Okay Millennials

Today, I finished listening to Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America's Future by Jean M. Twenge. It is a long book, but I found it very interesting and well worth my time. The book is well organized, and the claims are supported with evidence. Twenge claims individualism, a slow life strategy, and technology explain changes in culture and differences between generations. Twenge uses a lot of data to support her claims.

Thinking about individualism as a driving force in society and intergenerational difference is a useful heuristic for understanding people and culture. The evolution of individualism helps explain social progress.

I'm looking at myself and my love for individualism differently now. I see it more as products of my culture and placement in time than my critical analysis of philosophy, economics, or history. Although I can easily supported my values and ideas, I see how my values have the greatest influence over my thinking. Looking back at my adulthood, my values haven't changed very much even though many of my opinions have drastically changed.

I strongly recommend reading the following. If you like what you read, check out Twenge's book! This is the final section of her book. It's an excellent stand alone essay! 

...That data clearly shows that attitudes, personality traits, behaviors, education, and the speed of life have all changed tremendously over these six generations...

Contrary to past theories, the generations did not become who they are by experiencing major events at impressionable ages. Instead, generations differ because technology has radically changed daily life and culture, both directly and via technology’s daughters individualism and a slower life. Gen Z doesn’t believe that gender is fluid because they were born after 9/11; they believe gender is fluid because that is the next step for an increasingly individualistic and online culture. Millennials aren’t marrying later because they were young during the Great Recession; they are marrying later because adult development has slowed as technology created the triple trends of more protected children, more years of education to prepare for information-age jobs, and medical advances enabling longer life spans. Gen Z isn’t depressed because of the economy; they’re depressed because smartphones and social media created an atmosphere of constant competition and severed them from in-person human interaction. 

Rising individualism weaves through the story of each generation. Silents harnessed individualistic thinking when they fought for the abolition of racial segregation and overturned laws that discriminated based on gender. Boomers wielded it when they protested the Vietnam War draft and challenged traditional rules about what women could and couldn’t do. Gen X’ers put their own twist on individualism by valuing self-confidence and harboring distrust. Millennials elevated positive self-views to new heights and supported LGB people’s individual rights to be who they are and love who they love. Gen Z makes the individualistic argument that everyone can choose their gender—and that there are more than two. All cultural systems have trade-offs, and individualism has brought Americans a culture with unprecedented freedom, diverse voices, and a belief that people can be who they want to be. However, it has also created more distrust of others, and a fragmented social fabric. Leaving social rules behind to favor the individual brings both freedom and chaos, both liberation and disconnection. 

The slow-life strategy has grown with each generation, delaying traditional milestones at every stage of the life cycle. Children are safer but less independent; teens are less likely to drink alcohol, drive, or work; young adults postpone marriage, children, and careers; the middle-aged feel and act younger; and seniors work and travel at older ages than ever. The slow life grew from a whisper for Boomers, who married young but had children a little later, to a shout for Millennials, who graduated from college in record numbers and delayed marriage and children longer than any previous generation. By the time Gen Z came along, the slow-life strategy was at full scream, with driving, working, and even sex delayed. 

The slowdown wasn’t completely linear—Gen X’ers had a fast childhood and adolescence followed by a slow adulthood—but the end result was not just a slowing of the developmental trajectory but a shift in values and behaviors. Those have included parents believing children need constant supervision, 17-year-olds rarely going out with friends, parents solving problems for college students, marriage postponed until one’s 30s, the middle-aged wearing ironic T-shirts, and the election of political leaders deep into their 70s. These trends aren’t completely bad or good—they’re simply the product of more complex technology giving us more time. 

Like individualism, the slow-life strategy has trade-offs, especially during adolescence: more protection and physical safety, but less exploration and independence. In prime-age adulthood, it leads to delayed partnership and parenthood, creating more uncertainty in young adulthood but more mature spouses and parents. In older adulthood, longer and healthier lives are the upside; the downside is a larger generation gap between political leaders and the young, and a striking delay in the ascendance of the next generation into leadership (cue Gen X eyeing Boomers). With technological progress continuing to march forward, the slow life is likely here to stay. 

Then there’s the direct impact of technology... Each new advancement changed day-to-day life, from Boomers and Gen X’ers watching hours of TV as kids to Millennials discovering instant messaging and early social media. Gen Z got an especially strong dose of technology transforming routines, with smartphones and ubiquitous social media pushing young people’s social lives online and driving the alarming rise in depression, self-harm, and suicide after 2012. Then, after 2015, mental health issues came for Millennials as the toxic combination of political polarization and social media moved up the age scale. From longer lifespans to labor-saving devices to virtual meetings eliminating commutes, technology has saved modern citizens countless hours. Yet we often choose to spend that extra time consuming the products of technology. We have taken technology’s priceless gift of time and used it to watch funny videos and lust after other people’s lives—diverting, but not always enlightening or beneficial. 

The lightning-fast pace of technological change has also produced the largest generation gaps in attitudes since the Boomers defied their Greatest generation parents in the 1960s...

Accelerating individualism has so radically changed attitudes, especially around gender, that even many Millennials feel like they can’t keep up. The slowing down of the life cycle has meant older and younger generations crossed important milestones at very different times, creating ample opportunities for criticism and misunderstanding. This all plays out in an online media environment that emphasizes the negative, heightening generational conflicts that might not be so severe if people discussed them face-to-face. 

As the primary instigator of generational and cultural change, technology presents the ultimate trade-off. Technology has given us instant communication, unrivaled convenience, and the most precious prize of all: longer lives with less drudgery. At the same time, technology has isolated us from each other, sowed political division, fueled income inequality, spread pervasive pessimism, widened generation gaps, stolen our attention, and is the primary culprit for a mental health crisis among teens and young adults. This is the challenge for all six generations in the decades to come: to find a way for technology to bring us together instead of driving us apart. 

Recognizing the widespread impact of technology helps us see that all generations have been buffeted by its winds. Instead of debating which generation is to blame, we can realize that the generations influence each other as they all navigate cultural change. Demystifying generational differences, as this book attempts, may also reduce intergenerational conflict. The more we understand the perspective of different generations, the easier it is to see we’re all in this together.