Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 2, 2001 | by Cheryl Wetzstein

Move over baby boomers and gen-Xers, the "Millennials" have arrived -- a generation that willingly embraces law and order, teamwork, morality, diversity and problem-solving.

This cohort, born between 1982 and 2002, "will entirely recast the image of youth from downbeat and alienated to upbeat and engaged -- with potentially seismic consequences for America," say Nell Howe and William Strauss in their new book, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (Vintage Books, $14, 304 pp).

The authors predict the millennials will be a can-do generation filled with "technology planners, community-shapers, institution-builders and world leaders." They also are on target to be another American "hero" generation, filling the shoes of the fading GI generation who set standards for civic duty, moral courage and leadership.

Some may think the authors are a bit breathless in their description of the next generation, but not the millennials themselves. "Yes, I think we'll be a `hero' generation," says Bright Yuan, a musician and high-school student from Anaheim, Calif. "Hopefully, we won't have to save the world from tyranny, but we certainly can clean up our neighborhoods and improve the world that we have, bit by bit."

Proof of these expectations probably won't be seen until 2012, when the eldest Millennials turn 30. But the cultural dominance of this group -- which may be the first 100 million-member generation in U.S. history -- should be unmistakable by 2007. This giant of a generation has been created by a resurgent fertility rate and record immigration boost.

Howe, a policy consultant, and Strauss, founder of the Capitol Steps, a political cabaret group, expect the millennials to rebel against the baby-boomer's narcissism, impatience and argumentative bent by emphasizing community, patience, trust and action instead of talk. Baby boomer-style "love the one you're with" promiscuity is out. Modesty, romance and chastity is in. It's the millennials who are helping to drive down the rates of teen pregnancies, births and abortions, says Howe. Drug use should also decline, he adds.

Millennials also may be the first generation to unhook themselves from the television. Compared with gen-X youth, millennials watched TV two hours less a day, say the authors, citing research out of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Instead, millennials spent more time on school activities, chores, organized sports, computer activities and reading.