The Millennial Generation

1
The Millennial Generation

• Dr. Jeanna Mastrodicasa
• UF Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs
• jmastro_at_ufl.edu

2
Generations

• Perceived membership in a common generation
• A set of age locations, common beliefs and
  behaviors
• A common location in history

3
Generations in the U.S.

• Lost Generation (born 1883-1900)
• GI Generation (born 1901-24)
• Silent Generation (born 1925-42)
• The Boom Generation (born 1943-60)
• Generation X (born 1961-81)
• Millennials (born 1982-now)

4
Millennials the wanted children

• Children of baby boomers
• Parents wait until later in life, more affluent
• Baby on Board signs
• Marketing to children increases Barney, Hanson,
  Spice
• Family decision making, e.g. vacations
• Politicians started talking about effects on
  children for first time
• Helicopter parents

5
7 Characteristics of Millennials
Sheltered
Special
Achieving
Confident
Team Oriented
Pressured
Conventional
6
Special

• Collectively vital to the nation
• Individually vital to their parents sense of
  purpose
• Parental involvement in decisions
• Feedback and structure for students

7
Sheltered

• Safety and health focus for students
• Security in residence halls
• Parents buying homes for students on campus
• Increase in counseling and medical needs
• More scrutiny of what happens in classroom
• Post-Columbine era

8
Confident

• Positive reinforcement from society
• Want to reinvent civic order (9/11)
• Confident about futuregreater danger and fewer
  rewards to being different than peers
• High level of trust and optimism
• Good news for selves good news for country

9
Team-Oriented

• Learn, deliver presentations, and get graded in
  groups
• Activities in teams throughout childhood
• Constant contact with peers via cellphone and IM
• Growing gap in gender achievement (women)

10
Conventional

• Focus on big brands (e.g. Ivy League schools)
• Grew up with zero tolerance for misbehavior
• More willing to accept adult authority than other
  generations
• Believe that authority is telling the truth

11
Pressured

• Two top issues of worry for teenagers grades
  and college admissions
• Intense emphasis on planning future
• Seek job and life stability
• Cheating increases

12
Achieving

• SAT scores are the highest since 1974
• Focus on not falling behind of peers
• Prefer subjects where can measure objective
  progress (math, science)
• Focus on accountability in schools
• Should become the smartest and best-educated
  generation in U.S. history

13
Seven characteristics of millennials

• Special
• Sheltered
• Confident
• Team-oriented
• Conventional
• Pressured
• Achieving

14
Characteristics of todays parents

• Protective
• Want their sons/daughters safe and secure
• Involved
• Want to help them achieve
• Concerned
• Want them to receive their fair share
• Intelligent
• College educated
• Demanding
• Savvy customers

15
Millennial relationships with parents

• Perpetual access to parents (cell phones) keeps
  them in a permanent state of dependency
• Todays children dont know how to solve problems
  or to plan ahead
• Parents do problem solving

16
College Students Topics of Conversation with
Parents from Junco and Mastrodicasa survey
17
American College Health Association

• the percentage of students who reported
  depression and anxiety in the last school year
  increased steadily from 2000 to 2005.
• The rate of students reporting ever being
  diagnosed with depression has increased 56 in
  the last six years, from 10 in spring 2000 to
  16 in spring 2005.
• 45.7 of the 54,111 students in the spring 2005
  survey reported being so depressed that it was
  difficult to function.

18
Millennial attitudes about race

• More open attitudes towards issues of diversity
  and social justice
• Mixed messages about race and race relations
• Rodney King/LA Riots
• OJ Simpson trial
• Affirmative action debated in media and courts
• Attention to illegal immigration issues
• More aware of interracial couples
• People of color in high profile governmental
  positions

19
Students Communication

• Internet
• Instant Messaging
• Blogging
• Cell Phones/Text Messaging
• Social Networking sites

20
Multitasking

• 92 reported doing something else on the computer
  while IMing.
• 75 reported engaging in non-computer-related
  activities (such as watching TV or talking on the
  phone) while IMing.

21
Schoolwork Multitasking
22
Frequency that Online Tasks Hurt Schoolwork
16
28
39
23
E-mail is for old people?

• Pew Internet study found that teenagers preferred
  new technology, like instant messaging or text
  messaging, for talking to friends and use e-mail
  to communicate with "old people."
• students say they still depend on e-mail to
  communicate with their professors
• But many of the students say they would rather
  send text messages to friends, to reach them
  wherever they are, than send e-mail messages that
  might not be seen until hours later.

24
Use of Instant Messaging

• 76 Use Instant Messaging.
• AOL Messenger is the preferred software.
• Largest proportion of IM Users (15) are logged
  on 24/7.
• IM users reported that they chat a median of 80
  minutes each day.

25
Online social network sites

• Internet social network sites provide online
  connections to friends, business contacts, and
  more
• Virtual community centers for hanging outlike
  hanging out at the mall
• www.facebook.com
• www.myspace.com
• www.urbanchat.com

26
Harris Interactive Poll

• 85 of students who visit social networking sites
  use them to see what their friends are up to
• 70 participate in their message boards to
  communicate with friends
• 18-24 year old students are hanging out for 6.5
  hours per week on average
• Have 111 friends across their profiles
• 61 say they are interacting with people theyve
  never met in person

27
Facebook

• Founded in February 2004 for college
  studentsopened to everyone in 2006.
• Maintains 85 share of 4-year institutions
• Fastest growing demographic is now 25
• More than 67 million users,45 return to site
  daily
• 5 most trafficked-site, 1 photo-sharing site in
  the world (14 million photos uploaded daily)

28
More facebook

• One study showed that 60 of students updated
  their profile last week
• trying to market a perfect perception of
  themselveslike trying on of personalities
• Students consider this social interactivity, but
  researching other profilesbuilding trust and
  friendship with commonalities

29
(No Transcript)
30
But Im a professor! Why bother?

• Create groups for each classbuilds community
• Learn names to match the faces!
• Share photos and articles for pedagogical reasons
• Advertise events of interest to your students
• Create a profile that showcases the real you
  (within boundariesplease!)

31
Myspace.com

• Top visited website in U.S. (source NPR)
• Blog with facebook-type friend network
  properties focus on music
• Any individual can join MySpace is an online
  community that lets you meet your friends'
  friends.
• Create a private community on MySpace and you can
  share photos, journals and interests with your
  growing network of mutual friends!

32
(No Transcript)
33
Social Networking sites and the Net Generation

• Sowhy are millennials always on these sites?
• Sheltered
• Team-oriented
• Conventional
• (and more!)
• They are content creatorsinternet is where to
  express their identity

34
The Net Generation arrives in he workplace

• Fastest-growing segment of the workplace
• Entry-level hiring to grow by 17 (4th straight
  year of double digits)
• 60 of employers report intergenerational
  tensions
• Boomers are retiring at fast pace

35
Multitasking Net Generation Welcome to the
world of work!

• Dont like to stay on one task at a time
• Millennials can juggle email on their
  Blackberrys while talking on cellphones while
  trolling online (Armour, 2005)
• Millennials multitask 1 ½ times faster than Gen
  X, twice the rate of Boomers

36
Generational values

• Traditional respect, loyalty, experience
• Boomer standing out, recognition
• Gen X flexibility, honesty, feedback, work-life
  balance
• Millennial strong leadership, concern for
  community, structure, fair play, diversity

--Bridging the Generation Gap at Work
37
On the job, by generations

• Traditional a disciplined, hard worker who
  appreciates order and a job well done
• Boomer a driven, service-oriented team player
  who doesnt want to be micromanaged. You live to
  work
• Gen X independent, self-reliant, unimpressed by
  authority and focused on self-development. You
  work to live
• Millennial self-confident, optimistic,
  competent, outspoken and collaborative

--Bridging the Generation Gap at Work
38
Other work-life traits of millennials

• Financial security (37 expect to start saving
  for retirement by age 25)
• Work-life balance, self-fulfillment desired
• Dont have loyalty to one company
• Prefer casual dress
• Want perks like awards, flexible work schedules,
  recognition

39
Discussion

• Observations?
• Reactions?
• Solutions?

For a complete list of references and resources,
please contact Jeanna Mastrodicasa at
jmastro_at_ufl.edu To order the book www.naspa.org