<p>What do you think defines OUR generation? How are we different from the past ones, how will the next generation judge us?</p>
<p>Are there things which our peers understand that older people don't? Are there things we notice in older people that we don't understand?</p>
<p>I definitely see things from my parents' generation that are totally different. Yet I'm not sure how to compare my generation to theirs. Maybe we do know some things better. Maybe it's just our freshness that makes it appear so.</p>
<p>I think we’re more driven to fulfill our own needs than before. At least, in my social circle, we’re more worried about going after our desires than settling down and starting a family. We’re new-age yuppies who don’t know it yet.</p>
<p>I think we’re a step up from the hippies of the 60’s who spent all their time smoking weed and “fighting the man” even though that gets nothing done. nothing wrong with a little weed now and then; a decade of it? c’mon</p>
<p>I hope we’ll learn from the mistakes of our parents. Politics-wise, I was 10 when Dubya came into power and he was pres until I was 18, most of our generation disliked his policies and overwhelmingly supported Obama, and I think that reflects us being more liberal and idealistic, although all young generations are like that, I guess.</p>
<p>I think we care more about the environment and are more globally-concious having grown up in the era of globalization. I agree with random we’re less traditional about starting families and all that, more driven to fulfill our own desires above all else. I can see many women of our generation not marrying or starting families into late 30’s/40’s compared to most women today.</p>
<p>Depending on when you were born, our generation is either the last “normal” generation or the first fully digital generation.</p>
<p>If you were born in the early to late 80’s, your childhood wasn’t all that different from someone who was a child in the previous thirty years. I still remember playing sports outside, trying to get porn by stealing it from fathers/brothers/cousins, playing with toys with my friends and talking to friends on a landline until my parents kicked me off. That experience by in large is not that much different from people who grew up in the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s. Sure the pop culture was different but we generally did the same things. I can still remember having to do research for projects by going to the library as opposed to Google.</p>
<p>My brother on the other hand was born in 1990. He was five when the internet was beginning to hit the mainstream, 10 when kids began to bring cellphones to school and 14 when YouTube started. His childhood was largely a digital one. His childhood is defined by 3D videogames, the internet, social networking and information superhighways. His childhood is radically different from mine and those of people born before me, even though he’s only four years younger than I am. He was never interested in toys, has had his own private phone since he was 15 and doesn’t watch conventional TV because he’s used to getting everything on demand. He doesn’t have memories of Saturday morning cartoons or even buying CD’s like I do.</p>
<p>^ I disagree. I was born in 1990 and have memories of buying CD’s and even Casette’s (remember those things?), of Babysitter’s Club and Hey Arnold!. Everyday after school my friends and I would run around outside and play freeze-tag, soccer, climb trees, jump roped and hula-hooped. We used the landline phones until our parents made us get off as well. </p>
<p>But you’re right, we were more technologically advanced at a younger age, we had screennames and cell phones earlier, we had MySpace’s and FaceBook’s and LiveJournals. But I think 1995 and earlier is not so different. Now, I have a sister who’s 7 who was born in 2002 and has been using the internet since age 3 - her childhood is really different, i’d say.</p>
<p>Mhmm… got my first computer at age six (dad’s a professor) - I was born in 1989.
My parents are both in IT, but they often don’t “get” new technologies - twitter, etc. Mum still thinks blogs are diaries They can use the stuff, but they don’t see the point in it.</p>
<p>I think we are less “linear” for the lack of a better term, we do ten projects, can’t live without background noise, and often study, surf and chat at the same time. (Actually not multitasking, just switching in between.) My parents are more like: work. then play. </p>
<p>I also think that we - as the digital natives - are the first to really connect to the whole world - this is not my native language, this is not my country, and no - I’m not writing for the purpose of improving my language, I just like the community.
I think I’m more open-minded because I have experienced that people all over the world have the same problems that I do. And if I have reservations, there are plenty of ways just to ask.</p>
<p>I communicate with my friends all the time. I can talk to multiple people at the same time, I can use email to connect with my professor - and I don’t have to wait for an answer, can access it any time.
Just as I don’t have to wait for information.
We have access to all information in the world (How often have you looked up something embarassing in the internet? Do you look up the symptoms of illnesses? How do you get stains out of your jeans? Where is - ? How should I proceed if I want to get into grad school?).
Our parents had a few people, and the library. Information used to be something restricted.</p>
<p>That’s what makes the internet generation different.
Communication and information.</p>
<p>(Let’s note that we are privileged people and are somewhat sheltered from the “real world”. This is probably entirely different for the kids that drop out of school at age 14…)</p>
<p>electronics and technology, as well as a definitive sense of entitlement (at least based on where I grew up, went to hs and college). People are more easily connected, but no longer view things as the internet, computers and cell phones as convienances, but rather as necessities. I went 2 weeks without a cell phone and people thought I was crazy for not running and and buying one the next day. I enjoyed not having one, because for me it’s really not needed, especially since I live on campus. when the internet goes out at school, people literally run around the dorms freaking out about it in a really pathetic manner. God forbid people be able to get online for 1 hour…
More and more people are on social networking sites, but in a fairly serious manor (people taking cameras to parties/events just so they can put them up on facebook). Yet people were extremely angry with facebook recently for redefining who owned the posted photos. People feel like they should be able to post pictures publicly yet discreetly, which is a sense of entitlement in that people in my gen. want to get what they want even if it’s senseless.
So many people at my school have very little sense of what it means to earn money, and have their parents pay for everything, and then complain about the recession, even though they don’t work and rarely buy their own things. My gen is naive and idealistic, but in an ignorant way. Kids in the poli sci department don’t know what’s in the stimulus package, or that most of the ideas are modern day new deal policies, and yet praise it. It’s great that young people are getting involved, but unsettling that many don’t feel the need to be informed. So many kids are boxed in and sheltered right now, and it’s scary that so many fail to know what they’re supporting. Or who just complain about things on campus and never, ever do anything about it. For instance, they banned root beer chug from greek week this year, and no one did anything except complain about it.
I think my gen is intelligent and ambitious, but also ignorant/naive and over reliant on technology. My gen is really tech savvy.</p>
<p>I think there is probably a substantial difference between those born after 1989 and those born before 1989.</p>
<p>Many reasons, some of them hinted at, but I’ll give just one.</p>
<p>Considering the recent massacres, something that I always forget to mention, when a Prof. speaks about this generation’s defining national moment being 9/11, is Columbine.</p>
<p>For those in the older subset of Gen Y, Columbine drastically changed the experience of High School and even Middle School or Junior High. Those born after 1989 probably don’t know much different, and all the kinks in the transition to the new order of school administration were worked out by the time that cohort hit the pipeline. After that incident, the paranoia was just insane. Ditching class wasn’t just slacking, it was a security threat. Drawing a tank, or gun, or some weapon as a doodle resulted in being sent to the principals office or the school psychologist, but it was OK to draw explicit drawings of genitals, and even use them to taunt people.</p>
<p>Gen Y is often criticized for being the “dumbest” or riddled with ADD. Well how do criminals act after being released from prison? They binge, lose self-control, and end up doing dumb things. So what does Gen Y do when it can subvert the control through means like improved technology? It goes on a “sexting” binge. What was once done in the back seat of car instead occurs anywhere via a cell phone camera.</p>
<p>People complain Gen Y is irresponsible and inexperienced, but the process of learning by trial and error in the real world has largely vanished for “Millennial” youth. </p>
<p>^ thats an interesting take, Comrade, especially about Columbine vs 9/11 being a defining moment depending on age. Well I don’t remember Columbine being a big deal at all, I was born in 1990 but many students in my grade were born in 1989. I grew up in NY, right outside of Manhattan and my community was pretty devastated by 9/11, lots of students had family members/friends die so it was a much much bigger deal than Columbine, which took place across the country when we were very young. </p>
<p>As for ADD, notice it usually afflicts middle to upper-class families, it’s a disease of the privileged I don’t think this is a coincidence, and I believe it’s being over-diagnosed. It’s not hard for the typical 7 year old to get diagnosed with ADD, they’re constantly hyper (my 7 yr old sister is like this, all of her friends have ADD/ADHD and tons of allergies nowadays). If people are put on drugs to concentrate from age 5 even if they don’t have ADD, they’ll become reliant (kind of like how some people becoming addicted to sleeping pills and it can make the problem worse).</p>
<p>I don’t mean ADD literally, but just prone to distraction, and easily bored.</p>
<p>And yes, thank you for recognizing my take on the Millennials Generational “defining moment.” I think 9/11 was trans-generational: Boomers, X, and Y. Columbine was specifically Gen Y, and it shaped Gen Y life dramatically, and many just don’t realize how different such a simple thing as going through a school day changed after it. For those born 1986-88, Columbine was probably the first major event anyone remembered, aside from Clinton, Diana, Iraq, and Kosovo.</p>
<p>Our generation since I am 15 will be defined by the internet, high ambitioion and hope due to Obama, vulgarity, violence, and maybe even obesity.</p>
<p>There’s a major difference between us and the “newer” generation that is after Y2K
We have experienced life without the internet and cellphones.</p>
They can use the stuff, but they don’t see the point in it.</p>