Generation Y - Traits and Values

Traits and Values

Jean Twenge, the author of the 2007 book Generation Me, considers Gen Ys along with younger Gen Xers to be part of a generation called Generation Me. This is based on personality surveys that showed increasing narcissism among Millennials compared to the Boomers when they were teens and sometimes in their twenties. She questions the predictions of Strauss & Howe that this generation would come out civic-minded, citing the fact that when the War on Iraq began military enlistments went down instead. Though it should be understood that for Strauss & Howe, civic-minded pertains to a strong sense of community, both global and local. Civic in this sense means cosmopolitan, in direct opposition to nationalism.

Jean Twenge attributes confidence and tolerance to the Millennials, as well as a sense of entitlement, narcissism and rejection of social conventions.

William A. Draves and Julie Coates, authors of Nine Shift: Work, Life and Education in the 21st Century, write that Generation Y has distinctly different behaviors, values and attitudes from previous generations as a response to the technological and economic implications of the World Wide Web.

Surveys by the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study of high school seniors (conducted continuously since 1975) and the American Freshman survey, conducted by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute of entering college students since 1966 showed the proportion of students who said being wealthy was very important to them increased from 45% for Baby Boomers (surveyed between 1966 and 1982) to 70% for Gen X and 75% for Millennials. The percentage who said it was important to keep up to date with political affairs fell, from 50% for Boomers to 39% for Gen X and 35% for Millennials.

"Developing a meaningful philosophy of life" decreased the most, across generations, from 73% for Boomers to 45% for Millennials. "Becoming involved in programs to clean up the environment" dropped from 33% for Boomers to 21% for Millennials.

Fred Bonner believes that much of the commentary on the Millennial Generation may be partially accurate, but overly general and that many of the traits they describe apply primarily to "white, affluent teenagers who accomplish great things as they grow up in the suburbs, who confront anxiety when applying to super-selective colleges, and who multitask with ease as their helicopter parents hover reassuringly above them." Other socio-economic groups often do not display the same attributes commonly attributed to Generation Y. During class discussions, he has listened to black and Hispanic students describe how some or all of the so-called seven core traits did not apply to them. They often say the "special" trait, in particular, is unrecognizable. "It's not that many diverse parents don't want to treat their kids as special," he says, "but they often don't have the social and cultural capital, the time and resources, to do that."

Millennials are sometimes called the "Trophy Generation", or "Trophy Kids," a term that reflects the trend in competitive sports, as well as many other aspects of life, where mere participation is frequently enough for a reward. It has been reported that this is an issue in corporate environments. Some employers are concerned that Millennials have too great expectations from the workplace. Studies predict that Generation Y will switch jobs frequently, holding far more than Generation X due to their great expectations.

In the United States, Generation Y has led a trend towards irreligion that has been growing since the 1990s. 32 percent of Americans born between 1983 and 1994 are irreligious, as opposed to 21 percent born between 1963 and 1982, 15 percent born between 1948 and 1962 and only 7 percent born before 1948.