The Millennials: Connecting to America's Largest Generation

As an older Gen-X-er (I remember the year the media coined the term Generation X and started applying it to my age group, in the most unflattering of ways! I was in high school at the time), I found this book to be a bit narrow in its perspective, although it is a good general introduction to *some* of the characteristics of the Millenials.While overall the book seeks to be objective, it is actually very narrowly defined in its perspective: the thoughts of a Baby Boomer, and the reactive reflections of his Millenial son. As such, it tends to focus on or telescope certain qualities (or interpretations of certain qualities) in ways only Boomers or Millenials with Boomer parents will agree upon.Since the Gen-X perspective is missing from this book, I will attempt to include my observations of the myopia of both Boomers and Millenials as exemplified in this book.1. In chapter 3 - "It's a Family Affair" - the Boomer parent is astonished how much the Millenials "respect" their elders. Since most Millenials are old enough to remember the 50th anniversary of WWII media blitz (i.e. Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" televised series and book, and the recent PBS documentary about "The War"), they have been inundated with information about the achievements and sacrifices made by their grandparents, the G.I. Generation. No doubt this made an impression upon them. Many of these kids have lived in multigenerational families. Since the 70s, the purchasing power of the dollar has been in decline, and it is no longer possible for many people to live the 1950s nuclear family lifestyle in a suburban home. Many Boomers are also caregivers, as the cost of long-term care for the elderly has also skyrocketed. This is a feature of Millenial experience that is also very common in poorer countries, such as Mexico, where families of 3 or 4 generations all live together under one roof. This results in closer, more tightly-knit families. The flip side of this (which neither the Millenial co-author nor his Boomer "helicopter parent" dad seem to notice!) is that Millenials have FEW (OR NO) PERSONAL BOUNDARIES. This is a VERY double-edged sword. Millenials may be the most relational and connected generation, but they are also the generation that has taken cyberstalking (and social media harassment) and turned it into an art form! Teen suicides as the result of classmates' bullying them online are now daily features on the news. This has implications for the workplace as well: in offices with low walled cubicles (meant to foster "collaboration"), or no walls at all, Millenials may feel free to invade the space, time, and personal privacy of coworkers with abandon. It is one thing to be friendly and want to chat or say good morning to your office mates. It is quite another thing to air your dirty laundry, family crises, and general gossip in the workplace, particularly when the office arrangements are such that it is quite easy for one gossipy Millenial to simply stand up and shout across the room to another gossipy Millenial - ALL DAY LONG. Anyone who does not wish to participate or be interrupted has nowhere to go. Millenials can and do inflict their boundary-free worldview on unwilling coworkers. This will create very expensive legal problems in the workplace as the USA adopts more stringent laws to govern "workplace mobbing" - a phenomenon already highly visible in Europe, and will be moreso in the US as Millenials join the workplace in larger and larger numbers.2. The authors describe a "new normal of openness and diversity". Their perspective is narrowly defined by the Boomer author as "white" and "nonwhite". The examples he gives of Millenials astonishing openness to diversity are simply examples of white kids hanging out with and/or intermarrying with Asian kids. I can only say: big deal! Whites and Asians have been intermarrying at extremely high rates for years. My brother (Gen-X) recently married a woman whose parents immigrated to the USA from Taiwan. This was not remarkable to anyone of our generation, or even to our parents (who are Silent Generation). Hispanics intermarry with whites almost more often than they marry each other. At the rate of intermarriage for both Hispanics and Native Americans, both "minorities" will be categorically absorbed into the white population within a couple of generations. Remember, both the Italians and the Irish used to be considered "non-white", at the turn of the 19th century. Now, they simply check the box for "Caucasian" on the census, since Irish and Italian are no longer considered ethnic minorities. They are just white. The same appears to be happening to both Hispanics and Native Americans at the start of the 21st century. Does this mean the categories of "white" and "non-white" will cease to exist for the Millenials? Hardly. They will simply redefine what constitutes "white" and "non-white." I'm afraid America's most basic racial paradigm is not so easily discarded. I remember as a child of 11 or 12 years of age, I asked my mom (a woman of the Silent Generation) if it would upset her if I had a black boyfriend. She became upset! I told her it was just a hypothetical question. I asked what if I had a boyfriend who was Japanese or Chinese? She said it wouldn't bother her "as much". So, I think the Millenial racial "diversity" that the Boomer remarks upon in this book has its roots in an attitude shift that has been taking place at least since the G.I. Generation, and is not a revolutionary invention of the Millenial generation. They are just on the other side of the tipping point somehow.3. Since Millenials are delaying marriage, on average, until *after* age 25, they might defy the odds and not wind up divorced like their parents. However, children of divorce have a different mindset about marriage that might make it impossible for them to make a marriage work. While over 80% of Millenials believe they will only be married once, they also naively believe the government will be able to pay for their retirement (HAHAHA!). I might be a jaded Gen-Xer, but no one in my generation has ever been stupid enough to believe that the solvency of Social Security is a foregone conclusion. Needless to say, Millenials' optimistic beliefs about themselves and their prospects are such fantasies they make the world of Harry Potter seem like gritty realism! I think the defining feature of the Millenials is not their optimism, but their unrealistic expectations of reward without effort.4. Since financial success and religious engagement are historically very enmeshed (read anything by Dr. Thomas Stanley, but especially "The Millionaire Mind" and "The Millionaire Next Door"), it is unlikely this generation will have either the financial savvy (the Millenial co-author of the book also describes his fellow Millenials as "financially confused") or the religious and ethical foundation to achieve the kind of financial stability their G.I. Grandparents did. Take "financially confused" and "spiritual but not religious" and you have a recipe for a generation of flat broke daydreamers building houses upon the sand and not on solid ground (as the rhyme to an old Sunday School tune comes to mind - my Silent Generation parents made sure I never missed a Sunday of church for the first 20 years of my life!). American Millenials lack the proper framework to experience success. While the book purports to be a survey of only US Millenials, I would point out, on the other hand, that Millenials globally are rejecting their parents' religious or secular views, whatever they may be. So, while Millenials in the USA and in Europe may have very secular views, and might even be hostile to most forms of organized religion, Millenials in China and other Asian countries are adopting Christianity (in a Protestant, and even Pentecostal form primarily) by the hundreds of millions. While American Millenials might be a threat to the survival of Christianity in the USA, there is certainly no shortage of Millenials overseas who are massively converting to Christianity. Since the global Christian Millenials live in the countries whose economies are the upcoming "superpowers", and Millenials in the USA and Europe are living in countries that are in decline, in terms of economic and political power, the real story is how global Millenials may change the balance of power in the world to favor a Christian-centric socioeconomic regime. I predict an influx of Millenial Chinese missionaries will come to America to evangelize and convert their American cohort. (Ditto for Europe!). My generation grew up with televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart and other very colorful and very American icons of the 1980s' excesses of American-flavored Christianity. The Millenials will likely come into contact with a much more international (and primarily Asian) flavor of Christian religious outreach, in the coming years. If they are as open to diversity as the authors claim, this will do more to attract than to repel them from religious participation.5. Ah, the college degree! While Millenials might be the most educated generation, this will ultimately serve only to dilute the value of a college degree. When I went to graduate school in the early 1990s to get my MA degree, I was able to obtain a full tuition scholarship and a *paid* teaching assistantship (I taught 2 sections of college level Spanish each term for a small stipend). I lived at home with my parents (we were in the recession of the early 90s) so I had no rent to pay. Consequently, I basically got my MA degree for "free". In other words, I had no student loans. Student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt in the USA and is becoming a macroeconomic factor that depresses the Millenial generation's ability to buy a home, get married and start families of their own. In addition, the sheer glut of college degrees and advanced degrees virtually ensures that most graduates will face tough competition and many (if not most) will have to take jobs that are below their training and income needs. I have heard of so many young people borrowing money to go to graduate school, and it really shocks me. If you are a Millenial and you are reading this, stop and think for a moment: if the university program that accepted you doesn't have enough funds to offer you a full tuition scholarship and a TA with a stipend, then perhaps that program is accepting too many students. If they are accepting more students than they can offer scholarships, then (logically) they are graduating too many students with degrees identical to yours. This is in the program's best interest (the more degrees they print, the more the reputation of the program improves), but it is NOT in their students' best interest (you will have more competition for a diminishing supply of jobs). The interest of most graduate programs is to improve their own reputation and standing in the academic community. The interest of their students is to find a well-paying job in their field. *Your school is undermining the value and marketability of your degree to advance their own interests.* Please reread that statement as many times as it takes to sink in. My advice: enroll in a program that is in a field that is relatively new: new technologies/fields will have more opportunities and job openings than they have qualified people to enter them. As you think about graduate school, think about where is all the cutting edge stuff really happening. Don't go into a program that has been around for more than 10 years. You'll educate yourself out of a job and into a sinkhole of massive and *un-bankruptible* financial debt and poverty. If Millenials "are not driven by money" right now, they soon will be. I genuinely pity the horrific pain they are going to experience in their 30s and 40s as they try hopelessly to catch up with their looming student loans, which will never be forgiven.

Point: The generation known as the "Millennials" is composed of those born between 1980 and 2000. This is the generation which could be the greatest agitators of change America has ever seen. They must be seen and understood.Path: The two authors, a father and son, interviewed many from this generation. They concluded that although there is no "normal" group of millennials, as a whole they are family focused, looking for guidance from a mentor, dangerously connected to their cell phone and social media, greatly impacted by 9/11, distrusting of the institutions of government and church, instigators of reconciliation, and impatient for change.Sources: This was compiled through interviews with nearly 1200 "Millennials." There are lots of statistics (if you are an accountant you would love this book) but they also seek to clarify them and make it enjoyably readable for the rest of us.Agreement: I personally agreed with many of the sentiments found throughout the generation. My first remembrance of computers is Oregon Trail and Frogger. I vividly remember 9/11. I want to see change. My field of friends is diverse. I look for mentors. I am sick of pride and false humility. I want to be consistent and serious about my beliefs.Disagreement: I am not sure that the study is wide enough to solidify all of their arguments, but they have a fairly good base. I wonder if it has occurred to anyone that this Millennial generation is the first "World Generation"? My generation is composed of not only North Americans, but Europeans, Africans, South Americans, Asians, etc. I also think they were too generous. Although our generation has much potential, the authors did not reckon with the fact that we are completely wrapped up in postmodernism. Truth is at a premium, but no one can agree on what truth is.Personal App: This book greatly helped me to see what my generation looks like. It has reminded me of my responsibility to look outside of myself, my box, and my little world and look to build relationships with those around me.It would be worth another read and I would recommend it.I read this on my iphone, which is humorous if you have read the book. It also is being offered as a free audiobook from christianaudio.com (which, by the way, you need to be frequenting to get the free audiobook every month!)

This book is entirely based on millennial self perception. So guess what, they're never going to divorce they're all going to only do meaningful work and they're all wonderful. Yet the author seems to treat their self evaluation as delivered fact. My other key objection is at no point, despite the author insisting that this is a well researched and scholarly book are we shown this research. A massive waste of money, buy Blomberg's effective generational ministry. This is a much better scholarly work if you're looking for a overview of millennial culture and how to work with them.

Very optimistic, positive and hopeful reading of the Millennial generation. I would recommend it to anyone who either belong to this great generation or who will perhaps mentor and or be mentored by, especially in the religious context.