Millennials. We hear that word all the time. Usually when someone refers to a young adult on his phone not paying attention. It's almost become like an insult. Why is that? Why has it become such a seemingly negative term? No matter what you think about us, it's worth reading about our generation and what we have to offer. Because, as it turns out, we're kinda great.
However, before I start speaking about our generation I would like to add a little disclaimer that what I am about to write is a generalization of our generation and does not appropriately represent every single person in the Millennial generation. I am also referring to how our generation looks in the USA and not in other countries.
The scientific community argues about what specific birth years qualify Millennials but most agree that we are the people born between the 1980s - 2000s. We are the largest generation (even bigger than the Baby Boomers) to date in US history and we are here to change the world. We were raised predominantly by Baby Boomers in a time when positive parenting started to rise in popularity. This means we received positive reinforcement, praise, and constant feedback growing up. As a result of this positive parenting style, we tend to be rather confident in our choices and actions. This style in parenting has also resulted in a generation that tends to enjoy a close relationship with our supervisors at work. A lecture I attended a few years ago said that if the Turn-Key generation polity knocked on the slightly ajar door of their supervisor, the Millennial generation barges right in asking "what door"? We enjoy working closely with others and thrive in team environments.
Our Baby Boom parents instilled in us a sense of hope for the future and mostly liberal views resulting in our generation having the highest rate of people seeking to work in the service sector (e.g. health care). We are a generation of social activists trying to make the world a better place. We tend to have liberal politic views and the political candidate who received most of our support in the USA primary elections in 2016 was Bernie Sanders. We are the first generation to be raised with internet, video games, and other technological advances that has made us strong communicators. We use social media, texting, and other forms of communication easily throughout our daily lives and usually prefer those over "old fashioned phone calls".
I will continue to focus on Millennials the entire month of November. Please let me know if there are certain topics you would like me to blog about. I look forward to hearing your feedback.
Written by Linda Meier Abdelsayed, LMFT
Originally published on 11/14/2017
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