If your only source of information about millennials comes from articles about millennials written by the generation that directly preceded it, an image of a person aged roughly 18 to 30-years-old might look like a self-absorbed monster--a kid on a couch whose dead brain cells leak through his nose and onto his iPhone while he refuses to get a job. Illustrator Matt Bors recently published an excellent piece summing up why these generational generalizations say more about the people writing them than the people written about, but there are real ways to track generational values. And for what it’s worth, some of the kids might be alright.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles looked at Monitoring the Future, a long-term, nationally representative survey of 12th graders (66% to 80% of schools participate) that has most often been used to measure drug attitudes since the mid 1970s. The researchers were curious to see what kind of effect the recession has had on social consciousness (based on a theory developed by UCLA psychology professor Patricia Greenfield), and predicted that kids who graduated high school during economic hardship (2008 to 2010) generally might be more community-minded and place less emphasis on materialism than those who graduated before (2004 to 2006).
To read the full, original article click on this link: The Kids Are Alright: Millennials Want Meaningful Jobs That Fix Social Problems | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation
