Every one is aging. As each generation ages and reaches adulthood, they rule as if they were supreme, and for the most part they are.
Each generation will rise, rule, and as life goes, fade into the pages of history. Now we are witnessing the beginning of one of these transformations. The boomers are beginning to cede their influence to a younger generation — My generation, the Millennial Generation.
Such a transition raises many questions. Who will take the boomer’s place? How will they handle the responsibility? Who is the millennial generation?
This new generation (mid 80’s to the early 2000’s) is worth meeting.
The Atlantic has some insights into a few of this generation’s traits:
The young are more libertarian, pro-marijuana, and less religious than the American population generally. Millennials (pdf) are gay-friendly, racially tolerant, technologically savvy, welcoming of immigrants, open to government intervention, less hawkish, more accepting of non-traditional families, less inclined to marry early, and more optimistic about the state of the state of the nation.Thus, the consensus view among American Internet users may differ substantially from the result at the ballot box. This incongruity is amplified because senior citizens, the demographic least likely to have a robust online presence, has an outsized electoral footprint. 72 percent of American 65-to-74-year-olds voted in the 2008 election while only 48.5 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds exercised that right. We are in an era when the young have the most control over the dominant cultural medium while the old have the greatest say politically.
I’ve been trying to get to know the ChangingAging blog in recent weeks and I see it centers more on aging elders. But my dad (yah, the dude in the picture with the beard), has asked me to offer some insights into the aging millennial generation. Because they are, inevitably, our future, we should take some time to get to know them.
As a member of this age group I will try to give you the insider’s scoop.
By the way, did I mention I’m riding a motorcycle cross-country this summer? I’ll try to share some stories from the road as well.
Catherine says
July 6, 2010 at 5:14 pmWelcome to the dialoge. I’d like to add that generalities and differences are a great way to kickstart the conversation about generational differences, but you will quickly find that those participating in this conversation don’t quite fit any generations profile – rather it is all about mindset and the exciting challenge of bringing about change. All are welcome, and in that mix, great things can happen.
The whole issue of healthcare and how we care for people has been the subject of discussion and philosophical debate for a very long time. The key is that we are finally at a point in our evolution where debate, and sharing ideas is not tied to physical presence or linear time. I’d be interested in your thoughts, as a Millenial, how this affects your thought process and evolution of ideas.
We are social creatures – the need to establish connections and sense of place seems to be hard-wired into our brains. A great deal of the discussion in the changing aging movement is a backlash against the past 50 years disintegration of that connectivity in the healthcare system – which was systematically subsidized by the government’s reimbursement programs. Compartmentalization and specialization further removed patients, families doctors from the benefits that continuity of care offered.
The boomer generations’s nuclear family was the first generation that was sold the notion that generations should be separate. In the process blended wisdom and the notion of learning from each other took a back seat to creating easily identifiable groups. I suspect this fragmentation is what drives us to connect, be it through Twitter, Facebook, or the local senior center.
I personally believe most Millenials have a great deal in common with those who came of age before the Boomers; and after the Boomers. Labeled as Gen-X , this group was left to our own devices and we found building social networks to replace fragemented families were what sparked many ideas that are incorporated into the technology we use today. It also proved that
It will be welcome to hear how you view aging – and how you forsee planning not only for your parent’s aging, but your own. Hope you become a regular contributor – and I will look forward to learning from your viewpoint.