The truth about generations: Why millennials aren't special snowflakes

The truth about generations(ˌjenəˈrāSHən): Why millennials(məˈlenēəl) aren’t special snowflakes(ˈsnōˌflāk)

We increasingly(inˈkrēsiNGlē) form opinions about people based on the generation they belong to, but these labels are often lacking in science

By Amelia(əmilēə) Tait(tātə)

People born between the mid-80s and early 2000s have been called many things: Generation Y, the Net Generation and, more usually, millennials. Now, a new name is growing in popularity(ˌpäpyəˈlerədē): the Burnout(ˈbərnˌout) Generation.

The argument, laid(lād) out in a viral(ˈvīrəl) BuzzFeed(bəz) article last month, is that growing up, millennials were unduly(ˌənˈd(y)o͞olē) affected by the financial(fəˈnanCHəl) crisis(ˈkrīsis) of the late 2000s and pressured(ˈpreSHər) by a new wave(wāv) of intensive(inˈtensiv) parenting. As a result, they are uniquely(yo͞oˈnēklē) overambitious(ˌōvəramˈbiSHəs), overworked and overwhelmed.

The description(dəˈskripSH(ə)n) rang(raNG) true to many millennial readers, but also left a lot of people in the previous cohort(ˈkōˌhôrt), Generation X, wondering why no one was paying attention to the difficulties they face. This disparity(dəˈsperədē) exposes(ikˈspōz) the looseness(ˈlo͞osnəs) with which we talk about generations. So is it even useful to divide(dəˈvīd) people up in this way?

“If you want to draw a boundary between two historical(-ˈstär-,hiˈstôrikəl) generations, there needs to be a reason for it,” says Elwood Carlson, a sociologist(ˌsōsēˈäləjəst) at Florida(ˈflôridə) State University. Generally, that should be a collective(kəˈlektiv) difference between the two groups that can be identified(īˈden(t)əˌfī) empirically(əmˈpiriklē), he says. It isn’t clear whether “burnout(ˈbərnˌout)” fulfills that criteria(ˌkrīˈti(ə)rēə), but it might. “Deciding which differences are important for separating(ˈsepəˌrāt) generations is more of an art than a science,” says Carlson.

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https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132162-300-the-truth-about-generations-why-millennials-arent-special-snowflakes/