Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are individuals whose birth years range from the early 1980’s to the early 2000’s. The word itself has gained a negative connotation over the years, as Baby Boomers and Generation X members have deemed the generation lazy and unreliable.
In 2014, the council of economic advisers for whitehouse.gov provided a report with 15 economic facts about millennials in an attempt to begin to dissolve the idea that millennials don’t work as hard as other generations.
In the report, it was stated that millennials are the largest, most diverse generation of people in the United States, and they have been shaped by technology.
Older generations find this premise difficult to understand because they did not have the same accommodations as millennials. In this internet-based society, though, the need for the largest generation to understand how to successfully use and adapt to new technology makes sense.
The report states that college-going Millennials are more likely to study social sciences and applied fields than those of the generations before them. For this reason, being a part of a liberal arts education system may appeal to current Capital students.
Most students currently enrolled at Capital are a part of the millennial generation.
Author Fareed Zakaria makes a compelling argument for liberal arts education and today’s youth in his book “In Defense of a Liberal Education.”
Zakaria says that a liberal education gives students a greater capacity to be good workers because it broadens their views. It also creates opportunity for students to learn how to be excellent partners, friends, parents, and citizens.
Despite Zakaria’s argument, the main reason that millennials have gained a bad reputation is that there was increased accessibility to technology during their lifetime.
Some say that problem exists with communication today because members of the younger generation are consistently looking at a screen. Employers and professors alike fear that this will debilitate the use of millennials in the workforce.
Professor David Summers seems to like the generation, though, saying that he doesn’t see much of a difference between them and past students. However, he did point out that millennials are much more reliant on their technology than someone from Generation X.
In defense of millennials, it is not their fault that they grew up in a technologically-advanced world.
All creatures have to adapt to their surroundings, and millennials have been born into a world that was in the process of adapting to new technology. That new new technology can even be traced by Capital publications.
In 1998, the last edition of the Capitalian, Capital’s yearbook, was released. Students in pictures and who were mentioned in the yearbook do not appear to be much different from students today, aside from the contrast in fashion trends. This is because, while students who graduated in 1998 would have just missed the marker of being considered a millennial, most college freshmen that year had made the cut off.
Student life at that time was mostly the same as it is today, but life outside of being a student was slightly different.
Most college students today rely on student loans to pay for most or all of their education, and therefore most students hold at least part-time jobs during school. College students in the 90s had less pressure to hold a job because school had been cheaper.
Members of the millennial generation have to work just as hard as, if not even harder than, generations before them for everything that they have. It doesn’t seem fair to categorize this group as lazy or unreliable simply because they have more access to technology and resources.
Adult leaner Celia Burke gave some input on this matter by stating that she “… read an article recently that said it would take 4 hours a day of working at minimum wage to pay for tuition in the 70s, but it would take 17 hours a day now.”
So the next time a Baby Boomer accuses millennials of being lazy, ask them how many hours a week they worked in college or how long it took them to pay off their student loans. Sure, millennials have been given different privileges than older generations, but they most certainly are not any more lazy or entitled.
