Observing the Millennial in its natural habitat

After reading the Millennials section in Mass Media in a Changing World, and watching a news story about Millennials on the Internet, I have come to the conclusion that the older generation views Millennials as a different species. “They are highly skilled at multitasking and working in teams.” “Millennials are less violent and less inclined to participate in risky behavior…” And my favorite: “They tend to posses short attention spans.” These were all quotes from the text book. While reading it, I felt like I was watching a nature documentary. I could almost picture Steve Irwin saying, “Crikey, isn’t he a beauty!” Or Jack Hannah declaring: “Millennials like to travel in herds across the grassy quad. Notice how the alpha-male t
akes care of the other herd members by sharing the ear-buds for his iPod. Such magnificent creatures!”

The news story took the same attitude, calling Millennials narcissistic praise hounds who have low work ethics. The reporter even mentioned that many work places have training groups to teach older generations how to deal with and interact with Millennial coworkers. One interaction rule was to not use harsh words around Millennials because they are so used to praise, criticism would confuse and anger them. Now, if that doesn’t make us sound like animals, I don’t know what does. Again I picture Jack Hannah saying, “When approaching a Millennial be very calm and quiet because they startle easily. The last thing you want to do is start a stampede.”

Human beings try to make everything easier by classifying many objects into one category. Flamingos, robins, peacocks, and kiwis. These are all “birds.” All of them have feathers and beaks and all of them lay eggs. And it is possible to describe the individual species. All kiwis are brown. All kiwis can’t fly. All kiwis are small. Etc. Well, that is certainly easy to remember and all of these descriptions are true. Human beings even feel the need to classify other humans. Blacks, whites, baby-boomers, millennials. These are all humans. All of them breathe oxygen, have warm red blood, and soft skin with hair. All of these are true. But unlike the birds, you can’t really describe individual categories without using stereotypes. All Blacks are… All Whites are… Filling in the blanks can cause a person to appear racist which is frowned upon in this culture. However, books and television personalities see nothing wrong with doing this to generation categories. All millennials hate to work. All millennials have an iPod. All millennials have a short attention span. Etc. All of these statements apply to some millennials, but it is not true for all.

Why did this classification system work for the birds but not for humans? It was easy to find true statements for birds in general as well as kiwis in general, but finding true statements for humans in general and millennials in general is harder. This is because millennials are not the separate species that the media makes them out to be. Millennials are humans, and like all humans have different personalities, dreams, likes and dislikes and should never be categorized otherwise. A generation shares an age range. That is all. They do not share interests or personality traits. Let me do what the media fails to do: introduce millennials as individuals.
(Names have been changed for privacy reasons.)

Lisa shaved her hair into a Mohawk and wears all black with skull accessories. But she would rather listen to Mozart than heavy metal.

Jane spends a lot of time online talking to friends. But at least six hours of her day are spent practicing her French horn.

Mary goes to college, has a job and spends her money on car insurance, tuition, and other necessities. She is very concerned with her grades and works hard in both her job and school work.

And then there’s me. I have never own an iPod or a camera phone, and I don’t want either one. I spend most of my day doing homework or chores. I have no time to text my friends or talk online. I’d rather talk to my friends in person. I pay attention in all of my classes and I consider myself a workaholic.

I, like many others, am a millennial, and I am a person.