The Millennial Generationby Kendall Lanier
Since before my teenaged years I’ve been hearing the term “Generation X.” I always thought I guess that’s me. I just felt a little different than my older brothers and sisters, the real Gen-Xers. I am of the troubled ADD generation, raised on Adderol and Xanax. I’m coming of age in a very special time and my sub-generation is going to see really amazing changes. Some of these changes will be on our account.
At 23 I am old enough to remember when flat-top haircuts and high-top shoes were cool. I had an unhealthy interest in slap-bracelets and stood in line to buy the new in-line skates. I remember when the Chicago Bulls and Dallas Cowboys couldn’t be defeated and that “Bills” in Buffalo Bills stood for “Boy I love losing Super Bowls.”
I remember when my 486 was the fastest PC on the market and six months later it being a paperweight. I was there at the genesis of CD burning, zip drives, and a new service called America Online. I celebrated the death of dial-up and the birth of Road Runner.
I had a learner’s permit when we rocked in the new millennium with Silverchair’s “Anthem to the Year 2000.” I was a senior in high school when the Towers fell along with the illusion that everything in the world was just fine. I cried that September morning and while I don’t remember Challenger, I shed tears when Columbia fell too.
I watched 60 cable channels become 1300. I helped my Dad and brother struggle to bring in our new 36” tube TV, then watched my father effortlessly hang a plasma-filled 52” HD flat screen over the fireplace.
I am the proud owner of an iPod and camera phone but remember the end of cassette walkmans and car phones. I have a Myspace page, an iTunes account, and I watch hysterical videos from friends all over the country on You Tube. I remember Napster and still hate Lars Ulrich for its demise. Whenever I’m in doubt I simply “Google” it.
Despite all these things the term Generation X doesn’t sit quite right with me. For a while we toyed with Generation Y and the Information Generation but those definitely were not right either. I was born in the mid 80s. My older siblings were born in the mid 70s and consequently are solid Gen-Xers. Since technically I’m in the same generation I guessed I was Gen-X too but I didn’t like it.
I didn’t realize I was in the middle of something totally new. A generation doesn’t mean the same thing anymore. Generations will now be defined by the times and not births of parents, children and grandchildren. Before the age of information technology it took a whole generation, in the old sense of the word, for any significant change in lifestyle or thinking to occur. Not anymore.
Generation Xers were born in the 70s, lived through the 80s and are now entering middle age. My generation is just starting out into young adulthood. The lifestyle and philosophy gap between our older siblings and us is enough to define a new generation. Everyone born in the 80s and early 90s weren’t really awake enough in the 80s to be affected by them. So we can’t really be Gen-X. Our older brothers and sisters in turn were born just a little early to catch the wave we ride with ease. We simply caught a bigger wave in the same set and passed them by.
For us things are very different. Our generation is issued cell phones by age 12. Being smart and getting good grades are cool. We’ve always had Instant Messaging and high speed access to a truly massive internet. For us, being totally spoiled is perfectly normal. Almost everybody smokes pot. Many were drinking and using a variety of drugs, and have since middle school. We lose our virginity in the 9th grade, if not sooner. Casual sex is fine so our parents buy us birth control at 14. We love the term “**** buddy” and nearly invented youth rehab as a full-fledged industry.
What we didn’t get was a name. We are the younger brothers, sisters and, in a scant few extreme cases, the children of Generation X. We are the new breed and no one knows what to call us, or frankly what to do with us.
Enter Heather Smith, Executive Director of Rock the Vote and at 31 a solid Gen-Xer. In Esquire Magazine’s “Best and Brightest 2007” (Dec. 2007) Heather gave us a gift I am incredibly grateful for. She gave me and my sub-generation a name. Thanks to Heather Smith I am now a proud member of the Millennial Generation.
It’s a perfect name because we were born just in time to give Planet Earth a swift kick in the pants at the end of the 20th Century. We have ring tones that adults can’t hear and text messages that the CIA couldn’t decode. We’re smart, creative, do whatever we want, and we know how to get away with it.
In 2008 the Millennial Generation is one-quarter of the eligible voters. By 2016 we will be one-third of the vote. “Note to D.C.: stop pandering to the geezers and stop ignoring young voters. Because this year we will vote in numbers you’ve never seen before.” We are, without doubt, going to dominate this early part of the 21st century like no other generation has ruled in their time before. (Smith/208)
Generation X was “detached, un-informed, and self-absorbed.” The Millennial Generation may still be self-absorbed and we are young enough to not have much real responsibility just yet, but we’re “cut from a very different cloth” than Generation X. We don’t just sit around whining about problems in Washington and the rest of the world. We come up with creative solutions that could actually work. We are the most diverse generation ever and consequently the most accepting of diversity. (Smith/209)
In 2004 Rock the Vote helped over 800,000 young people register to vote, myself included. This year, Smith says, “We’re going to register two million of these kids… and they’re going to determine the next President of the United States.” (Smith/235)
For the first time we out number senior citizens who for too long ruled the vote, pestering us with their antiquated laws and ways of thinking. Finally we’re doing it right. Finally the not too distant future leaders of this great country will control the world we’re inheriting.
We’re the Millennial Generation, and we’re about to rock our world.
