Excerpt:
Many generations test their mettle in a crisis that defines them through the ages. The "Greatest Generation" had World War II. The baby boomers had Vietnam. Now the millennial generation -- the computer-savvy, coddled and cocky children of the 1980s -- may find that the current financial crisis is their crucible. If they survive it.
Variously dubbed "Generation Me," "Generation Y" or the "Everyone Gets an Award Generation," today's twentysomethings are to the boomers what the Japanese are to electronics. If the baby boomers invented me-first hyper-individualism, then the millennials have perfected it. Indeed, millennials are the children of the boomers, the product of family planning and the cult of self-esteem. They are hellbent on making it by their own rules.
...
The recession is hitting younger job-seekers hard. There are fewer jobs available, and many older workers are either trying to delay retirement or reenter the job market.
"If [millennials] don't adjust to reality, many are going to end up with a lot of disappointment," said Jean Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled --and More Miserable Than Ever Before." "But that would be true even if they had realistic expectations, which they don't."
The thing is, they do have the smarts and the confidence to adjust to reality, even if they retain those high expectations. I talked to a handful in an informal survey of the first wave of millennials who are out of college and trying to make it now.
Variously dubbed "Generation Me," "Generation Y" or the "Everyone Gets an Award Generation," today's twentysomethings are to the boomers what the Japanese are to electronics. If the baby boomers invented me-first hyper-individualism, then the millennials have perfected it. Indeed, millennials are the children of the boomers, the product of family planning and the cult of self-esteem. They are hellbent on making it by their own rules.
...
The recession is hitting younger job-seekers hard. There are fewer jobs available, and many older workers are either trying to delay retirement or reenter the job market.
"If [millennials] don't adjust to reality, many are going to end up with a lot of disappointment," said Jean Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled --and More Miserable Than Ever Before." "But that would be true even if they had realistic expectations, which they don't."
The thing is, they do have the smarts and the confidence to adjust to reality, even if they retain those high expectations. I talked to a handful in an informal survey of the first wave of millennials who are out of college and trying to make it now.
Click to read the rest of "The millennial generation test" (Los Angeles Times).
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