Over the past week or so I’ve been following a discussion concerning an article that was written about the “Millennials”. A Millennial is defined as “born between 1980 and 1995” and described as “raised by doting parents who told them they are special, played in little leagues with no winners or losers, or all winners. They are laden with trophies just for participating and they think your business-as-usual ethic is for the birds. And if you persist in the belief you can, take your job and shove it. ” So immediately I thought Hey! that’s not me… well sorta… I mean the born between part but otherwise not so much.
So there were of course posts to the discussion board that went either way. Some of my co-Millennials argued with the same thoughts that I had. And many respondents mentioned that similar attributes and stereotypes were given to previous generations (Generation X anyone??). Why do we do this? It’s frustrating when we all see the point that hey not all so and so’s are the same, yet we continue to group people, places, things etc. into “common” areas.
In a way this is very much related to information architecture. We decide a set of characteristics that are part of the whole and then break the whole down into digestible and easily managed chunks. By doing so a user is more likely to find the information they need and leave satisfied.
The article that spurred on this post:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml.
Oh and you can never have TOO many trophies :).