Millennials Not Reliable!

While I don’t want to pour water on your fire here, but the work of Howe and Strauss on millenials isn’t that reliable a piece of research. Basing the generational characteristics from survey data collected in Fairfax, Virginia — one of the nicer suburbs of the United States — probably isn’t representative of youth in the rural mid-West, inner city Detroit or Atlanta, or a whole host of other places. A good review of the generational differences literature can be found in a recent paper by Thomas Reeves (see http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper104/ReevesITForumJan08.pdf ).

Beyond this piece, anyone interested in generational differences and the nature of today’s student should read Jean Twenge’s book entitled “Generation Me” for a fairly reliable look at today’s students.

Michael, at 8:10 am EDT on April 15, 2008

The Role of Strauss and Prensky in Generational Studies

Michael,Your reference to the Reeves article is one that all readers should heed. It is indeed a helpful piece and I find this work out of Georgia (2007?) among the subject’s best lit reviews—and rather candid about Strauss, Howe, Prensky and others, including rather solid (and deserving) endorsements of books like Twenge’s Generation Me (and I think her new book is Narcissism Epidemic). In my earlier comments I’m drawing the same type of contrast with Strauss & Howe that Reeves does with reality (based on many workplace responses), but I differ in that I find it helpful. It’s important for readers to understand the framing of this discussion—and the characteristics listed in Millennials Go to College (and …The Hip Generation) do just that. Reeves also admits to general generational profiles (which is what S&H do, and they give a defense for their research profile), but also notes the flaw of generational research. Like student satisfaction surveys and any local ones, Reeves makes the solid point of paying attention to the demographics—and in Prensky’s case, zoology. However, Prensky’s notion of digital natives and immigrants, like Strauss and Howe’s convenient categories, gained so much traction because like popular books and classics the themes resonated with people’s experiences. And his projects like his M. Wrench and Games2train appear successful and fascinating. However, just as you point readers to Reeves for a view of Strauss and Howe, we should also point them to Jamie McKenzie’s work for a critical look at Prensky (http://fno.org/nov07/nativism.html). What I love about Reeves, however, like the Frontline pieces earlier on “Mooks & Midriffs,” is he gets at a better picture of the average student (if there ever is such a thing) instead of the MTV version. In Twenge’s work (and I think listed in Reeves report as well) is the important stat about millennial students having lost a strong interest in “life purpose.” Look at what question is being asked—and even so, that the drop in interest (from over 80% in 60s to around 40% today) is a spike worth considering as a starting point in retention studies. (I believe she misrepresents Rick Warren’s church—it’s not hurting for members, “individualized religion” seems to miscast his book; and BTW, he’s given huge royalties from his book back to his church.) However, we need to balance this with the HERI’s recent spirituality study finding over 90% of students deeply interested in spiritual questions—and the very popularity of related books on purpose, Tuesday’s w/, Purpose-Driven, etc. Our research teams have found considerable value in focusing on purpose. Working with Ed St. John (now at Michigan U.) and the team at IU (funded by Lumina) we tracked 1700 students and found an amazing positive difference in students focused on understanding more fully their sense of life calling/purpose (see IPAS brief in Don Hossler’s office at IU). Along this line several key works are helpful, e.g., Emerging Adulthood (and keep in mind, I think J. Arnett challenges Twenge’s conclusions, though I’ve not seen his review in A.P.J.), Encountering Authenticity & Spirituality, Putting Students First, Soul Searching, God on the Quad, etc. Also, a couple of helpful books in this generational discussion are the controversial Punished by Rewards, The Ambitious Generation, A Tribe Apart, The Millennium Matrix and important tangential reads like Big Questions/Worthy Dreams, Educating for Democracy, works by Weimer & Banta, and the best new lit review is by Koch, The First-Year Experience. . Also see Tracy Skipper’s Primer. . . And, for those viewing the millennials’ YouTube responses, though anecdotal, you’ll certainly find some patterns. Once again, however, open sourcing and mass web can sure skew our perceptions of the masses which takes us back to Reeves. Thanks for reminding me and readers of Reeves and the cautions with the easy categories. JP

Jerry Pattengale, AVP for Scholarship & Grants at Indiana Wesleyan University, at 1:45 pm EDT on April 15, 2008

The Voice of the Millenials

Look. The Millennial’s have voice, passion, and substance. Sure, there may be a little apathy and negativity mixed in too, but does that really mean the Millennials are not an influential generation? Phenomena such as Juciy Campus and Facebook are now part of the cultural lexicon. Deal with it. If you’re a college student, learn to avoid the scope and gaze of the students that post on there. And please, lets stop the bashing on the millennial. After all, we’re paying your tenure-track salaries with our inflated tuition prices, throwing us further and further into unsustainable debt. If you want to read a political forum FOR millennial college students, BY millennial college students, check out The College Voter: http://www.thecollegevoter.com

Brandon, Editor at The College Voter, at 6:25 pm EDT on April 15, 2008

And from the post immediately above, we have an excellent case example of the kind of cynicism and criticism that could make some “Millenials” take some of the views of we elders that they do. I think rightfully. Instead of hearing what’s behind the words, it’s just one more lash-out. Is it any surprise that sites like JuicyCampus get the kind of posts they do?

Honestly, I really dislike the very term, “Millenials.” As soon as one applies a label, any label, a great deal of damage is done. Certainly one can always find commonalities among any set of people, and many commonalities within any given generational cohort, but that does not mean that applying a label, a name, some set of categorical descriptions is either accurate or useful. Indeed, one of the best commonalities I find in the current generation is their great distaste for being labeled, pigeon-holed, described in categorical terms, and all such efforts whose primary effect is to diminish individuality. Anyone, including our current students, have every good reason to resist efforts that do this. First, any such categorical descriptions are unavoidably so generalized that they cannot help but being simply inaccurate for any individual. More important though is that healthy development into mature adults, presumably something that we in higher ed are all committed to doing, or should be, requires seeing that each individual find their individuality, their uniqueness. There is an awful lot of material above this post that, if YOU were 21, would make you wish your elders would stop the endless attempts at categorization and generalization, and get to know you as an individual, even if imperfect. Let s/he who is perfect cast the first stone.

LoveOurKids, at 11:45 am EDT on April 30, 2008