James Cosgrove
Mrs. Schneider
Honors English 11
17 April 2017
MillennialZ
Within the last 100 years, our society has encountered many different social backgrounds, influenced, cultures and economic traits which can all be traced back to the category of millennials. These certain subcategories can all have a lasting effect on how generations are impacted whether it be for the good of the society or maybe for the worse. The main topics within generations take some time to be noticed, usually happening when the characteristics of the next generation are uniquely starting to take place. Overtime, we have faced a handful of different generations -GI Generation, Silent Generation, Baby Boom Generation, Generation X, Millennial Generation, and Generation Z- which have all somewhat shaped our generation today along with the generations to come. A millennial is a person who was reaching their adulthood around the year 2000, which is followed by our current generation, Generation Z. There are many differences between our current generation and the generations that have come in the past, creating a generation gap.
Millennials are the first generation in human history to anticipate reaching the age of 90 along with also spending about one-third of their lives as to what we call, “old people”. They also have many other benefiting factors which stray away from previous generations. For example, smoking rates are down while exercise is up which increases the well-being of the individuals and also most millennials have college degrees opposed to previous generations which lead to an increase in higher education and overall more successful futures. Millennials also have some factors that decrease the worth of the generation. For example, Times Magazine stated, “Yet when we turn to financial security, there are alarming signs. Millennial poverty is up, and employment is down, college debt is more than five times what it was just 20 years ago, and for those saddled with debt a more frightening financial picture emerges. Both home ownership and participation in retirement savings accounts, the two avenues that Americans follow to secure their financial futures, are starkly down in a generation that needs to prepare for lives of unprecedented length. More than a quarter of millennials report that they could not cover a $3,000 emergency, whether with their own savings or by borrowing from family or friends, and thus live day to day with the knowledge that one mistake or accident could lead to financial ruin.” Carstensen, Laura. Time Magazine. “What Millennials Already Know About Growing Old.”, 2016. This shows that although the Millennials have been successful in some aspects when compared to previous generations, they also face some adversity with the distribution of income and other financial security factors.
Millennials are entitled. Less than half of high schoolers in 1976 expected to be managers by the age of 30, while today nearly two-thirds do. Millenni...
