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The main difference I have noticed in my office environment between millennials and the older generation is this:
Millennials seem to be more willing to discuss weighty topics. My generation was taught that religion and politics and anything very personal is taboo in the office. I think younger people grew up with the internet where it's okay to say whatever you like.
It's refreshing to me actually. I get tired of long-winded conversations about the weather, traffic and sports. I'd rather talk about North Korea, Trump and Scientology.
I would agree except that the millenials I've encountered have one set of viewpoints with zero ability to have a discussion that is not emotional or about viewpoints other than their own. They cannot discuss facts or issues. They can talk about feelings and abstract ideas but have no context in which to place them or the ability to even define what the ideas are. There is an impracticality and inability to discuss concrete ideals.
Looking at the responses it appears you're the only one who thinks so.
The demographics of this forum skews heavily towards the 40+ crowd. It is nothing new for older generations to look down their snouts at younger generations. The same was said of Gen X in the early 90s. The movie, Reality Bites, demonstrates the critique almost verbatim of how Millennials are judged today. For Boomers, it was Footloose and American Graffiti. It is not news that older people do not understand why younger people do what they do, and often tend to deride them for such.
If you posted this topic on reddit, you’d get a vastly different perspective. It’s all about where you source your information. This is not a reflection of some overwhelming consensus. It’s a reflection of this forum’s skewed demographics.
For the record, I do not think Millennials are particularly better. Just different in how they do and think.
Last edited by Left-handed; 11-30-2017 at 12:22 AM..
Millennial social skills are products of a society where inexpensive consumer electronics and Internet, in a decades-long era of peacetime, affords the luxury of managing people in their lives, instead of learning how to build relationships with people from all kinds of backgrounds. If this system were to collapse, many (but certainly not every Millennial I've met) would have trouble socializing in a different setting, if today's resources weren't available.
The demographics of this forum skews heavily towards the 40+ crowd. It is nothing new for older generations to look down their snouts at younger generations. The same was said of Gen X in the early 90s. The movie, Reality Bites, demonstrates the critique almost verbatim of how Millennials are judged today. For Boomers, it was Footloose and American Graffiti. It is not news that older people do not understand why younger people do what they do, and often tend to deride them for such.
If you posted this topic on reddit, you’d get a vastly different perspective. It’s all about where you source your information. This is not a reflection of some overwhelming consensus. It’s a reflection of this forum’s skewed demographics.
For the record, I do not think Millennials are particularly better. Just different in how they do and think.
Just to clarify...
Wrong generation for your examples.....American Graffiti was filmed in 73' and Footloose was in 84' so the generation after Baby Boomers, Gen. X applies. My kids were teens watching Footloose. I'm a boomer....I would say that I grew up on Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, the Beatles, John Wayne movies.
At 10 I remember standing in our grade school yard following the announcement that our then President John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed, the sadness of our nation was permeable.
By the time I was in H.S. in Calif in the 60's civil rights and Vietnam, Women's lib were our political issues....and of course followed by Watergate.
So, you might say that the boomers have been there, done that and have the t-shirt. We have earned our right to cynicism of what some folks get into a stew about today. But, we should all appreciate other generations, we all can learn and or teach something to each other.
Personally I think those events make some of the disgruntled political issues that some folks are falling on their sword over seem less important to me.
But, you do make a valid point, it does seem all generations tend to either look up to or down at the generations preceding or following....personally I try not to make glaring generalities. We are all products of our environments, and our personal world views.
Given the premise that all knowledge is comparison....It would help if folks who do would do a bit of research so that they can try to understand what helps shape a generation.
Of course there will always be exceptions, and variables. And, when we point fingers, it behoves us to remember we are the ones that raised the generations behind us....So, take all things into consideration when judging others.
There were some interesting websites available that differentiate the basics. I've listed just one search.
There will always be criticisms from one generation to the next.
It does not, however, take away from the fact that most millenials have no social skills.
Look directly at someone who is talking to you.
Respond in a timely matter with a coherent and appropriate sentence or two.
Say hello, goodbye, please, thank you.
PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN FOR THE TEN SECOND EXCHANGE.
Just to clarify...
Wrong generation for your examples.....American Graffiti was filmed in 73' and Footloose was in 84' so the generation after Baby Boomers, Gen. X applies. My kids were teens watching Footloose. I'm a boomer....I would say that I grew up on Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, the Beatles, John Wayne movies.
At 10 I remember standing in our grade school yard following the announcement that our then President John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed, the sadness of our nation was permeable.
By the time I was in H.S. in Calif in the 60's civil rights and Vietnam, Women's lib were our political issues....and of course followed by Watergate.
So, you might say that the boomers have been there, done that and have the t-shirt. We have earned our right to cynicism of what some folks get into a stew about today. But, we should all appreciate other generations, we all can learn and or teach something to each other.
Personally I think those events make some of the disgruntled political issues that some folks are falling on their sword over seem less important to me.
But, you do make a valid point, it does seem all generations tend to either look up to or down at the generations preceding or following....personally I try not to make glaring generalities. We are all products of our environments, and our personal world views.
Given the premise that all knowledge is comparison....It would help if folks who do would do a bit of research so that they can try to understand what helps shape a generation.
Of course there will always be exceptions, and variables. And, when we point fingers, it behoves us to remember we are the ones that raised the generations behind us....So, take all things into consideration when judging others.
There were some interesting websites available that differentiate the basics. I've listed just one search.
Baby boomers span from people born between the late 1940s to the mid 60s, putting people in their late teens/early adulthood in the 70s and 80s. The people in those films are literally Baby Boomers.
There will always be criticisms from one generation to the next.
It does not, however, take away from the fact that most millenials have no social skills.
Look directly at someone who is talking to you.
Respond in a timely matter with a coherent and appropriate sentence or two.
Say hello, goodbye, please, thank you.
PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN FOR THE TEN SECOND EXCHANGE.
Basics are being lost.
Who are you talking about? 15 year olds? How many Millennials do you hang out with? I’m technically a Millennial (I think, born 1985; though they've tried to come up with another term for us: Xennials) and I’m 32 and 10 years into a professional career. I didn’t have a PC with internet until late high school, a cell phone not until college, and a smart device until after college. Growing up, we used to spend hours after school at the park socializing, playing sports, riding bikes, hanging out. Millennials span almost 20 years, so you clearly cannot group everyone of them as the same, because a lot happened over 20 years.
Many of my elder family members are racist and bigoted, and technologically inept as a product of their era growing up. Yet, I don't go around painting all Baby Boomers as racist, crotch/butt grabbing, PC-illiterate nincompoops even though we are all aware, given recent new events, that Baby Boomers tend to be the ones accused and being guilty of such. Because any sensical human being without an axe to grind realizes that EVERY generation has it's flaws, that every individual in a generation doesn't fit the stereotype, and that the vast majority of us are simply products of the era we grew up in. Different times, man. Don't blame the youngins for being attached to electronic devices when literally that is the environment they have grown up in. We, as a society, have become extremely dependent on technology, and it will only continue to progress in that direction. You think it's bad now, just wait until the technology is integrated into the actual human body (actually, I suggest you watch the show Black Mirror on Netflix; a real eye opener of what is to come). My favorite is when Millennials get blamed for participation trophies that their Baby Boomer parents whined about and forced onto them. I mean, do you not see the sheer idiocy and hypocrisy of such a notion?
Last edited by Left-handed; 11-30-2017 at 07:31 AM..
I would agree except that the millenials I've encountered have one set of viewpoints with zero ability to have a discussion that is not emotional or about viewpoints other than their own. They cannot discuss facts or issues. They can talk about feelings and abstract ideas but have no context in which to place them or the ability to even define what the ideas are. There is an impracticality and inability to discuss concrete ideals.
The live in theories, not realities.
I have met a few of this type in both age groups (and quite a lot on social media). What I find funny is the notion that somehow being polite means one can't assert an opinion or viewpoint or deal with controversial topics, but then I am British born and have a way of saying what I need to say so perhaps this is a cultural difference. All I know is that most of the older people and baby boomers, millennials I have worked with and associate don't have a problem speaking up and don't lack social skills.
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so perhaps this is a cultural difference. All I know is that most of the older people and baby boomers, millennials I have worked with and associate don't have a problem speaking up and don't lack social skills.
