Younger Millennial generation

[Julius Seeker]

Just a few observations, and I mean the younger millennial in particular, born about 1990-93or later. I previously thought there wasn't much of a generation gap any longer. But I am noticing some huge differences with the younger millennial generation.

1. Maturity - while the younger millennials are much better behaved in some respects, in terms of actual maturity, a lot of them haven't really grown up. A large amount of them have never had a relationship of any sort before, have never had a drink or smoked a joint, and seem to be hestitant to go out to parties or bars. I can't help but to see guys in their mid 20s as being still kind of children. I was out on my own by age 17, and I don't think anyone gen x would dream of living with their parents after 18 or 19, but a lot of younger millennials live with their parents until up to 25 (so far)
2. Childhood experience - people born later often did not go biking around everywhere. They spent almost all their time inside under their helicopter mom's watchful eye. So it's weird telling stories and hearing "you were crazy as a kid."
3. Fashion sense, almost none of the younger millennials wear proper shoes. It's cheap sneakers, ugly sandals (often with socks), and slippers. Now, it might actually be that the gen-x obsession with nice shoes is the anomaly, but the boomers had it too. But it's not limited to shoes. It's shirts and pants as well where Old Navy bargain style of the month is Millennial premium.
4. Might just be my perception or Canadian culture, but a large number of gen Xers came from broken families, lots of us with entitled fathers or mothers; something like a 60% divorce rats. with millennials, it seems many more of them had both parents - not a commentary on millennial habits so much as experience differences.

[Shrinweck]

I think a lot of this boils down to life being much different. They didn't grow up under the shadow of war quite like other generations (massive loss of life or at the very least a draft) and weren't forced to go into the war (i.e. being forced away from your parents) or into a country whose production shifted heavily for a war effort (i.e. manufacturing jobs, things that don't require a years of training). Something else to add to the effects of war - their parents aren't veterans quite as commonly, which is to say aren't as often the children of people that they WANT to get away from... not that veterans equate to being broken and bitter, but being the child of someone who is a veteran would probably mean that they either motivated you through discipline or fear. Or just someone that had their shit together.

Also with life expectancy having gone up and held steady at 70+ a lot of the time, people don't feel the push to grow up quite as quickly. Economically things have changed a lot. My parents both graduated from college with degrees that would have been useless for just about anything but teaching (which is what they did for ~5 years) before being hired by AT&T in the 80s who have not only employed them since, but literally spent weeks/months training them in aspects of computer science. The idea of finding a job like that that will keep you for even ten years is just a pipe dream a lot of the time, even if you went to college for it. Because of this, being able to hold a job for so short a time makes people dependent on their parents longer. Not being able to hold a job for an extended period of time also means you're constantly diving into your (supposed) savings constantly but also that you may have to move. Add in a massive rise in the cost of living and a paltry increase in wages over the years and you have a society whose living wage just isn't being met by the bulk of jobs. Rent goes up substantially every year (say.. 3-5%) and everything else (insurance, loan interest, taxes) just keeps getting more expensive as well on top of it.

I think this is what compounds a hopelessness in millennials and why you end up seeing them complained about for their work ethic and all. A lot of that is just the older generations complaining which isn't anything new, but some of it is definitely true.

[Julius Seeker]

Well, Pokemon Go seems to be changing things.

[Replay]

Having a drink or smoking a joint constitutes maturity...?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you not "out on your own" at 17 - economically, at least? Weren't you living in your parents' spare house or garage or whatever it was, at least part of the time, talking about how much fun you were having partying all the time? (I could be wrong about this; it's been awhile.)

A certain amount of that kind of fun is healthy no doubt - but it's not particularly considered maturity, either.

Please don't turn into a judgmental guy as you get older. Don't start promoting generation gaps for fun.

You want to talk generation gaps, let's talk about the way certain boomer politicians are screwing us all in the name of their never-ending, impossible quest to get out of the shadow of *their* parents. Millenials aren't moving out because it's not good economic sense anymore to move out as early as possible anymore. The younger millenials are growing up with less economic opportunity than any generation since 1929, and getting shit on every day by nasty boomers out on comment boards to boot, for the same "work ethic" Shrinweck mentioned - as if the boomers have given them any chances worth working for.

[ManaMan]

3. Fashion sense, almost none of the younger millennials wear proper shoes. It's cheap sneakers, ugly sandals (often with socks), and slippers. Now, it might actually be that the gen-x obsession with nice shoes is the anomaly, but the boomers had it too. But it's not limited to shoes. It's shirts and pants as well where Old Navy bargain style of the month is Millennial premium.

Gen Xers had nice shoes? First I've heard of this phenomenon. Maybe that was true in Canada but here in the states Gen-X shoes were more or less as you describe for "Millenials". Actually, if you count twee Hipsters as "Millenials" I'd say that many of them have nicer shoes the Gen-X people I knew.

Also I should point out that, born in 1980, I'm either at the tail end of Gen-X or the beginning of the "Millenials" or both (depending on who's making it up).

[Shrinweck]

Also worth mentioning is that our culture (movies, music, television, books) has been celebrating the anti-hero and loser for the past several decades. It's the counter-culture idea that not everyone is made happy by working a 9-5 job, starting a family, raising kids, and then retiring modestly. The baby boomers kind of carved that idea into the United States as the acceptable path of happiness but with how things actually are today (i.e. what said baby boomers did to interest rates, the living wage, and insurance) that path is just closed off to a lot people... or just not a way they even want to live their life.

You see a another side of this when you consider the idea of "participation" trophies in sporting events. While there's something to not getting too hard on yourself for failing... there should still be a reminder that that is in fact what is happening - failure.

I am deeply interested in seeing where this ends up taking us. What will happen when voting millennials and what comes after them outnumber baby boomers and gen x'ers? Will we age into the GOP like they seem to be assured we will? I kind of doubt it.

[Replay]

I think millenials have it rough. They're heading into the most corrupt working and political world of my lifetime with the usual life experience of a semi-curious amoeba that a lot of us have at 18.

They will suffer some of the most terrible wealth inequality in history and have never been able to grow up experiencing the joy and hopefulness that comes from something even as once "normal" as the 1990's world of relative peace and prosperity we all grew up in.

Most will be gouged for their educations, then treated as expendable pawns by the system they'll need to live in to pay off student debts, then finally realize too late that money and power are the only ways to truly change the situation - money and power purposefully withheld by a small number of greedy manipulators, politicians, bankers, and celebrities keen on controlling the system.

I have felt feelings from, say, 1997 or so that I have almost completely kissed goodbye at this point - a more hopeful world, a world where Americans prized work and happiness with friends and just going out to enjoy our civic joys in our this "city on a hill". Nobody angry out in public at some group they didn't like because of race or profession or anything else - everybody I knew keen to work hard all day and then go out at night to light the world up.

Who knows? I may be idealizing my formative years as we all do; but I will also call out anyone who lived through the 80's and 90's and says we haven't lost a few things. There was something there in world consciousness that we're missing now.

[Julius Seeker]

Shrine points for name dropping a John Winthrop poem!

[ManaMan]

Good one about home ownership and mobility among Millenials from CityLab.

Basically:

But in the noble rush to overturn tired stereotypes about Millennials being an undifferentiated blob of privileged mewling, some analysts are missing a deeper story, which is that the decline in homeownership is a bifurcated phenomenon, with two extreme adulthood tracks that have emerged in the last few years: the supermobile and the stuck. And each has its own deleterious effect on the housing market.

[kali o.]

Good one about home ownership and mobility among Millenials from CityLab.

Basically:

But in the noble rush to overturn tired stereotypes about Millennials being an undifferentiated blob of privileged mewling, some analysts are missing a deeper story, which is that the decline in homeownership is a bifurcated phenomenon, with two extreme adulthood tracks that have emerged in the last few years: the supermobile and the stuck. And each has its own deleterious effect on the housing market.

Doesn't seem like much of a referenced article -- just a few assertions. I think I'll stay with the "millennials are pansy layabouts" line of thinking.