Millennials

Let me begin by stating proudly that I am a millennial student. I may be an anomaly for my generation, but I do not think so. I was in a conference discussion recently and the group of professors began listing the traits of the millennial generation. While some positive attributes were listed, like being tech savvy and passionate about topics, most attributes were taken as negatives. Yes, our parents may be overly involved in our lives and we may be stressed; but look at our role models. We live in a baby boomer centered society and the media focuses on their anxieties and fears. As millennials are so invested in social communities, we see these stresses online and on television. If adults are worried about the economy, so are we. But as they have been through depressions before, we have not. We are not equipped with the historical context to understand our situation, so when we our understandings of the world are berated, it could be because no one has helped us understand the context.
Yes, millennials may have short attention spans, but we can work on it. Yes, multi-tasking may be seen as a negative, but what about serial uni-tasking, as discussed in the section. Is it not a positive thing that we can have multiple focuses in our lives? Won’t that better prepare us for a future of globalized learning and living? Yes, we are impatient because of the immediacy of technology and how we were raised, but couldn’t that be seen as a positive? We are impatient with our situations and the situations of others and will not wait for changes to be made…millennial impatience may be the key to accomplishing many of today’s social justice, intellectual, and human rights tasks.