Millennials are one of the most talked-about social generations in the United States. The Baby Boomer Generation, born after a significant increase in babies born after World War II, has always been influential because of its size. However, as of 2019, Millennials were the first generation to surpass the Baby Boomers in size.

In 2019, there were 72.1 million Millennials and 71.6 million Baby Boomers. But their large demographic is one of the few characteristics Millennials have in common with the Baby Boomer Generation. Most Millennials are the children of Baby Boomers but are sometimes the children of early members of Generation X. Compared to previous generations, Millennials are getting married at an older age, have fewer children, and are considered digital natives.

Growing up in a time of drastic technological changes affected how they viewed the world and what kind of workers they turned into. They have been referred to by many names, many of them with negative connotations regarding the choices Millennials made. But being born by the turn of the new Millennium is what defined this enormous generation.

Who are the Millennials?

The Millennials are the cohort born between 1981 to 1996. The Pew Research Center agreed on the span of 1981 to 1996 for the Millennial Generation. This timeline was due to specific historical events such as 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, the Great Recession, and the internet explosion. These significant events in the United States impacted Millennials in a way no other events have.

This generation is also called Generation Y or Gen Y since they come after Generation X and precede Generation Z. Most Millennials are the children of Baby Boomers and on some occasions, early members of Generation X. In addition, they are the parents of Generation Alpha. Generation Alpha is the youngest identified generation as of 2022, with 2.5 million children born into this generation each week.

Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe were the creators of the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory. Part of their theory states that each social generation takes on a specific persona, and four possible personas repeat in a cycle. In their book, Generations, these two authors predicted that the Millennials would take on the “hero” or more “civic-minded” persona, like the Greatest Generation, or G.I. Generation as they refer to them.

The authors described the Millennials as confident, team-oriented, and achieving. However, they faced criticism for these assertions. Arthur E. Levine, author of When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today’s College Student, argued these were just stereotypes and not an accurate portrayal. Another critic, psychologist Jean Twenge, also stated that any actual data or evidence did not back these characteristics.

So who are the Millennials? According to a 2015 study done by Microsoft, they are a group of people who were significantly affected by growing up in the mobile revolution. In this study, the participants from the Millennial Generation, ages 18 to 24 at the time, 77% of them responded "yes" to the question "When nothing is occupying my attention, the first thing I do is reach for my phone." However, when asked the same question, only 10 percent of the group of people from the Baby Boomer answered yes. In addition, the same study from Microsoft showed that since the year 2000, people's attention span had dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds.

They were the first social generation to be defined as digital natives instead of digital immigrants. A digital immigrant refers to a person who grew up before the widespread use of digital technology. A digital native, on the other hand, is a person who grew up with digital technology and was familiar with it from an early age.

Those from Generation X were still considered digital immigrants because they grew up amid the digital revolution. Generation X was the last generation that grew up in a digital age but could also remember a time without it. Some early Millennials witnessed these changes, but by the time the last Millennials were born, most people had a computer at home.

Where did they get their name?

Millennials got their name because the oldest of them became adults at the turn of the new Millennium in the year 2000. William Strauss and Neil Howe, authors of Generations and creators of the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory, are credited with the name of the generation, as they are with many others. They wrote about this generation in their first book and their book, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation. Sometimes Millennials are referred to as "echo boomers" because they are often the children of the Baby Boomer Generation.

In 1993, an editorial from the global media brand Advertising Age described the teenagers at the time as "Generation Y." This group of teens, born between 1974 and 1980, was later identified as part of Generation X. In 2003, they published an article that acknowledged Generation Y started in 1982.

Sociologist Kathleen Shaputis referred to Millennials as the Boomerang Generation or the Peter Pan Generation. This generation tended to delay certain rites of passage, such as getting married and having children. This generation also lived with their parents and delayed leaving the nest longer than the previous generation, hence the "Peter Pan" and the Boomerang reference. Many Millennials left home to go to school but returned to living with their parents soon after. They were often criticized for delaying the process of growing up and taking the easy way out by staying with their parents. But many claim there was more to it than laziness or unwillingness to leave the nest.

Experts think this is due to the increase in the cost of housing and education, but Baby Boomers had to help their Millennial children more than other generations. According to Professor Frank Furedi from the University of Kent, researchers use "adultescent" to refer to adults who refuse to make commitments such as settling down and getting married. Instead, they live with their parents into their 30s. For example, in 1970, the average age for a woman to get married was 22 and 24 for a man. However, in the Millennial generation, the average age for a woman to marry is now 30, and 32 for a man.

Characteristics of Millennials

When it comes to political views and beliefs, Millennials tend to be more liberal than the previous generations. Millennials are the ones who fought for the legalization of same-sex marriage and marijuana. They tend to take more liberal positions on numerous issues such as same-sex marriage, marijuana, immigration, and government. They are also more likely to support an activist government. Out of all the generations studied, Millennials were the most supportive of same-sex marriage, and the support for it has grown within the generation over time. Millennials, along with their preceding generation, Gen Z, have also proven to be more interested in climate change issues than older generations.

Millennials also differ from previous generations in how they view other countries and international organizations. Younger generations tend to have a more positive view of foreign countries than the older generations. For instance, the opinion of China has declined across all social generations but dropped the least among the younger generations. In fact, Millennials still had the highest opinion of China, with 32% of those surveyed claiming to have a favorable view of China.

Another example is those who have a favorable view of Russia. For Millennials, the percentage with an optimistic outlook has dropped but is still higher than any other generation at 25%.

However, they also have similar positions to previous generations on specific issues such as gun control. According to Pew Research Center, 48% of Millennials believe it's more important to protect the rights of Americans to bear arms than it is to enforce gun control.

Most sociologists agree that a major factor in the beliefs and characteristics a generation shares are the historical events they experience in their youth. For Millennials, the defining event is the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, as many confirmed in a survey. But how did this event impact the generation? Overall, there was an increase in patriotism and security across the country. One of the negative impacts was a decrease in tolerance for people of certain cultures and religions. However, Millennials became more tolerant than the previous generations as a reaction to these negative views.

September 11th terrorist attacks

One of the defining moments that shaped the Millennial Generation was the terrorist attacks on September 11th. Often known as 9/11, every Millennial remembers where they were when they found out what was happening that day. The youngest members of the generation were five years old when the attack occurred. This historical event had such an impact on Millennials that some have even called them Generation 9-11.

9/11 represents four coordinated terrorist attacks on the United States that the Islamic Extremist Group al-Queda carried out. On September 11th, 2001, nineteen terrorists highjacked four commercial flights flying from the northeastern U.S. to California.

The goal of the hijackers was to fly the planes into prominent American buildings. They successfully flew the first two planes into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City and the third plane into the Pentagon. The fourth plane was unsuccessful due to the passengers on the plane stopping the hijackers by storming the cockpit. The hijackers ultimately decided to crash early, and the plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania instead of its intended destination of a building in Washington D.C.

The attacks happened quickly, with the first plane crashing at 8:46 am and the second plane crashing only 17 minutes later. The third plane of the attack struck the Pentagon at 9:37 am. The south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed at 9:59 am, with the north tower falling shortly afterward.

Overall, nearly 3,000 people died in the attack, with over 2,000 in New York City alone. Over 400 police officers and first responders who rushed to the scene to help were included. The morning of the attack, President George W. Bush was visiting an elementary school classroom. He addressed the country from D.C. later that night.

Aftermath

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 impacted the country in significant ways. Many were stranded immediately after the attacks as U.S. airspace remained closed for several days while new security measures were implemented.

After it was confirmed that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks, the United States government set plans in motion. Many countries became United States allies after hearing of the attacks, and for the first time in history, NATO (or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) invoked Article 5. This Article states that its members may respond collectively in self-defense, and in October of that year, the U.S. and its allies launched an attack against Afghanistan.

After the terrorist attacks, President Bush placed a $25 million bounty for any information regarding Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader. But despite these efforts to track him down, Bin Laden was not discovered until 2011, when he was located and killed in Pakistan under the orders of President Barack Obama.

War in Afghanistan

The War in Afghanistan started in October 2001 and ended in August 2021. The war began the month after the September 11th attacks. Immediately after the attack on the U.S., the United States National Security Council and President Bush decided that the U.S. must take military action against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. But President Bush chose to issue an ultimatum first and demanded the Taliban close down their terrorist training camps and hand over Osama Bin Laden and any other terrorists. When the Taliban refused to hand over Osama Bin Laden, the leader responsible for the attacks, President Bush sent troops to invade the country.

The war started with support from the United Kingdom, and eventually, a dozen other countries aligned with the United States. The early phases of the war included airstrikes on Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. However, by December of 2001, Osama Bin Laden had escaped the country after allegedly heading to Pakistan.

The War in Afghanistan was the longest in the United States history, surpassing the Vietnam War by less than five months. Despite Osama Bin Laden being located and killed by U.S. forces in 2011, the war continued for another ten years.

Generation Me

According to psychologist Jean Twenge, Millennials are a part of what she calls "Generation Me," as she writes in her 2006 book, Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, and Entitled- and More Miserable Than Ever Before. Millennials are associated with greater levels of tolerance and confidence but also with rising levels of entitlement and narcissism.

Many have criticized her research, including psychologist Jeffrey Arnett, and questioned the accuracy of the NPI, or Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Furthermore, a study in Psychological Science published in 2017 showed a decline in narcissistic personalities since the 1990s. So, aside from what psychologists have said about this generation, how do they identify themselves?

According to Pew Research Center, most Millennials do not identify as such and resist the Millennial label. The survey done in 2015 showed that only 40% of adults ages 18 to 34 identify with the Millennial label. The majority of the remaining group, mainly in the older range, consider themselves part of Generation X.

People choosing not to identify themselves with a generational label is not uncommon. However, Baby Boomers are the most likely to identify themselves as their correct generation. According to the survey, 79% of the Baby Boomers surveyed choose to identify themselves as Boomers.

When it comes to generational characteristics, the same study showed Millennials were far more likely to point out negative attributes of their generation. For example, 59% of the Millennials surveyed said they would use "self-absorbed" to describe other generation members. Comparatively, only 30% of Gen Xers said they would use the word to describe their generation, and only 20% of Baby Boomers said so.

Education

The National Endowment of the Arts showed that American adults read for fun less than ever before. Instead, Americans ages 15 to 24 watched an average of two hours of television a day and spent an average of seven minutes reading.

This decline in reading is the reason for a decrease in overall vocabulary in this generation. Overall, the reading comprehension skills of American students deteriorated between the 1990s and early 2000s.

According to Pew Research Center, fifty-three percent of Millennials had already attended or enrolled in a university in 2002. The number of students pursuing college after high school has risen dramatically since the 1970s. Law school graduates tripled between the 1970s and 2011, even though the population only grew by 45%. In the 2010s, those with a Master's Degree in Business Administration, or MBA, grew even faster. Even though achieving a Bachelor's degree or Masters was a noble goal for many, it can cause issues in society.

Peter Turchin, a Russian-American scientist, developed the concept of elite overproduction. This concept describes the idea that if there are too many elite members (or highly educated) and there's not enough room for them to be absorbed into the society's power structure, it can cause a destabilization of society.

This concept of elite overproduction has been evident in the United States, especially with the Millennial Generation. By 2010, the cost of higher education had risen faster than inflation over the previous three to four decades. In July 2010, the youth unemployment rate reached a record high of 19%. By 2012, half of all new college students in the United States were either unemployed or underemployed.

Underemployment is caused by overqualified workers working part-time hours because they can't find full-time work. It can also be caused by businesses overstaffing. In addition, many Millennials who were college graduates found themselves taking jobs with low wages despite having a college degree and not being able to survive due to factors including the debt from student loans.

According to the Department of Education, those with technical or vocational skills were more likely to be employed. But unfortunately, Millennials found out the hard way that if everyone has a Bachelor's degree, the workforce becomes oversaturated.

Music and entertainment

Millennials are one of the most influential generations regarding music and entertainment. Millennials made up the majority of the adult population in the United States as of 2020. As a result, entertainment trends have been significant within this generation.

A 2019 poll of Millennials showed that the following musicians best represented their generation: Taylor Swift, Beyonce, the Backstreet Boys, Michael Jackson, Drake, and Eminem. Millennials feel that music is a large part of who they are, but they aren't necessarily defined by one genre of music.

Many Millennials were growing up in the 90s and early 2000s while some of the musical trends of the 70s and 80s continued. The popular music of the 1990s continued with trends such as dance-pop, hip-hop, and rock music. Trends of alternative rock music also continued and became some of the most popular music of the decade.

In 1999, artist Mariah Carey was named the Artist of the Decade by Billboard Magazine. Mariah Carey continued to have a successful career in the 21st century and is considered one of the best-selling musicians. Similarly, Selena was named the top Latin artist of the decade by Billboard in the same year as Mariah Carey.

A variety of music became popular during the youth of Millennials. American music journalist Robert Christgau detailed these albums in his book, Christgau’s Consumer Guide: Albums of the ‘90s. This reference book was published in 2000 and contained over 3,800 album reviews from the decade.

As children, Millennials grew up with some of the video games that made a comeback in the 2010s. The earliest Millennials grew up in the 1980s when Nintendo first became popular. Nintendo released its first game console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977 exclusively in Japan.

The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, was the first console released in other parts of the world. With the release of games such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario in the 1980s, Nintendo soon became a favorite pastime of Millennial children. Over the years, the video game consoles continued to advance. The Super Nintendo was released in 1990, and the Nintendo 64 was released in 1996, both consoles being a favorite of Millennial youth.

Nintendo's first handheld console, the Gameboy, was released in 1989, and the Gameboy Color made its appearance in 1998. These consoles allowed Millennial children to take their games anywhere before smartphones or tablets were created.

In general, this rise in the prevalence of video games and technology affected these youth's academics and reading habits. For example, in 2002, only 52% of the Millennial adults surveyed voluntarily read books, compared to 59% back in the early 1990s.

At that time, Americans were spending an average of two hours a day watching T.V. and less than 10 minutes reading. This shift in reading habits negatively impacted the vocabulary of many Millennials. The reading comprehension skills of American adults also considerably declined between 1990 and 2000.

Family Life

Millennials have proven that they view family life differently than the generations before them, with many Millennials delaying getting married and having children or not getting married at all.

In 2019, a survey of Millennials showed 55% of them were married and living with a spouse. At the same stage in life, 66% of Gen Xers were married, and 69% of Baby Boomers. But unmarried people aren't necessarily living a single life on their own. The same study showed that 14% of Millennials lived with their parents.

Despite the delay Millennials have in marriage and children, they're taking care of themselves better than other generations regarding physical health. Millennials have spent more time exercising and eating healthy than ever before. They're also smoking far less than previous generations.

When surveyed about what being healthy meant, Millennials answered the questions differently than Generation X and Boomers. Unlike the two previous generations, Millennials believed that being healthy was more than not being sick. They felt being healthy meant eating right and exercising more, despite the scale. On the contrary, nearly 50% of the Baby Boomers surveyed said they thought being healthy meant not being sick.

Internet Age

Millennials were the last generation to remember a time without easy access to the internet and mobile devices, even though they grew up in the internet age and the mobile revolution. Even the tail end of Millennials can remember a time without easy access to the internet and cell phones. Those born in the late 1990s or later will always remember having cell phones and wireless internet.

The Internet Age is when the internet became widely available. Generally speaking, the origin of the internet is considered to be the late 1990s, when a computer scientist named Tim Berners-Lee created both HTML code and the first official web page, otherwise known as the invention of the World Wide Web.

Millennials are "digital natives" because they grew up during a digital era. Digital natives tend to adapt to technology advancements more efficiently since they have been familiar with technology since they were young. Their ability to quickly pick up on new tech makes them sought-after employees in a world where tech usage continues to increase.

The internet has had a significant impact on society since 1995, especially with the rise of instant communication. From instant messaging and email to social media, information and data traveled faster than ever before with the rise of the internet. As of 2019, more than nine out of ten Millennials own a smartphone, and 86% say they use social media. Nearly 100% of Millennials say they use the internet.

Overview

Also known as Generation Y, the Millennial Generation is the cohort born between 1981 and 1996. Born after Generation X, they were the first generation to surpass the Baby Boomer Generation in size.

Gen Y isn't the only other name for Millennials. Researchers have also called them the Boomerang Generation, the Peter Pan Generation, and Generation Me. Millennials delayed certain commitments and rites of passage such as getting married and having children more than any previous generation.

The average woman used to get married and start a family in her early 20s, but after the Millennials grew into adulthood, they delayed marriage and children well into their 30s.

Part of what defines any social generation is the historical events they live through. For the Millennials, the event that defined them was the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. Often referred to as 9/11, this event in history greatly impacted how Millennials viewed the world. Ranging from 5 to 20 years old when it happened, all Millennials were old enough to be affected in some way by the events of this tragic day.

Millennials were the first generation to be considered digital natives, meaning they grew up in an era of digital technology. But while later generations such as Generation Z and Generation Alpha don't remember what it was like before digital technology, many Millennials got to witness its rapid development. From having their first cell phone to playing their first video game, technology advanced significantly for the duration of the Millennial Generation.

Even though many Millennials have criticized the older generations, studies have shown they don't differ from their parents as much as they would like to. Although they tend to be more liberal than previous generations, according to a 2005 Gallup poll, 7 in 10 Millennial teens said their political and social ideologies were about the same as their parents.

Technological advancements were rapidly occurring while Millennials were growing up. It was also a time of significant economic change in the world. Their choices may have looked different than their parents', but the world they grew up in was not the same as the one their parents did.

1. Mark Zuckerberg (b. 1984): Co-founder and CEO of Facebook, Zuckerberg has played a crucial role in shaping social media and the way people connect online.

2. Taylor Swift (b. 1989): An American singer-songwriter known for her narrative songwriting, Swift has received widespread critical praise and numerous awards for her music.

3. Malala Yousafzai (b. 1997): A Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala is known for her advocacy of education for girls in her native Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan.