the difference between graduating with $25K in debt and $60K in debt.
Student debt is the same problem as the housing crisis. People think they deserve too much and don't consider what their major earning potential is, they take on the debt because they can. Student debt is not paying for education. It is paying for the foot ball stadium, the multi- million dollar student rec center, the basketball arena and they WANT all these nice ammenities. You don't need to go to a private school when a public one is going to get a similar piece of paper.
Then you have the people who incur $80K in student loans for a psych or sociology degree. How long in a good economy will it take to pay that off with a psych degree? How much can you make? $40k/ year??
When people say that our generation feels "entitled" that really angers me because the word entitlement paints a picture of someone who just assumes that rewards will land in his/her lap. Our parents worked hard to have what they have. We were told that if we worked hard we would have the same kind of life. It's hard to come to the realization that that's not the case. Maybe our error was assuming that our world would be the same as our parents, but I feel that saying that our generation feels "entitled" belittles the hard work that we have put in to try and have the kind of life that our parents did.
The Millenials are the laziest generation, they lack the education, the work ethics, and totally lack any social skills to make up for what they lack in knowledge. However, they excel at blaming everyone from their parents to the government for the dismal state they are in.
Can someone speak to the problem with the expansion of government monies for college and the colleges taking advantage of the influx of students but not providing necessary support to help students find the best fit for future jobs? NY Times did a comprehensive report on the debate between specializing in a particular career vs. a liberal arts degree. President Obama suggested in his address that changes would be made with regard to higher ed and making colleges more responsible.
Can someone speak to the problem with the expansion of government monies for college and the colleges taking advantage of the influx of students but not providing necessary support to help students find the best fit for future jobs? NY Times did a comprehensive report on the debate between specializing in a particular career vs. a liberal arts degree. President Obama suggested in his address that changes would be made with regard to higher ed and making colleges more responsible.