04 April 2010

Millenials in the new economy

Many of today’s young adults seem temperamentally unprepared for the circumstances in which they now find themselves. Jean Twenge, an associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, has carefully compared the attitudes of today’s young adults to those of previous generations when they were the same age. Using national survey data, she’s found that to an unprecedented degree, people who graduated from high school in the 2000s dislike the idea of work for work’s sake, and expect jobs and career to be tailored to their interests and lifestyle. Yet they also have much higher material expectations than previous generations, and believe financial success is extremely important. “There’s this idea that, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to work, but I’m still going to get all the stuff I want,’” Twenge told me. “It’s a generation in which every kid has been told, ‘You can be anything you want. You’re special.’”

... Twenge attributes the shift to broad changes in parenting styles and teaching methods, in response to the growing belief that children should always feel good about themselves, no matter what. As the years have passed, efforts to boost self-esteem—and to decouple it from performance—have become widespread...

Ron Alsop, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the author of The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaking Up the Workplace, says a combination of entitlement and highly structured childhood has resulted in a lack of independence and entrepreneurialism in many 20-somethings. They’re used to checklists, he says, and “don’t excel at leadership or independent problem solving.” Alsop interviewed dozens of employers for his book, and concluded that unlike previous generations, Millennials, as a group, “need almost constant direction” in the workplace. “Many flounder without precise guidelines but thrive in structured situations that provide clearly defined rules.”

All of these characteristics are worrisome, given a harsh economic environment that requires perseverance, adaptability, humility, and entrepreneurialism. Perhaps most worrisome, though, is the fatalism and lack of agency that both Twenge and Alsop discern in today’s young adults. Trained throughout childhood to disconnect performance from reward, and told repeatedly that they are destined for great things, many are quick to place blame elsewhere when something goes wrong, and inclined to believe that bad situations will sort themselves out—or will be sorted out by parents or other helpers.

12 comments:

  1. I suspect that a more significant reason is that work and wealth actually are far less correlated than they once were, or so it seems. It's not laziness that makes you poor anymore - indeed the poor are the ones working multiple grueling jobs to make ends meet - rather it's unexpected illness, a single black mark like jail time, or lack of some crucial skill or attribute. On the other hand, the wealthy are portrayed as doing very little actual work, and came into their position on the basis of privilege, a genius idea, a stroke of luck, or some combination.

    On an individual level, youth are exhibiting a rational response to an irrational world IMO.

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  2. I've been saying for YEARS that there is currently too much emphasis on self-esteem in child-rearing, both in schools and in families. Yes, yes, I see the point that a kid can get the idea that s/he is "bad" and then continue to act that out.
    But self-esteem -- without a corresponding valuable quality or achievement -- can backfire, and DOES. It leads to just what we're seeing -- people with a feeling of entitlement who lack real ideas of their relationship to society.
    Teach kids RESPONSIBILITY. This doesn't have to be huge. Little kids can be proud that they are "good helpers". Big ones can be proud that they are kind, friendly, knowledgeable (if they are), intelligent (in some cases), principled, responsive to the needs of others, etc. etc.
    How do you want the world to be, anyway?! Don't we have SOME goals beyond having your kids grow up to make more money than the neighbor's kids?

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  3. Similar studies have shown that people from older generations "want those damn kids off my lawn!"

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  4. So let me get this straight, a bunch of older people started griping about the kids these days and decided to turn it into an objective study? I don't buy it.

    What is so shocking to me is that most of the media out on this subject blatantly ignores the societal trends that have gotten us here. In other words, a bunch of grown-ups refuse to acknowledge the effects of the political, financial and cultural decisions they made. Where's the responsibility now? When I turn on the TV and watch old rich white guys tell me how our country should be, all I see are a bunch of selfish, self-entitled brats. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

    There are two kinds of millenials out there. Both are responding to a vapid cult(ure) of the individual, but while one kind buys the meaninglessness and can't be bothered to care, the other kind cares very deeply and will not be satisfied with empty desk jobs that will repay loyalty with layoffs. Those millenials have their priorities straight, and you old folks out there better start praying there are more of them than of the former if we're all going to have much of a future together.

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  5. I think you might have the wrong article hyperlinked. (Have loved your blog since shortly after it started, btw. Thanks!)

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  6. There was a quote in the Garrison Keillor piece you blogged about that complements this nicely:

    "Children don't wander free and mess around in vacant lots the way we used to -- they're in day care now or enrolled in programs, and one worries about a certain loss of verve and nerve among the young who've been under constant supervision for too long."

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  7. Anonymous, it's for sure the right article, but to find the specific quote you may need to go to page 2 (or page 3 or page 4) of the linked article.

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  8. "Work for work's sake" is ridiculous.

    We spend almost (and for some, more than) a third of lives from the years 20-70 "working." Don't try and tell me that trying to fill that time with something you consider "meaningful" is something unique to "those spoiled millenials."

    Dear Baby Boomers, please get your
    heads out of your asses; we're all in this together. We're still all humans searching to satisfy that basic thirst for understanding and find "our place" in the world. Maybe we were pampered too much and our self esteems are a wee bit inflated, but I would rather be searching for something better instead of settling for "work for work's sake." The latter is stasis; the former, progress.

    Full disclosure - I was born in 1985. In case you couldn't guess.

    I agree with many of the allegations the millenials are charged with. But, just like any stereotype, they only serve to naysay (instead of being constructive), and they are fueled by confirmation bias. I was griping to my mother about my office job and how it's not what I want do. She retorted with something along the lines of "you millenials don't have any work ethic..." But when she gripes to ME about HER office job not being what she wants to do, it's perfectly acceptable?

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  9. you millenials wanna find meaningful work? That makes you selfish pricks. Why don't you grow up and enter the world of drudge the baby boomers created. Woo for the persistence of corporate america. You think you're an individual? Well, you're not. Get out there, clock in, do your work, clock out, then get out and buy buy buy.

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  10. I have to agree with several of the posters on here that this sounds like an excuse for the Boomers to ignore the problems they created. You lot have no room to bitch we don't like the mess you left us!

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  11. Interesting article and interesting discussion. I believe that these kids may have a sense of entitlement...but I also believe that their drive to get what they want can help change the direction of our society.

    How many people today suffer health problems (mental, spiritual, physical) because they are working in soul-sucking jobs that have little meaning? In a way, these kids might be smarter than the rest of us who (consciously or not) put up with windowless office cubicles or low pay while the CEO profited enormously.

    It is a matter of balance. I remember when the older folks complained about Generation X. They seemed to have little good to say about grown-up "latch-key" kids or our interests in the alternative/grunge rock movement or how we started to express ourselves with body piercings or tattoos. Nonetheless, I believe that my generation found its way and managed to survive in the artificial plastic computerized world. I think that these younger kids--who never got a real chance to "fall seven times and stand up eight" will eventually find their feet and get it figured out.

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  12. I think I've heard this story before.

    Old people don't like young people and complain.

    Young people eventually end up choosing old person's nursing home.

    Young people grow up in the new "old" and end up not liking the new "young".

    New young ended up choosing their nursing homes.

    Rinse lather repeat.

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