The Perennial Millennial

What is a Millennial anyway? August 24, 2009

It seems that with my passion for Millennials I have let my blog get ahead of itself. Basically, I never took the time (not even one post) to define the question, “What is a Millennial?”

As Ryan, who commented on my blog post on Brazen Careerist so helpfully pointed out, “you made a blog post about some buzz word “Millennials” and didn’t even try to explain the term. FAIL!”

And he is right, I totally failed. This blog has existed for over two years! And while I wrote about managing Millennials and being a trophy kid, I never actually defined the word MILLENNIAL.

But I will fix this problem. And with that I present to you my research on, What is a Millennial anyway?

What years were they born?

This is a pretty tricky question to answer, because everyone has a different opinion on the exact years that begin and end the Millennial generation. I’ve pulled a few reputable sources to see what they have to say.

Carol Phillips of Millennial Marketing, says “Millennials (sometimes called Gen Y) are the generation after Gen X, generally born beginning 1978-1982 and graduating high school around 2000, hence the name. The oldest are 30; the youngest are still in middle school.”

Wikipedia says that “most commentators use birth dates from the mid 1970s to early 1990s inclusive” to define Millennials.

Generations at Work says Millennials are “born from 1980 through 2000.”  The Washington Post says that Millennials are born “between 1982 and 2003.” The USA Today says “some include those born since 1980; others start with 1982 and go to about 2000. Most researchers have focused on the “first-wave” millennials — those roughly ages 16 to 25.”

And this is what I have to say. Millennials are the generation born beginning 1982 and ending in the year 2000. Now I also agree that there are two “waves” of Millennials. The one my blog focuses on are those between the ages of about 18-27.  So there you have it! If you ever doubted if your age qualifies you to be a Millennial, now you know.  And in case you ever doubted that I was a Millennial, I am 22 (born in 1987), so I clearly qualify.

What defines them?

The coolest thing about being a Millennial is that your age is the least important thing that defines you. Millennials have a series of awesome traits that define our entire generation (though of course not every Millennial falls in line with these traits).

There is no way I can fit every Millennial trait in this post, and since I post pretty frequently about Millennial characteristics, I’ll just name some of the important ones here.

We are technology. As the first generation to grow up using the internet, we are the most adept at using and creating new technology. Sending texts is second nature to us, and we are constantly trying to teach older generations how to use our technology. Because of technology, our generation is smarter and faster than any other generation, making us extremely important members of society.

We have a different attitude about work. This may be the most “stand-out” trait for Millennials. Unlike generations before us, we just don’t feel the same way about having a job that they do. We seriously believe in work/life balance, and we want to get to the top of our organization. Some critics think this is a bad thing, but Millennials see a challenge.

We care about the world. Millennials are the first generation to be completely informed about topics like global warming. Millennials strongly value the earth and are working toward bettering the environment. Millennials are also the most diverse of any generation, so we care about people too, both in the US and globally.

So there you have it! The answer to all of your Millennial questions.

Thank you to all my commenters who encouraged me to write this post. I would love for this to be an ongoing discussion, so please comment and let me know what you think about Millennials.