Generations provide the opportunity to look at Americans both by their place in the life cycle — whether a young adult, a middle-aged parent or a retiree — and by their membership in a cohort of individuals who were born at a similar time. Pew Research Center has been studying the Millennial generation for more than a decade.
But by , it became clear to us that it was time to determine a cutoff point between Millennials and the next generation. In order to keep the Millennial generation analytically meaningful, and to begin looking at what might be unique about the next cohort, Pew Research Center decided a year ago to use as the last birth year for Millennials for our future work.
Anyone born between and ages 23 to 38 in is considered a Millennial, and anyone born from onward is part of a new generation. Since the oldest among this rising generation are just turning 22 this year, and most are still in their teens or younger, we hesitated at first to give them a name — Generation Z , the iGeneration and Homelanders were some early candidates.
But over the past year, Gen Z has taken hold in popular culture and journalism. While there is no scientific process for deciding when a name has stuck, the momentum is clearly behind Gen Z. They should be viewed primarily as tools, allowing for the kinds of analyses detailed above.
But their boundaries are not arbitrary. Generations are often considered by their span, but again there is no agreed upon formula for how long that span should be. At 16 years to , our working definition of Millennials is equivalent in age span to their preceding generation, Generation X born between and By this definition, both are shorter than the span of the Baby Boomers 19 years — the only generation officially designated by the U. Census Bureau , based on the famous surge in post-WWII births in and a significant decline in birthrates after Unlike the Boomers, there are no comparably definitive thresholds by which later generational boundaries are defined.
Millennials also grew up in the shadow of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which sharpened broader views of the parties and contributed to the intense political polarization that shapes the current political environment. And most Millennials were between 12 and 27 during the election, where the force of the youth vote became part of the political conversation and helped elect the first black president.
In fact, all of these terms are fairly unofficial social constructs outside of the Boomers—the U. Census [ PDF ] actually defines them as the generation of people born between and And while executives have spent the last decade trying to understand and work in harmony with Millennials, they must now acclimate to the younger and even larger Generation Z.
How is Generation Z different from Millennials? What are their greatest aspirations and concerns for the future? How are they looking for work? What do they want in a career? The Millennial Generation is also known as Generation Y, because it comes after Generation X — those people between the early s and the s.
The publication Ad Age was one of the first to coin the term "Generation Y," in an editorial in August But the term didn't age well, and "Millennials" has largely overtaken it.
But the terms basically mean the same thing. Millennials have been characterized in a number of different ways. On the negative side, they've been described as lazy, narcissistic and prone to jump from job to job.
The book "Trophy Kids" by Ron Alsop discusses how many young people have been rewarded for minimal accomplishments such as mere participation in competitive sports, and have unrealistic expectations of working life. A story in Time magazine said polls show that Millennials "want flexible work schedules , more 'me time' on the job, and nearly nonstop feedback and career advice from managers.
They're lazy.
0コメント