Transcript The Millennial Generation and Education

Millennials as Students,
Employees, and Citizens
Dr. Pete Markiewicz
Indiespace.com
Lifecourse Associates
Art Institute of California, Los Angeles
The Strauss & Howe model
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Generations last ~20 years
14 defined generations in US history
Cyclic patterns in generation psychology
Sudden pop culture “takeover” when
youngest generation reaches their 20s
• GenX/Y ->Millennial transition 2005-2012
• Next Generation (“Plurals”) ~2020
Millennial traits summarized
• According to S & H, Millennials are…
– SPECIAL (wizards in training)
– SHELTERED (naïve about real world)
– CONFIDENT (I can do anything))
– CONVENTIONAL (rules, authority have value)
– TEAM-PLAYER (group most important)
– PRESSURED (work, work, work…)
– ACHIEVING (value society’s rewards)
Millennial traits
Special,
Sheltered,
Wizards-in-training
Millennial traits
Conventional,
Inclusive, Team-players
Socially conscious
Want everyone to succeed
Group, cause-oriented
Renewed political engagement
Millennial traits
“Trophy kid” pressure
Driven to achieve
Everyone must go to college
Achievement = passing standardized tests
Millennial traits
Virtualized
Social media
New kinds of “friend”
“Always online”
Geolocated
Habbo
Empire of Sports
Social media
New kinds of “friend”
“Always online”
Geolocated
Additional traits
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Close to parents (they’re still protecting them)
Naïve about “real life” (many have never a job)
Not classic “rebels” (conventional)
Left-brain, external thinking (structured)
Engaged by specifics (not “big ideas”)
Groupthink, consensus (social networks)
Not Private (monitoring, nanny network OK)
Expect business, government to solve their
problems (reduced individualism)
Bad press
Online and offline comments from employers
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Naïve!
Think Mommy/Daddy will fix it
Arrogance
No respect for experience
Belief in personal superiority
Lack basic communication skills
Need constant stroking
Complain instead of work
Over-sharing
Can’t read a book
Take any comments as criticism
Reveal company secrets on blog
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Disloyal
Cheaters
Don’t understand money
Paying dues = showing up
Uninterested in adapting
Lack creativity
Passive
Assume automatic promotion
Others always responsible for
my mistakes
• “We all deserve promotions”
• “I get Facebook or I walk”
Getting real
• People are people first
• No generation is “bad”
• “Bad” features of one generation may be the
“good” features of the next
• You can’t easily change behavior
• You can exploit strengths and adjust for
weaknesses
Millennial positives
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Tolerant of diversity
Accept that rules solve problems
Will work hard for (specified) goals
Want everyone to get a fair shake
Very concerned about social justice for all
Want to make the world a better place
Skilled at leveraging new technology
Millennial issues
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Entitlement
Failure to launch
The Collective
The Shallows
Generation Debt
Millennial entitlement
• Derives from the “special” core trait
– Millennials see their needs as “rights”
– A “micro celebrity” expects customer service
– Want all the benefits (in a list) from the start
– Expect free stuff for being there
– Confident that helicopter parents will defend
their “rights”
Message received…
• Millennials really think they are special
– Told they were especially clever, creative
– Identity defined in terms of entitlement
– Had their ideas listened to as equals
– Self-describe as “exceptional”
– Assume there must be greener pastures
for “someone as special as myself”
No Millennial confidence gap!
Reported self-Confidence of First-Year College Students by Gender, 2006
Academic Skill
% of Women Who Think
They Are Above Average
% of Men Who Think
They Are Above Average
Intellectual
52.2%
68.8%
Mathematical ability
35.9%
53.1%
Academic ability
65.9%
71.9%
Writing ability
49.3%
45.7%
SOURCE: The Gender Gap in College: Maximizing the Developmental Potential of Women and Men
Linda J. Sax, Alexander W. Astin (Foreword by), Helen S. Astin (Foreword by)
ISBN: 978-0-7879-6575-4
The “micro celebrity”
• Parents and media told Millennials they
were special
• Attention from family and society made
Millennials optimistic and confident
• Marketing messages implied that they were
a “must have” customer that would get
premium service
• Millennials enter life as a customer,
expecting great service
Examples
• I deserve an “A” for effort
• Why do I have to work now instead of
outside/online later?
• Why can’t I just jump to the advanced
class?...that’s the part I want!
• “Why can’t we re-negotiate your hours?”
• “Why can’t I share on Facebook at
work/school?”
Millennials complain…
• You haven’t told me the rules
• Your decisions are arbitrary, we should
negotiate and optimize
• I’m dropping the course unless I get an “A”
• You’re forcing me to know stuff that doesn’t
matter to my pre-formulated life plan
Entitlement = inexperience?
• Fewer Millennials have ever held a job
before graduating college
• Fewer Millennials than any generation can
drive a car
• More Millennials depend on their parents
before and after graduation
• More Millennials interpret business and
society as governed by “family rules”
Failure to launch
• Millennials are “trophy kids” who
continue to remain close to their parents
• Assume parents will continue to take care
of them
– Only 60% of eligible Millennials have drivers’
licenses
– A large proportion of Millennials are moving
home after college
Helicopter everyone
• Millennials assume “someone will step in”
– Helicopter parents are ready to run in and
protect their “trophy kids”
– Constant guidance from elders, close
relationships before and after leaving home
– Social networks make their default state of
reality “being monitored by your peers”
Need for praise
• Millennials expect praise
– For effort
– For ordinary work
– For everyday activity
• Praise may be symbolic
– Gold stars
– “A new level” (like in the games they play)
The collective
• Millennials are a “groupthink” generation
– Parents
– Peers on social networks
– Larger group of virtual “friends”
– Groups and “causes”
• Solve problems in teams (think Harry Potter)
– No losers – only the “last winner”
– “A” grades have become the default
– “B” for just showing up
The wisdom of the crowd
• Derives from the “team-player” core trait
– Millennials have a weaker “inner compass” (unlike their
mostly Boomer parents)
– Online peer groups provide the “wisdom of the crowd”
for personal decisions
– Short, frequent “ping” style communication (texting
rather than long calls, emails, or letters)
• A new kind of friend
– Definition of “friend” loosened to anyone you can
communicate with
– Virtual personas used to as proxies for social interaction
(e.g. avatars in virtual worlds)
No “inner compass”
Older generations have a feeling
(excitement, sadness), and call a friend
to share…
Millennials call a friend to get their next
feeling…
Millennials consult the group to know
what to think/feel next! – Sherri Turkle, MIT
What should I do next?
“Students can’t go for even a few
minutes without talking on
their cellphone. There’s almost
a discomfort with not being
stimulated – a kind of ‘I can’t
stand the silence’…”
-Donald Roberts,Stanford Professor, quoted in “Generation
M”, Time, March 27, 2006
Mashups = crowd art
• Millennial media is “cut and paste”
– Social networking pages
– Widgets
• Authenticity less important
– IOK to grab stuff from the Internet and call it mine
– One of my avatars can stand-in for me
• Viewed as original work
– Internet content provides the worlds for our “visual
language”
The Shallows
• “The Shallows” (Nicholas Carr)
– Millennial reality is transactional, rather than
conceptual
– Network technology replaces focused thought
with ADD-like management of fast data streams
– Millennial understanding of computers is actually
worse than previous generations
• Millennials are…
• Good at sorting, organizing, collaborating
• Poor at meaning, deep thought, long focus on
a single task
SOURCE: “The Shallows” by Nicolas Carr, 2010, Norton
A mile wide/an inch deep
• Derives from “always on” media
– Millennials adapt to information overload by
communicating in frequent, short bursts
– They value shuffling of vast amounts of information
rather than deep knowledge of a specific topic
– Millennials multitask – but research shows they do it no
better than older adults
– Computer games and social network sites present the
world as having discrete tasks, scores, and rankings
Homo mobilis
• Constant communication increases
re-negotiation, reduces advance planning, reading
• Frequent check-ins (“pinging”), allows regular
consensus-building with their “friends”
• Definition of “friend” loosened to someone you can
communicate with
• Looser definition of “public” versus private
information (a public web page seems “private” to
them).
SOURCE: -The Economist,” Homo Mobilis, April 10, 2008
Everything is negotiable
“…Older people use their mobile phones to
"micro-co-ordinate" with partners during
the day in order to run their errands more
efficiently and
… younger people, who have never known
paper diaries or an unconnected world, microco-ordinate in order to avoid committing
themselves to any fixed meeting time, location
or person at all. After all, a better opportunity
might yet present itself…
-The Economist,” Homo Mobilis, April 10, 2008
In other words…
• Computers didn’t take over the world
– Millennials made their minds match computer
processing
• Big Brother didn’t take over the world
– Millennials made themselves into their own S/N
Big Brother
The social norm
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Millennials don’t share Boomer perfectionism
Trained to see the world as a game
Standardized challenges
Lots of levels defining advancement
Rapid feedback-style rewards
There is no “in the long run”
Expect maximum benefit if they “put in the
time”
Millennials believe…
• The journey is ANYTHING but “its own
reward”
• You don’t “follow your bliss” unless it:
– Gets you something concrete
– Makes you a success
– Makes a difference in the world
• 90% of life is doing what you’re told to do
Millennial expectations
• If I work hard and follow the rules
– There must be a reward
– It will be a special reward
• If I fail…
– The system must be broken
– Schools, industry, government must keep their
promise
Millennial cheating
• Cheating is just us helping each
other…
"I actually think cheating is good. A person
who has an entirely honest life can't
succeed these days."
"I believe cheating is not wrong. People expect
us to attend 7 classes a day, keep a 4.0
GPA, not go crazy and turn in all of our
work the next day. What are we supposed
to do, fail?"
SOURCE: CNN report on Millennial cheating
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/fyi/teacher.ednews/04/05/highschool.cheating/
Generation Debt
• Students typically graduate with ~$30,000 in
debt
• Debts double for for-profit schools
• The average senior will graduate with
~$4,000 in credit card debt, up 41% from the
same study conducted in 2004
• People in the 18 to 24 age bracket spend
nearly 30% of their monthly income on debt
repayment - double the percentage in 1992
SOURCES: Salle Mae, Center for Responsible Lending
Debt consequences
• Debt is contributing to other Millennial
features
– Failure to launch
– Extended dependence on parents
– Entitlement (inexperience?)
• Debt will soon contribute to
– A desire to “fix it” by any means necessary
– Delayed start to households
What could you do?
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Choose a topic
Discuss pragmatic approaches
Create a list for implementing
Check the solution deck