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 :).
funny that you mentioned that article, cause I SAW the news story about 2 years ago (this is not a new topic) glad you pointed it out though. The news story talked about how job-fickle this generation is due to the constatnt “petting” they recieved growing up and how un-satisfied they are, always “paper-chasing”, meanig job-hopping to find more money and better status because the feel they “deserve” it. This generation is not like the old–the old were loyal and consistent and sought after job-security and building work-eqity, such as pension and promotion for a stable family and respectable status. Your generation has been petted so much, that they also say that you can’t take criticism well and they often “shut down” when they are disciplned by their boss or critiqued by their collegues. It correlates to in the past, when growing up, playing sports or talent shows n such, and all that developmental stuff, their parents did not allow them to fail or taste defeat or failure, they were alwayw quick there to recover and assuage their child from emotional and psychological defeat. So, that personality stuck, and that created a MORE FAGILE generation to criticism and hence, the job-hopping, lack of loyalty, un-deserved sence of entitlement, un-stable mood and attitude, and mediocre work ethic. They don’t know how to work hard because in their youth, mediorcicy was rewared and was rewarded well, so striving for greatness was never an aspiration….
Damn…. didn’t mean to write so much. But you know how I get Lis. When I first saw that news clip, it sure openened my eyes, as you can see. It was aire 2 years ago and I can STILL remember it as if it was yesterday….
Couldn’t agree more!