Who Is Gen Y?
By We have been labeled as Millennials, Generation Y, Generation Me, Generation Why, Generation.com, Wired Generation, MyPod Generation, Baby Boomlets, Echo Boomers, Boomerang Generation, Gen Next, Generation “Have you hugged your child today” and many more. We have been called lazy, spoilt, overprotected, cocky, narcissistic, and dependent daydreamers and idealists.
We have been called the black sheep of generations because we didn’t survive the Great Depression; we didn’t fight in WW II nor Vietnam; and we didn’t rally up for equality, civil rights and peace.
Just like little lab rats, we have been the subject of studies and experiments so scientists and marketers can find out what we like and what we don’t like; what we value and what we don’t value; what we love and what we hate.
But consider this:
We are individuals (I know it might come as a surprise to some, but it is true). We are humans and there is no label that can comprehensively describe who we are. Yes, we are the generation after Gen X. Yes, we love talking about ourselves and sometimes (most of the time) we do believe we are in the center of the universe. Yes, we do question everything. Yes, we didn’t know the world before the Internet (thank God!). Yes, we are tech-savvy. Yes, we are the most watched-over generation in history. Yes, out parents are the infamous Baby Boomers. BUT we are all of that and even more, thus you can’t put a label on us and put us for mass production. We are customized, just like everything we buy.
We don’t fit labels. There are adjectives that describe certain traits we posses and one of these adjectives is definitely not lazy. We are the most civic-minded generation with the greatest number of hours devoted to community service and helping others. We are the smartest and best-educated generation in U.S. history and this comes with hard work and a lot of effort. Yes, we are narcissistic and new shiny toys make us happy, but we are also optimists, who try our best to save the world and make it a better place for your grandchildren.
We didn’t survive the Great Depression nor did we fight in WW II or in Vietnam. BUT, first, we weren’t even born when those things happened. Second, the events that defined our lives such as 9/11, the Columbine High School Massacre, the Virginia Tech Massacre, Hurricane Katrina, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Enron and WorldCom scandals, not to forget the recession, are much more traumatic and numerous compared to the events that defined the lives of Traditionals, Baby Boomers and Generation X.
So, the next time you need to find out something about us due to your curiosity, boredom or need to sell to us, please don’t treat us like lab rats and even worse don’t make assumptions. Try to understand us and your life will be much easier and happier!
Image: BenM
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by juicyinfo: Who is Gen Y? (by Gen Y) : “we are customized, just like everything we buy” http://bit.ly/6xH3uy #tngg…
I agree with you, Andreana, but my reasons are a little different. More important than remembering each person’s individuality, I think, is keeping in mind that people are more or less the same. Whether a person is born in 1989 or 1289, humanity’s desires and fears are basically unchanging. Any large-scale differences that exist between generations are due to changes in the environment in which people live, most notably technological changes. In psychology there’s a concept called the “fundamental attribution error.” This error is a common flaw in human reasoning in which individualistic, personality-based explanations for behavior are overvalued at the expense of situational explanations. For example, members of older generations might think that many millennials move home after college because they are lazy and unmotivated when in fact the reason has more to do with changing financial incentives. I think the way out of intergenerational conflicts is simply to remember that times change, and the good advice that steered you through your life might no longer apply.
Amen, Addy.
The only thing I question is whether we’re really all that unique in that we get classified, stereotyped and lumped together by marketers and others. Don’t Gen X, and Baby Boomers go through the same thing? If we’re the most coddled generation, doesn’t that make the Baby Boomers, the biggest generation of coddlers?
Unfortunately, even though we’re individuals (I don’t spend my life texting, damnit, let alone sexting!), being lumped together and stereotyped is a process that everyone lives through. Defining a demographic is part of the marketing process, and I think maybe we need to realize that as much as marketers need to realize that one of the biggest traits that they can apply to our generation is that we like being treated as unique.
@Mike – I agree with you that people at their core are the same. We have the same biological imperatives, and the same defining characteristics that separate us from chimps. However, I do think that different generations have distinct characteristics because of the circumstances they come of age in. There are certain characteristics that I will never shared with someone borin in 1489, simply because our circumstances are different. Yes, at our core we want the same thing things, but I’m in a position to look at wants and needs that someone born then could never even contemplate.
Love the insight. Well written. And by the way, I think I was born too early as I was born on the cusp of boomers and Gen X and you pretty much just described me in many ways. I think I do understand a lot about you because you sound a lot like me! Thanks and keep on keeping it real!
@ Mike, yes people are more or less the same. However, there are some differences that make every generation unique in one way or another. Our generation is a product of our time, of the events that shaped our lives, of the gadgets that make communication easier and/or harder, of our parents, of our siblings, etc. Yes, my mom and I are similar because we are humans and we share the same language, the same culture and a somehow similar environment. However, we are very different because we grew up in different periods that shaped our personalities, attitudes and behaviors. We were exposed to different issues.
@Adam, I agree with you. Not only marketers, but politicians, sociologists and even common people stereotype and generalize. It is a process that makes our lives easier and saves us time. The problem is that sometimes these stereotypes come with no evidence for a certain behavior or a trait. I think that some marketers and sociologists get so confused with us that just give up on real research and label us as whatever they feel like. I think that the trait we value the most is our uniqueness, real or perceived as such.
@Shannon, I am glad you liked it. Who you are is more important than who people think you are or you should be because of the generation you belong to. Stay great!
As Andreana points out: ” I think that some marketers and sociologists get so confused with us that just give up on real research and label us as whatever they feel like.”
I would argue the reason for that is because of our age and “newness.” We are in the process of making ourselves so it is hard for others to pass judgment on an unfinished product. Perhaps we are wrongly labelled “lazy” because many millennials are not traditionally “successful” in the eyes of the baby boomers and others. The idea of a good college education, slogging through the corporate ladder and then waiting for a happy retirement is absurd to most of us.
I think an emerging trend which will brand our generation as “inspiring” rather than “lazy” is the rise of the young entrepreneur. We work hard and play hard but most importantly, we take risks. We are impatient and a bit cheeky but it is not because of arrogance but because of uncontrollable excitement to change the world. We may spend months unemployed in our parents’ basements but we’re most probably starting an internet business during that exile. We believe in the power of good ideas, crowdsourcing, justice and changing the world. I think we are works in progress and before long we will be the generation that changed the game.
Baby boomers are still mostly in charge but the world better watch out for when we take over!
Andreana –
I think there’s something to be said against your statement that we’re individuals. I know there are some who don’t spend all their time texting. And others who don’t carry around their MacBook (full disclosure – I have one), and still more who don’t subscribe to the tropes of Gen Y society.
That said, I have encountered more homogeneity from this generation than I have seen from any others. Maybe it’s because we haven’t had enough time to develop. Maybe it’s because I’m looking at it wrong. But the way I see it: a lot of people are the same individual as a lot of other people.
@Mimi, great points. Thank you for your comment.
@Sam, As Mike would probably say, we are all individuals and it doesn’t matter what generation we belong to. Maybe it depends on your experience. Maybe it depends on your perspective. What I find about our generation is that we like to think of ourselves as unique and be treated as individuals. I am well aware that I am very similar to many Millennials, but that is not the only aspect of my personality and life. I like to be treated as Andreana “Addy” Drencheva with all my unique traits. I don’t like to be treated as a Millennial, or as a student or anything else. Because I am more than just a Millennial. I am more than just a student. I am me.
Addy -
While I agree with you that we like to think of ourselves as unique and like to be treated as individuals, I think we’re kidding ourselves a little bit. It’s naive to think that anyone is any more unique than anyone else. There aren’t varying degrees of being one-of-a-kind.
More and more, though, I do see this need to be perceived as an individual within our generation, despite that fact. Still, we do need to understand that, regardless of our individuality, we need to work on functioning as members of an entity outside of ourselves. Perhaps another name for the Millennials is The Fountainhead Generation.
Sam,
I completely agree with you that we just perceive ourselves as entirely unique. Honestly no one is entirely unique. But is a trait of our generation that we can’t deny. Just like we can’t deny that many of our generation are narcissistic. Maybe it is because we haven’t decided who we want to be yet. Or maybe because this is who we are.
“We don’t fit labels” Agree, especially with the use of social media our generation has the ability to freely move and explore at an instant. We can be voicing our opinion on a blog one second and than join a cause or movement with thousands of others in the next second- or simultaneously. How can you put a label on a Generation that has no boundaries because we live in an environment we can connect to pretty much anything in an instant.
Woow! I love this topic first off, because when I first heard that my grandmother was apart of the Baby Boomers generation, I wondered what group i was apart of, && what group my mother was apart of.
I do some how believe that I was born in the wrong generation, even though I love the technology, the environment, and all, I think that we have too many dangers, a lot more than our parents may have had…
but on that note we have the technologies to avert those dangers…
I was bron in 1993 [turning 17 soon >.<] … so I'm apart of the whole Genreation “ME” business, I do believe that I have unique qualities, and that I am an individual, but some things that I may think are unique may be apart of another.
My mother && I are much a like, even my grandmother && I are a like, but I think that the things that they had gone through shaped the person they are today, && certain things that I have gone through they sometimes can't relate… technology, money, culture, the ennvironment && more shape the world today && the society of tomorrow. Generation “ME” may be the most UNIQUE generation out there, with the changing world comes a newer, weirder generation….
Generation “ME” rocks!!