Draft 2

In today's culture, there seems to be quite distinct gaps between one generation and the next.  These gaps are simply caused by the fact that each generation grows up learning different values and ways of life that the next, creating a barrier of sorts.  With these differences come good and bad reputations and thoughts about generations themselves.  We've all heard it from someone before: "you've got it so much easier than I did when I was young," and we've probably all said it to someone too.  Today, the millennial generation is faced with one main stereotype.  Millennials are lazy.  Of course, being a millennial myself, I would like to disagree on that view, and instead explore the ways in which we simply think differently, have different work methods 

Catherine Rampell’s “A Generation of Slackers,” takes a look at why millennials aren’t exactly the slackers they are made out to be by older generations.  She explains the ways we have it easier these days with the availability of technology, yet counters those facts with evidence that we are a very hardworking generation, which aims to get ahead.  According to the article, millennials have higher GPAs than other generations, are very focused on the future, participate in more community service, and work well in collaborative, team-oriented activities.  Rampell basically believes that our generation simply works differently than those before us, and that it’s okay.  Time Magazine writers, Josh Sanburn and Joel Stein, authors of the article “The Me Me Me Generation” provide an alternative viewpoint.  They say we are fame-obsessed, development stunted, and just plain lazy.  Part of this stance comes from the technology that millennials have at their fingertips.  It portrays us as lazier than we actually are, in a lot of cases, and adds to our sluggish image.  It raises the question of whether or not millennials are preparing themselves for adult responsibilities or hindering that development.  Stephen Parkhurst’s  “Millennials: We Suck and We’re Sorry” video also takes a look at how millennials may appear lazy and unfocused, but he contrasts those ideas with facts that we are faced with many serious issues that have been caused by older generations.  They started two wars, jacked up college tuition, and destroyed the global economy.  Millennials were born into a recession and must face the fact that ninety percent of jobs since 2009 are part time.  Maybe we appear lazier because our actions are imperative to the future of the world, and others are anxious about that, or maybe it’s technology that makes us look lazier than we really are. 

They say we are a lazy generation, but I think we are simply unlike others in our work method and thought process.  Parents are constantly nagging us to get off our phones, laptops, and other devices in order to do schoolwork, help around the house, and basically do something better with ourselves.  It seems to be a general belief for adults that technology, in a personal context, is a distraction, anti-intellectual, and always congruent with laziness.  When I think about the technology that has most impactede way we think, the computer, and more specifically, the Internet come to mind.  For millennials, this tool has completely changed the way we think compared to other generations who didn’t grow up with the Internet at their fingertips.  “The tools we use to think change the ways in which we think,” says Sherry Turkle, author of “How Computers Change the Way We Think,” referring to the internet. Nowadays, kids are introduced to various tools like word-processors, e-mail, PowerPoint, and social media sites, “they are learning new ways to think about what it meant to know and understand,” Turkle adds.        

Our parents want us to do schoolwork to prepare us for jobs later in life, and housework to maintain a home in the future.  Ultimately, they want to teach us how to be an adult, but who says we aren’t learning the same things on our own terms.  According to the Department of Commerce, “Ninety-six percent of working Americans use new communications technologies as part of their daily life, while sixty-two percent of working Americans use the Internet as an integral part of their jobs.”  So that fact alone shows that technology should in fact be a vital part of our education and lives, to prepare for the future.  Not to mention the fact that just because we are using technology, does not meant we are stalking our friend’s friend’s cousin on Facebook, watching dumb YouTube videos, and updating people on our lives every second of the day.  We have grown up with technology at our fingertips, and have lived through its changes, so it makes sense that we would be somewhat attached to it.  We use different technologies to help work more efficiently, especially in educational terms, but the Internet is by far the aid we use most.  Maybe it is seen as the easy way out to some adults and educators, but for millennials, it is a resource that is most efficient, easy to use, and, advantageous to our work, and lets face it, if older generations had grown up with the internet, they would be using it to their advantage too.  Stein and Sanburn, authors of The Me Me Me Generation agree that it is an aid that millennials have come to depend on, adding that “The Internet has democratized opportunity for many young people, giving them access and information that once belonged mostly to the wealthy.”   

Technology has also made millennials pros at multi-tasking.  As I sit here writing this, I am surrounded by friends who all have their laptops out, headphones in, and are writing in notebooks, highlighting, and reading all at the same time.  Not to mention the fact that at least every minute or so each of us is checking down at our phones for updates and new messages.  It is something that we have built in to our everyday habits, and I think it has only made us better at managing everything in our lives, and is certainly not a form of laziness.               

          

Sanburn and Stein also talk about the prolonged life stage between being a teenager and adult that millennials seem to have, explaining the changes that has caused.  With texting and social media, children and teens are under the constant influence of their friends, which is “…anti-intellectual…” according to Mark Bauerlein, writer of “The Dumbest Generation: How Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30).”  He thinks that young people must relate to older generations to develop intellectually, but I think millennials are as grown-up as any other generation before them.

Hanna Rosin’s, “The Overprotected Kid,” provides an outlook on how the behaviors of millennials start out in childhood.  This article is stock full of information about risky play, ‘adventure playgrounds’, childhood norms and influences, and current dangers for kids, all intertwined with real-life experiences and informative data to back everything up.  It is the perfect combination of facts and stories and it engages a reader from start to finish.  Rosin probably aimed this article to those who have kids of their own, millennials that may have had experiences with overprotective parents, and anyone else who is interested in these topics.  She breaks her article down and discusses the nitty-gritty, but overall, encompasses the issue that Gen Y parents have created, and gives evidence that millennials aren’t entirely at fault for the way we act today.  It also most likely aims to influence future parents to let their kids engage in certain risky play. 

.  “This is a generation that would have made Walt Whitman wonder if maybe they should try singing a song of someone else,” they say, pointing out the narcissistic quality that seems to have reached a high in the millennial generation.