So what makes a “Millennial”?

Well as it happens, two people doing the naughty between the early 1980s and the year 2000, at least that’s according to the definition I found on Dictionary.com. They say that a Millennial is;

(usually initial capital letter) Informal. a person born in the 1980s or 1990s, especially in the U.S.; a member of Generation Y

Although there is no set in stone definition of a “Millennial”. For instance, while I was looking for it’s dictionary definition many sites and other sources stated that a millenial is someone who is reaching adulthood about the year 2000, whereas other state that millennials are born between 1982 and 1994, which contradicts my first example of alternate definitions because, I don’t know about you, but a 6 year old child is not an adult in my books. I decided in the end to settle on Dictionary.com’s definition as it fit nicely between the dates stated by some definitions and yet included other definitions (Such as that Millennials were born between 1982 and 1994).

Why are they different?

Millennials are also significantly different from other generations, not just because their birth years might be 30 years apart (Although that is quite a significant difference!). They have been found to be far less religious than previous generations. They are also incredibly well connected, they use social media and mobile phones far more often than older generations (Some may argue that this is just because they’ve grown up with it) and they have an incredible ability to incorporate new technology into their day-to-day lives, according to researchers at the Pew Research Centre in a report published in 2010 (Source: http://pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change.pdf). Millennials also tend to be very well educated, higher education and University educations. While I’m not about to say that previous generations were uneducated and were morons, because that’s a ridiculous thing to say, and who do you think taught the Millennials? Millennials owe the previous generation a thanks for this characteristic, and they also owe it to the fact education is so widely “advertised” for want of a better phrase. The need for and the importance of education is literally everywhere. Your teachers drum it into you at school, your parents do the same at home, your dream job likely requires one. Anyway, I digress!

Millennials generally have quite a positive outlook on the future ahead of them, despite that many in the Western World have economic catastrophes to clean up. The USA has a national debt pile of nearly $17 trillion! And the UK has a national debt of £1.56 trillion! Where’s the money gone!? That’s a question asked by many, and yet the solution is still that Millennial Generation will have to pay off the debt.

I must admit I am one of those Millennials with a positive outlook on the future, I think there’s so many interesting things to come! So many! It’s very exciting! NASA have plans of landing people, actual living people, on Mars sometime in the 2030s. Now don’t tell me that’s not interesting! I’m a bit of a physics and space nerd, so that’s the first example to come to mind, but that’s not to say there won’t be any more interesting things to come. Great works of literature, great films and plays, and maybe a new inspirational band to pack out every single arena they play in. That band to really send a message for change.

As with every generation…

Like many generations before, millennials have experienced events specific to their generation. September 11th, 2001, the Iraq war, and the War in Afghanistan. Despite these devastating events, there was no collective reaction to these events, now you can argue with me that the mourning, from around the world, and then the invasion of Iraq were reactions to 9/11. However what I mean is, for instance the Boomers generation actively protested the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, peaking in 1968.

We are Millennials.

So we are the Millennial Generation, Generation Y. We are here to stay, and I sincerely hope that our positive hopes for the future become a reality. I also hope that our closeness with technology doesn’t backfire and our own technology turns us into slaves.

I would like to think you’ll enjoy reading what goes on in the mind of a younger Millennial.

Have a good day!