Millennials as Students, Employees, and Citizens

Dr. Pete Markiewicz

Indiespace.com

Lifecourse AssociatesArt Institute of California, Los Angeles

The Strauss & Howe model

• Generations last ~20 years

• 14 defined generations in US history

• Cyclic patterns in generation psychology

• Sudden pop culture “takeover” when youngest generation reaches their 20s

• GenX/Y ->Millennial transition 2005-2012

• Next Generation (“Plurals”) ~2020

Millennial traits summarized

• According to S & H, Millennials are…– SPECIAL (wizards in training)– SHELTERED (naïve about real world)– CONFIDENT (I can do anything))– CONVENTIONAL (rules, authority have value)– TEAM-PLAYER (group most important)– PRESSURED (work, work, work…)– ACHIEVING (value society’s rewards)

Millennial traits

Special,

Sheltered,

Wizards-in-training

Millennial traits

Conventional,

Inclusive, Team-players

Socially conscious

Want everyone to succeed

Group, cause-oriented

Renewed political engagement

Millennial traits

“Trophy kid” pressure

Driven to achieve

Everyone must go to college

Achievement = passing standardized tests

Millennial traits

Virtualized

Social media

New kinds of “friend”

“Always online”

Geolocated HabboEmpire of Sports

Social media

New kinds of “friend”

“Always online”

Geolocated

Additional traits

• Close to parents (they’re still protecting them)• Naïve about “real life” (many have never a job)• Not classic “rebels” (conventional)• Left-brain, external thinking (structured)• Engaged by specifics (not “big ideas”)• Groupthink, consensus (social networks)• Not Private (monitoring, nanny network OK)• Expect business, government to solve their

problems (reduced individualism)

Bad press

• Naïve!• Think Mommy/Daddy will fix it• Arrogance• No respect for experience• Belief in personal superiority• Lack basic communication skills• Need constant stroking• Complain instead of work• Over-sharing• Can’t read a book• Take any comments as criticism• Reveal company secrets on blog

• Disloyal• Cheaters• Don’t understand money • Paying dues = showing up• Uninterested in adapting• Lack creativity• Passive• Assume automatic promotion• Others always responsible for

my mistakes• “We all deserve promotions”• “I get Facebook or I walk”

Online and offline comments from employers

Getting real

• People are people first• No generation is “bad”• “Bad” features of one generation may be the

“good” features of the next• You can’t easily change behavior• You can exploit strengths and adjust for

weaknesses

Millennial positives

• Tolerant of diversity

• Accept that rules solve problems

• Will work hard for (specified) goals

• Want everyone to get a fair shake

• Very concerned about social justice for all

• Want to make the world a better place

• Skilled at leveraging new technology

Millennial issues

• Entitlement

• Failure to launch

• The Collective

• The Shallows

• Generation Debt

Millennial entitlement

• Derives from the “special” core trait– Millennials see their needs as “rights” – A “micro celebrity” expects customer service– Want all the benefits (in a list) from the start – Expect free stuff for being there– Confident that helicopter parents will defend

their “rights”

Message received…

• Millennials really think they are special

– Told they were especially clever, creative

– Identity defined in terms of entitlement

– Had their ideas listened to as equals

– Self-describe as “exceptional”

– Assume there must be greener pastures for “someone as special as myself”

No Millennial confidence gap!

Reported self-Confidence of First-Year College Students by Gender, 2006

Academic Skill % of Women Who Think

They Are Above Average

% of Men Who Think

They Are Above Average

Intellectual 52.2% 68.8%

Mathematical ability 35.9% 53.1%

Academic ability 65.9% 71.9%

Writing ability 49.3% 45.7%

SOURCE: The Gender Gap in College: Maximizing the Developmental Potential of Women and Men 

Linda J. Sax, Alexander W. Astin (Foreword by), Helen S. Astin (Foreword by)

ISBN: 978-0-7879-6575-4

The “micro celebrity”

• Parents and media told Millennials they were special

• Attention from family and society made Millennials optimistic and confident

• Marketing messages implied that they were a “must have” customer that would get premium service

• Millennials enter life as a customer, expecting great service

Examples

• I deserve an “A” for effort

• Why do I have to work now instead of outside/online later?

• Why can’t I just jump to the advanced class?...that’s the part I want!

• “Why can’t we re-negotiate your hours?”

• “Why can’t I share on Facebook at work/school?”

Millennials complain…

• You haven’t told me the rules

• Your decisions are arbitrary, we should negotiate and optimize

• I’m dropping the course unless I get an “A”

• You’re forcing me to know stuff that doesn’t matter to my pre-formulated life plan

Entitlement = inexperience?

• Fewer Millennials have ever held a job before graduating college

• Fewer Millennials than any generation can drive a car

• More Millennials depend on their parents before and after graduation

• More Millennials interpret business and society as governed by “family rules”

Failure to launch

• Millennials are “trophy kids” who continue to remain close to their parents

• Assume parents will continue to take care of them– Only 60% of eligible Millennials have drivers’

licenses– A large proportion of Millennials are moving

home after college

Helicopter everyone

• Millennials assume “someone will step in”– Helicopter parents are ready to run in and

protect their “trophy kids”– Constant guidance from elders, close

relationships before and after leaving home– Social networks make their default state of

reality “being monitored by your peers”

Need for praise

• Millennials expect praise – For effort

– For ordinary work

– For everyday activity

• Praise may be symbolic– Gold stars

– “A new level” (like in the games they play)

The collective

• Millennials are a “groupthink” generation– Parents– Peers on social networks– Larger group of virtual “friends”– Groups and “causes”

• Solve problems in teams (think Harry Potter)– No losers – only the “last winner”– “A” grades have become the default– “B” for just showing up

The wisdom of the crowd

• Derives from the “team-player” core trait– Millennials have a weaker “inner compass” (unlike their

mostly Boomer parents)– Online peer groups provide the “wisdom of the crowd”

for personal decisions– Short, frequent “ping” style communication (texting

rather than long calls, emails, or letters)

• A new kind of friend– Definition of “friend” loosened to anyone you can

communicate with– Virtual personas used to as proxies for social interaction

(e.g. avatars in virtual worlds)

No “inner compass”

Older generations have a feeling (excitement, sadness), and call a friend

to share…

Millennials call a friend to get their next feeling…

Millennials consult the group to know what to think/feel next! – Sherri Turkle, MIT

What should I do next?

“Students can’t go for even a few minutes without talking on their cellphone. There’s almost a discomfort with not being stimulated – a kind of ‘I can’t stand the silence’…”

-Donald Roberts,Stanford Professor, quoted in “Generation M”, Time, March 27, 2006

Mashups = crowd art

• Millennial media is “cut and paste” – Social networking pages– Widgets

• Authenticity less important– IOK to grab stuff from the Internet and call it mine– One of my avatars can stand-in for me

• Viewed as original work– Internet content provides the worlds for our “visual

language”

The Shallows

• “The Shallows” (Nicholas Carr)– Millennial reality is transactional, rather than

conceptual– Network technology replaces focused thought

with ADD-like management of fast data streams– Millennial understanding of computers is actually

worse than previous generations

• Millennials are…• Good at sorting, organizing, collaborating• Poor at meaning, deep thought, long focus on

a single task

SOURCE: “The Shallows” by Nicolas Carr, 2010, Norton

A mile wide/an inch deep

• Derives from “always on” media– Millennials adapt to information overload by

communicating in frequent, short bursts

– They value shuffling of vast amounts of information rather than deep knowledge of a specific topic

– Millennials multitask – but research shows they do it no better than older adults

– Computer games and social network sites present the world as having discrete tasks, scores, and rankings

Homo mobilis

• Constant communication increases re-negotiation, reduces advance planning, reading

• Frequent check-ins (“pinging”), allows regular consensus-building with their “friends”

• Definition of “friend” loosened to someone you can communicate with

• Looser definition of “public” versus private information (a public web page seems “private” to them).

SOURCE: -The Economist,” Homo Mobilis, April 10, 2008

Everything is negotiable

“…Older people use their mobile phones to "micro-co-

ordinate" with partners during

the day in order to run their errands more efficiently

and

… younger people, who have never known paper

diaries or an unconnected world, micro-co-ordinate in

order to avoid committing themselves to any fixed

meeting time, location or person at all. After all, a

better opportunity might yet present itself…

-The Economist,” Homo Mobilis, April 10, 2008

In other words…

• Computers didn’t take over the world– Millennials made their minds match computer

processing

• Big Brother didn’t take over the world– Millennials made themselves into their own S/N

Big Brother

The social norm

• Millennials don’t share Boomer perfectionism

• Trained to see the world as a game

• Standardized challenges

• Lots of levels defining advancement

• Rapid feedback-style rewards

• There is no “in the long run”

• Expect maximum benefit if they “put in the time”

Millennials believe…

• The journey is ANYTHING but “its own reward”

• You don’t “follow your bliss” unless it:

– Gets you something concrete

– Makes you a success

– Makes a difference in the world

• 90% of life is doing what you’re told to do

Millennial expectations

• If I work hard and follow the rules– There must be a reward– It will be a special reward

• If I fail…– The system must be broken– Schools, industry, government must keep their

promise

Millennial cheating• Cheating is just us helping each

other…

"I actually think cheating is good. A person who has an entirely honest life can't succeed these days."

"I believe cheating is not wrong. People expect us to attend 7 classes a day, keep a 4.0 GPA, not go crazy and turn in all of our work the next day. What are we supposed to do, fail?"

SOURCE: CNN report on Millennial cheating

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/fyi/teacher.ednews/04/05/highschool.cheating/

Generation Debt

• Students typically graduate with ~$30,000 in debt

• Debts double for for-profit schools•  The average senior will graduate with

~$4,000 in credit card debt, up 41% from the same study conducted in 2004

• People in the 18 to 24 age bracket spend nearly 30% of their monthly income on debt repayment - double the percentage in 1992 

SOURCES: Salle Mae, Center for Responsible Lending

Debt consequences

• Debt is contributing to other Millennial features– Failure to launch– Extended dependence on parents– Entitlement (inexperience?)

• Debt will soon contribute to– A desire to “fix it” by any means necessary– Delayed start to households

What could you do?

1. Choose a topic

2. Discuss pragmatic approaches

3. Create a list for implementing

4. Check the solution deck