In the past week, the media has been captivated by a study on Millennials by San Diego State University’s Jean Twenge, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Twenge has conducted research among students for the past few decades, comparing the attitudes of Boomers, Xers, and Millennials during young adulthood. Through the years, she has asked them to respond to attitudinal statements about the importance of the environment, politics, and wealth, and now comparing the data collected, she has determined that compared to their elders, Millennials are less green, less civic-minded, and more self-involved. That didn’t sound like the Millennials we know, so we wanted to get to the bottom of things and figure out what was really going on.
The survey asks high school seniors and college freshmen questions about the importance of becoming personally involved in programs to clean up the environment, for example, and found the young Millennials are less likely than young Boomers (back in the day) to say it’s important to them. The difference is that when a value is intrinsic, the question becomes nonsensical. For Millennials who have grown up being educated about environmental issues and preserving natural resources, there’s no question of whether to recycle or mind one’s carbon footprint; it’s ingrained in their behavior. It’s not “important†because they don’t have to think about it, they just do it. From recycling to upcycling, Millennials are being green at home and in stores.
As for the question of Millennials’ political motivation, we would think that the 2008 elections when 18-24 year olds turned out in higher numbers than ever before would speak for itself. However, the study asserts that today’s youth don’t care about keeping up with politics. The problem, again, lies in a misunderstanding of the Millennial generation. Young people were asked if it’s important to keep up with political affairs, which in the past meant seeking it out, but for Millennials, to do that is as easy as visiting Facebook or Twitter. They continually share political ideas and stories on social media, so they don’t need to make an effort to be informed, they just are. And not only about what’s going on in U.S., but also overseas. Millennials are the catalyst for the rapid rise of recent political movements — such as Occupy Wall Street or Kony 2012 — not only because they are informed of political issues, but because they like to share their passions with their peers, young and old.
Millennials may be guilty of being a little fame-hungry, but that is more a reflection of the time, when the Internet (and YouTube, specifically) frequently provide the next big stars. Their interest in wealth can also be attributed to the times — money is never more important than when one doesn’t have it. With the country still recovering from the recession, Millennials have watched their families struggle to make ends meet, have seen their own futures go from bright to bleak, and have had to scale back their lifestyles and adjust their definitions of happiness. It’s no surprise that money is in the forefront of their minds because they don’t feel secure in their incomes.
While some media outlets swallowed Twenge’s study hook, line, and sinker, we’re not the only Millennial experts questioning her results.
